2008 New Student Reading Project Book Announced
2008: Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
Cornell’s next incoming class and much of the rest of the Cornell community will read Gary Wills’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, as part of the 2008-09 New Student Reading Project. The selection was announced by Michele Moody-Adams, vice provost for undergraduate education.
Lincoln’s 272-word address at Gettysburg, Pa., the site of the 1863 battle that was the turning point of the Civil War, has “become a symbol of national purpose, pride and ideals,” Wills writes. “The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration.”
Lincoln at Gettysburg invites readers to reflect on the ideals that should shape America’s national purpose and allows them to consider the political implications of race, the nature of leadership, the challenge of commemorating the sacrifices of those who fight in a contested war, the bearing of the past on the present and the dynamics of politics, according to Moody-Adams. Wills’ book is a compelling work of history and a rich and illuminating analysis of the power of effective communication and well-crafted political rhetoric, she said.
The reading project also will connect the Cornell community to the national commemoration in February 2009 of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Cornell’s founding in 1865 was an outcome of Lincoln’s commitment to the Morrill Act, which created the first land-grant institutions of higher education. Cornell University Library has one of the five known copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s handwriting.
Lincoln at Gettysburg was chosen by Cornell’s academic leadership from a list of more than 100 titles submitted by the Cornell community. Titles from this year's shortlist include The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, China Shakes the World by James Kynge, Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.
This will be the eigth year of Cornell’s New Student Reading Project, designed to provide a common intellectual experience for new and transfer students and the Cornell community through campus-wide events and group discussions with students, faculty and staff. Incoming students receive copies of the selected book to read over the summer, and Cornell’s Reading Project Web site provides background and enrichment for readers.
On Aug. 24 during freshman orientation, a panel of Cornell faculty members will discuss the book, and invite student questions, in preparation for the next day’s meetings of more than 220 small discussion groups. As in past years, 10 essay contest winners from the incoming class will receive gift certificates to the Cornell Store.
During the academic year, lectures, panel discussions, films and other events will relate to the reading project to encourage discussion of the issues raised by Lincoln at Gettysburg. Members of the Ithaca community, high school students across the state and Cornell alumni also will take part in reading and discussion groups of their own.
The book should be potentially as enriching for non-American readers who may have little knowledge of American history as for American readers looking for a deeper understanding of their national history, Moody-Adams said.
For the many incoming students who will be engaged with the details of the national election this fall, “Will’s discussions of the dynamics of politics should prove especially insightful,” Moody-Adams said. The book “offers no simplistic analyses and no easy answers. Instead, it asks the reader to reflect on the complexities of political life and political agency, and to resist the tendency to think in terms of simple dichotomies or absolutes divorced from the contingencies of political life.”
Prior Year Selections
2007: The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer
In the Summer of 2007, Cornell’s incoming undergraduate class read The Pickup, a novel published in 2001 by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer. Much of Gordimer’s work has explored the political, psychological and moral complexities of South African racial apartheid.
The Pickup has been widely recognized as an accomplished work of contemporary fiction. It was recently selected as a featured book for discussion by the Great Books Foundation, was awarded the 2002 Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was included on a shortlist for the 2001 Man Booker Prize.
2006: The Great Gatbsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby "tells a good story about memorable -- if not always likeable -- characters, and it does so in evocative and beautiful prose that deftly brings the Jazz Age to life," said Michele Moody-Adams. Reading Fitzgerald's novel, she added, "also provides an opportunity to reflect on the complexity of many defining American ideals, on the ethical and social implications of unchecked materialism, and on the potentially corrosive effects of unregulated desire."
"We have taken all these strengths of the book into consideration in choosing The Great Gatsby as the freshman book for the Fall of 2006. We expect the book to be a worthy object of reflection and discussion for our incoming students and the campus at large, as well as for those members of the surrounding community who plan to join in the reading project once again."
2005: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Recognized now as a classic of world literature, Things Fall Apart was written in 1958 and depicts traditional village life in Nigeria during the imposition of British colonial rule in the late Nineteenth Century.
In 2005 nearly 5,000 students from 67 high schools in 18 New York counties and New York City read Things Fall Apart as part of a statewide pilot program coordinated through Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE).
2004: The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Trial is Kafka's prescient masterpiece that raises fundamental questions about the nature of justice and the role of the state. New students, alumni and the Ithaca community took part in this year's events including a debate hosted by the local bar association on The Trial.
2003: Antigone by Sophocles
Antigone is a timeless text. The Tompkins County Public Library and Cornell continued the tradition, the annual town-gown celebration of reading and of having conversations with each other about ideas that began with Frankenstein. In 2003, Tompkins County 10th-grade students were recipients of copies of Antigone and were treated to David Feldshuh's brilliant new translation and adaptation of Antigone performed at Cornell's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
2002: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
In 2002 Cornell selected Frankenstein, a book that raised important questions on ethics, creativity and the nature of our humanity. Cornell gave over 1,500 free copies of Frankenstein to the Tompkins County Library, to county high schools, to senior citizens centers and to other civic organizations thus beginning the "tradition" of the "town-gown" read.
2001: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The Cornell New Student Reading Project began in 2001 with Jared Diamond's Pulitzer-prize winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel. This provocative work explores the differences in rates of development among races, societies and world cultures as a function of geographical and environmental circumstances.