A biography of the remarkable woman whose bestselling Mythology has introduced millions of readers to the classical world Edith Hamilton (1867–1963) didn’t publish her first book until she was sixty-two. But over the next three decades, this former headmistress would become the twentieth century’s most famous interpreter of the classical world. Today, Hamilton’s Mythology (1942) remains the standard version of ancient tales and sells tens of thousands of copies a year. During the Cold War, her influence even extended to politics, as she argued that postwar America could learn from the fate of Athens after its victory in the Persian Wars. In American Classicist, Victoria Houseman tells the fascinating life story of a remarkable classicist whose ideas were shaped by—and aspired to shape—her times. Hamilton studied Latin and Greek from an early age, earned a BA and MA at Bryn Mawr College, and ran a girls’ prep school for twenty-six years. After retiring, she turned to writing and began a relationship with the pianist and stockbroker Doris Fielding Reid. The two women were partners for more than forty years and entertained journalists, diplomats, and politicians in their Washington, D.C., house. Hamilton traveled extensively around the world, formed friendships with Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, and was made an honorary citizen of Athens. While Hamilton believed that the ancient Greeks represented the peak of world civilization, Houseman shows that this suffragist, pacifist, and anti-imperialist was far from an apologist for Western triumphalism. An absorbing narrative of an eventful life, American Classicist reveals how Hamilton’s Greek and Roman worlds held up a mirror to midcentury America even as she strived to convey a timeless beauty that continues to enthrall readers.

A close examination of an iconic small town that gives boundless insights into architecture, landscape, preservation, and philanthropy Avant-Garde in the Cornfields is an in-depth study of New Harmony, Indiana, a unique town in the American Midwest renowned as the site of two successive Utopian settlements during the nineteenth century: the Harmonists and the Owenites. During the Cold War years of the twentieth century, New Harmony became a spiritual “living community” and attracted a wide variety of creative artists and architects who left behind landmarks that are now world famous. This engrossing and well-documented book explores the architecture, topography, and preservation of New Harmony during both periods and addresses troubling questions about the origin, production, and meaning of the town’s modern structures, landscapes, and gardens. It analyzes how these were preserved, recognizing the funding that has made New Harmony so vital, and details the elaborate ways in which the town remains an ongoing experiment in defining the role of patronage in historic preservation. An important reappraisal of postwar American architecture from a rural perspective, Avant-Garde in the Cornfields presents provocative ideas about how history is interpreted through design and historic preservation—and about how the extraordinary past and present of New Harmony continue to thrive today. Contributors: William R. Crout, Harvard U; Stephen Fox, Rice U; Christine Gorby, Pennsylvania State U; Cammie McAtee, Harvard U; Nancy Mangum McCaslin; Kenneth A. Schuette Jr., Purdue U; Ralph Schwarz; Paul Tillich.

This groundbreaking work explores the powerful role of communities in mathematics. It introduces readers to twenty-six different mathematical communities and addresses important questions about how they form, how they thrive, and how they advance individuals and the group as a whole. The chapters celebrate how diversity and sameness bind colleagues together, showing how geography, gender, or graph theory can create spaces for colleagues to establish connections in the discipline. They celebrate outcomes measured by mathematical results and by increased interest in studying mathematics. They highlight the value of relationships with peers and colleagues at various stages of their careers. Together, these stories offer a guide—rather than a template—for building and sustaining a mathematical community. They call attention to critical strategies of rotating leadership and regular assessment and evaluation of goals and programs, and promote an ongoing awareness of the responsibilities of life that impinge on mathematical creativity and contributions. Whether you are giving thought to starting a group, joining one already in existence, or encouraging a colleague to participate in the broader mathematical community, this book will meet you where you are—and move you beyond. It contains a plethora of ideas to foster a sense of belonging in the exciting discipline of mathematics.

In the past decade, historians have begun to make use of the optic of ‘transnationalism’, a perspective used traditionally by social anthropologists and sociologists in their study of the movement and flow of ideas between continents and countries. Historical scholarship has adopted this tool, and in this book historians of education use it to add nuance and depth to research on gender and education, and particularly to the education experiences of women and girls. The book brings together a group of internationally-regarded scholars, who are doing important research on transnationalism and the social construction of gender, with particular reference to education environments such as schools and colleges. The book is therefore very much at the cutting-edge of theoretical and methodological advances in the history of education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the History of Education.