"Area studies"--a distinctively American way of organizing knowledge about the rest of the world--have been in a state of crisis in recent years, especially since the end of the cold war and the spread of globalization. In no field of inquiry has that crisis been as acute as in Middle Eastern studies. This volume focuses on one of the leading institutions in the field, Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), which was founded fifty years ago to further research and teaching about a region that remains enigmatic to the United States.

The book is divided into three parts: the first presents a critical look at the history of the Center against the backdrop of ongoing debates about Middle Eastern studies and area studies in general; the second examines the multifaceted operations of CMES that serve the scholarly community within and beyond Harvard; and the third consists of a series of essays, mainly by members of the core faculty of the Center, offering diverse assessments of the state of Middle Eastern studies today as well as visions of how Harvard might meet the complex challenges to the field in the years ahead.

When he was five and a half years old, Paul Bissex wrote and posted this sign over his workbench: DO NAT DSTRB GNYS AT WRK. The “work” from which this “genius” refused to be “disturbed” was the work typical of all children, namely, the task of learning how to write and read. In GNYS AT WRK, Glenda Bissexgoes far beyond the chronicle of her son’s accomplishment to provide the first in–depth case study of a child’s confrontation with written language, rich in revelations about the nature and processes of the mind.

In this timely volume, which Nathan Glazer describes as “a fascinating account of the rise of student participation in the English universities,” Ashby and Anderson interpret contemporary student activities in the light of the history of student participation during the last 150 years.

Roland Barth believes that there is a way to create a school which, instead of insisting upon uniformity, builds upon diversity among students, teachers, and teaching styles. Unlike many educational theorists, Barth has had ample opportunity to test his beliefs during his many years as an elementary school principal. Run School Run is the chronicle of his theory in action, a nuts–and–bolts study of one school rocky but ultimately quite successful transition toward pluralist education.