Stand, Columbia Alma Mater

Through the storms of Time abide

Stand, Columbia Alma Mater

Through the storms of Time abide.

"Stand, Columbia " by Gilbert Oakley Ward, Columbia College 1902 (1904)

Marking the 250th anniversary of one of America's oldest and most formidable educational institutions, this comprehensive history of Columbia University extends from the earliest discussions in 1704 about New York City being "a fit Place for a colledge" to the recent inauguration of president Lee Bollinger, the nineteenth, on Morningside Heights. One of the original "Colonial Nine" schools, Columbia's distinctive history has been intertwined with the history of New York City. Located first in lower Manhattan, then in midtown, and now in Morningside Heights, Columbia's national and international stature have been inextricably identified with its urban setting.

Columbia was the first of America's "multiversities," moving beyond its original character as a college dedicated to undergraduate instruction to offer a comprehensive program in professional and graduate studies. Medicine, law, architecture, and journalism have all looked to the graduates and faculty of Columbia's schools to provide for their ongoing leadership and vitality. In 2003, a sampling of Columbia alumni include one member of the United States Supreme Court, three United States senators, three congressmen, three governors (New York, New Jersey, and California), a chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals, and a president of the New York City Board of Education. But it is perhaps as a contributor of ideas and voices to the broad discourse of American intellectual life that Columbia has most distinguished itself. From "The Federalist Papers, " written by Columbians John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, to Charles Beard's "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" to Edward Said's "Orientalism, " Columbia and its graduates have greatly influenced American intellectual and public life. "Stand, Columbia" also examines the experiences of immigrants, women, Jews, African Americans, and other groups as it takes critical measure of the University's efforts to become more inclusive and more reflective of the diverse city that it calls home.

In this comprehensive social history of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), Robert McCaughey combines archival research with oral testimony and contemporary interviews to build a critical and celebratory portrait of one of the oldest engineering schools in the United States. McCaughey follows the evolving, occasionally rocky, and now integrated relationship between SEAS's engineers and the rest of the Columbia University student body, faculty, and administration. He also revisits the interaction between the SEAS staff and the inhabitants and institutions of the City of New York, where the school has resided since its founding in 1864. McCaughey compares the historical struggles and achievements of the school's engineers with their present-day battles and accomplishments, and he contrasts their teaching and research approaches with those of their peers at other free-standing and Ivy League engineering schools. What begins as a localized history of a school striving to define itself within a university known for its strengths in the humanities and the social sciences becomes a wider story of the transformation of the applied sciences into a critical component of American technology and education.

Sicily occupies a crucial position in the Mediterranean world. It is at the heart of many cross-currents of trade, people, and ideology that flowed unceasingly through the ancient period. The island was home to many people, most of them not native to it: Phoenicians, Greeks, and then Romans settled there and sought ways of expressing their hybrid identities. The Sicilians, no less than their invaders, were concerned with their image and their contribution to the age. In this volume ideas of identity, image, and acculturation are the central themes. The contributions combine detailed investigation of the archaeological finds in which the island abounds with an examination of the understudied tradition of history and literature on or about the island. The book provides a chronological account of the island's history, interwoven with a series of discussions of Sicilian identity: to show Sicily as a center of affairs from the Iron Age to the Augustan Empire within the context of a fundamentally regional ancient world. The book includes a chronology and guides for further reading.