The Exchange Of Ideas

"In this first volume of a planned trilogy that will recast the history of the university in a fresh and surprising light, Adam R. Nelson aims to show how knowledge itself was commodified, starting in the late eighteenth century. Nelson follows the market transformation in the age of revolutions to show how American colleges were drawn into transatlantic commercial relations. Fusing the history of higher education with the history of capitalism, Nelson opens up an array of questions: How do we distinguish between knowledge and education as goods? Are they public or private? What determines their prices? In the most fundamental sense, what is the optimal system of higher education in a capitalist democracy? The answers have jarring relevance today"--

An exploration of the significance of medieval Rome, both as a physical city and an idea with immense cultural capital.

Networks and the Spread of Ideas in the Past: Strong Ties, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange gathers contributions from an international group of scholars to reconsider the role that strong social ties play in the transmission of new ideas, and their crucial place in network analyses of the past. Drawing on case studies that range from the early Iron Age Mediterranean to medieval Britain, the contributing authors showcase the importance of looking at strong social ties in the transmission of complex information, which requires relationships structured through mutual trust, memory, and reciprocity. They highlight the importance of sanctuaries in the process of information transmission, the power of narrative in creating a sense of community even across geographical space, and the control of social systems in order to facilitate or stifle new information transfer. Networks and the Spread of Ideas in the Past demonstrates the value of searching the past for powerful social connections, offers us the chance to tell more human stories through our analyses, and represents an essential new addition to the study and use of networks in archaeology and history. The book will be useful to academics and students working in the Digital Humanities, History, and Archaeology.

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

India in the global economy -- India in global human circulations -- India in the world of wars and peace -- India in the global exchange of ideas -- India in global cultural circulations -- Indians and others -- Epilogue: Two Indian global events.

The Hawkins\Brown architectural firm in London, founded in 1988 by Roger Hawkins and Russell Brown, is one of the up-and-coming offices on the international architecture scene. The spectrum of the firm’s works ranges from residences and interior design by way of office buildings and various public buildings such as theaters and university buildings all the way to urban planning, such as designs for squares and subway stations. Hawkins\Brown strives to come to an optimal result in a process that integrates all of the players. Hawkins\Brown has received numerous awards for various projects, such as the RIBA Award for its Wysing Arts Centre (2008), the New Chemistry Building of the University of Oxford (2009), and the New Art Exchange art center in Nottingham (2009) and the BREEAM Award for Eltham Hill Technology College (2008). This book documents some twenty-five buildings from the past five years. The projects presented include the Tottenham Court Road Underground Station, one of the busiest Tube stations in London with a hundred thousand passengers daily (to be completed in 2011); the Stratford Regional Station in London, an access platform for one of the major sites for the Olympic Games (to be completed in 2010); Park Hill, the master plan for a neighborhood in Sheffield (to be completed in 2011), and the Dubai Arts Pavilion in the United Arab Emirates.