Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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Lewis P. Curtis LEWIS PERRY CURTIS, JR. joined. the Princeton History Depart- ment in 1959. An expert in modem British history, Dr. Curtis has studied at Yale and Oxford. Recently he has been engaged in extensive research on unionist policy in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. He also is writing several articles on the political history of modem England as well :15 teaching a history seminar on British imperialism. Dr. Curtis seems to have over- come successfully the fact that he is a Yalie, and in the classes which he conducts for a whole range of history courses, he man- ages to put across his points with a decisive hnlf-Ivy League, hultlBritish flavor. C. S. WHITAKER, JR., a lecturer in the Department of Politics, obtained his BA. from Swarthmore in 1956 and his MA. from Princeton in 1958. After six monthsi training in England, Mr. Whitaker traveled to Africa to study the political situation in northern Nigeria. Currently he is writing his doctoral dissertation on this research which he will eventually publish in book form under the title Politirs of Tradition: A Study of Continuity and C. Sylvester Whitaker 19 Social Sciences Frederick C. Shorter Change in Northern Nigeria. Having joined the Princeton faculty in 1960, Mr. Whitaker precepts several undergraduate courses in addition to advising theses and junior independent work. As a specialist in African affairs, he taught a junior seminar on Nigerian politics during the fall semester. A great traveler, Assistant Professor of Economics FREDERICK C. SHORTER has spent five of the last eight years outside the United States He is primarily interested in economic development in the countries of Southern Asia, especially Pakistan and India. Serving on the Planning Commission in Pakistan before coming to Princeton in 1959, he again worked with planning committees in Turkey and Pakistan while on leave in 1960. The whole Shorter family is interested in India. While Dr. Shorter is con- cerned with the Indian economy, Mrs. Shorter is presently writing her second childi'exfs book about India, in addition to tending to their two Indian children. Spending this year in Princeton, Professor Shorter teaches the upperclass Economics course about the Middle East and lectures the basic undergraduate maem- economtcs course.

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Professor of English ALAN SEYMOUR DOWNER has tirelessly devoted his time, both in the classroom and out of it, in this country and abroad, to furthering appreciation of the per- forming arts. In line with this, he was instrumental last year in bringing to Princeton :1 repertory company, which has already greatly increased campus interest in the theater. He enjoys combining his dramatic skills with his vocation of teachingr English literature. Scowling, smiling, shouting, whispering, he frequently reads from the plays he analyses to the delight of his students. According to Professor Downer a play should be analyzed as a stage production, not merely as a piece of literature. In his course he emphasizes the methodology of the theater, concentrating on the functions of stage sets and props, the techniques of character representation and of stage exits and entrances, and similar problems peculiar to the dramatic art. CARLOS HEARD BAKER, XVoodrow Wilson Professor of Litera- ture, is one of the busiest men on campus. A leading authority in the related fields of American and English literature, he is at present working on an anthology of Keats. In this anthology he will try to show Keats, development and the characteristics that make Keats a representative Romantic poet. In addition Professor Baker has almost completed his second novel, The Land of Rumbolo, which deals with the incursion of evil into modern life. He has also written some highly respected poetry. A member of many important university committees, Dr. Baker started the good reading supplement in the Princeton Alumni Weekly and has also been a member of the local school board. One can only marvel at the multiplicity of the projects in which Professor of English WILLARD T110111, is currently engaged. In addition to his duties as Chairman of the Department of English and lecturer in undergraduate and graduate courses, he has recently served as editor for a number of paperback editions of great American novels, contributing extensive afterwords. Con- currently with this seemingly heavy load of work, Professor Thorp has continued research in his study of the social history of the early American novel, which promises to yield a monumental hook. Yet he seems more like an executive than a scholar, not only lending his talents to the administration of the department, but also taking an active part in community allairs. GERALD EADES BENTLEY, Professor of English, devotes his atten- tion in his undergraduate course, English Drama, not only to the ideas in the plays, but also to the actual development of the stage on which they were originally acted. Professor Bentley, known on campus as a very entertaining lecturer, holds the honor of being the only professor in the University who can appease fashion-conscious undergraduates and yet wear a double breasted suit to class. A renowned editor of: play anthologies and historian of the theater, he is at present writing the sixth and seventh volumes of Jacobean and Caroline Stage, a work considered to be the tlelinitivc study of the development of the British stage during the seventeenth century.

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Professor E. HARRIS HARBlsoN, of the Department of History, is known to his 'tudents as 11 lucid and incisive lecturer and a patient, opcxi-mintletl preceptor. His genius for understate- ment is only one of the rhetorical talents that he displays in his course, Renaissance and Reformation. A pre-emincnt scholar in the field of early European history, Professor Hzn'bisou is currently engaged in :1 monumental study of the Reformation. His interest in the development; of: the Christian interpretation of history has led him to lecture extensively on this subject outside the University. Professor Harbison is the author of several published works, the most recent of which is :1 textbook, The Course of Civilization. DAVID H. DONALD joined Princeton Universny's Department 01 History in the fall of 1960, bringing with him many honors. He had already been Ll full professor for three years at Columbia University, had taught 11 course in American history zit Oxford, und was the author of numerous books 011 the Civil War and Reconstruction. A pi'ulilic writer, Professor Donald won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for biography for his first volume 01' Charles Stunner am! the Coming of HIL- Civil War which was published in 1960. In addition to this he has just finished TIN: Civil War and Reconstruction, which will 21150 come out in an abbreviated form as Tim Divided Union. At present Professor Donald is engaged in writing the second volume 011 Charles Sumner :mtl, lllOllg with his wife, is working on the first two of eighteen volumes of the papers of Charles Francis Adams, the son of Jnhn Quincy Adams. This last project is to bc putt 013 the one hundred volume work 011 the Adams' family papers to bc puly lished by the Harvard University Press. Professor Mitmtis B. JANSEN 1113 of the History Department is :1 specialist on the Far East. In 1959 he was appointed to the Princeton faculty to fill the serious gap that had developed in the study of the histories of Oriental societies. Professor Jansen gives a year-long survey course on the history of Japan, China, and India which serves the same purpose as Princetonls long- established survey course in western history. This course first made possible the inclusion of the study of East Asia in the pro- grams of undergraduates who did not vzmt to become specialists in the held. Last year, on a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, Professor Jansen traveled again to the Far East and especially to India, the country with which he was least fami1iztr. In intel- lectual circles, Mr. Jansen is best known for his book The japancse and Sun Yat-sen which points out the interesting cooperation between the founder of the Kuomintang Party and the world power which later would he the most influential in destroying that Party. Assistant Dean of the ColIcge, RICHARD D. CIIALLENER is interested in dip10macy. As Associate Professor of History, he is writing a book about the military aspects of American diplomacy before 1Vorld War One. His main areas of interest are American foreign policy and military history, and in his present work, he is attempting to trace the development of cooperation between our military and diplomatic services. He is primarily concerned with the period between 1900 and 19111, for during that period the military began to be consulted, and its influence was felt upon our diplomacy. A very busy man with :1 mountainous pile of paperwork in his administrative capacity, Professor Challcner hopes to be able to finish his study in this neglected area of United States History.