Autumn General Meeting
Bruce Kuklick

The American Philosophical Society is pleased to award the 2015 Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities to Bruce Kuklick for his paper "Killing Lumumba" presented at the Society’s April Meeting in 2012, and published in the June 2014 Proceedings.

In this paper Professor Kuklick discusses the events that led to the murder in January, 1961, of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minster of the newly-created Republic of the Congo. The full details of this terrible episode only came to light after several documentary sources had been opened, notably a report commissioned by the Belgian parliament in 2001. One of the experts on the commission, Professor Emmanuel Girard, collaborated with Professor Kuklick to write a book on the subject, which has now been published by the Harvard University Press under the title Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba (2015). Bruce Kuklick’s paper concentrates on the American perspective, especially the role of President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower had close links with Belgium, the last colonial power in the Congo; at the same time, he feared the spread of Soviet influence in Africa, and saw NATO as a useful instrument for containing Lumumba’s aspirations. Realizing that he was being treated as a threat rather than as a national leader, Lumumba made an unfortunate visit to New York and Washington in July, 1960, and this visit, by souring the Belgian authorities and appearing to threaten the stability of NATO, started a chain of events that led to his murder in January, 1961. Professor Kuklick tells this sorry tale objectively, and yet with full compassion for Lumumba as a person and for Africa as a theater of Cold War rivalries.

Bruce Kuklick is Nichols Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. His historical interests are broadly in the political, diplomatic, and intellectual history of the United States, and in the philosophy of history. He has written a dozen books, including his three-volume history of American thought, Churchmen and Philosophers: Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey (1985), The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930 (1976), and Philosophy in America, 1720-2000 (2001). His most recent books are Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War from Kennan to Kissinger (2006); a biography of African American philosopher William Fontaine, Black Philosopher; White Academy (2008); and a political history of America, One Nation Under God (2009). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2004.

The prize was established in 1982 by a gift from the widow of Henry Allen Moe, to honor the longtime head of the Guggenheim Foundation and president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. It pays particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them. The prize is awarded annually to the author of a paper in the humanities or jurisprudence read at a meeting of the Society.

The selection committee consists of Christopher P. Jones, chair, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and History Emeritus at Harvard University; Louis Begley, Novelist and retired Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton; and Elizabeth Cropper, Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art.

Spring General Meeting
Kathleen Hall Jamieson

The recipient of the American Philosophical Society's 2016 Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is Kathleen Hall Jamieson for her paper "Implications of the Demise of 'Fact' in Political Discourse" presented to the Society at its April 2013 Meeting and published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 159, no. 1, March 2015.

In her timely essay on the dangers to the republic of the strategies of what she calls "reality creating communities," Kathleen Hall Jamieson traces ways in which the manipulation of fact can thwart the public will. Following the traditional view of skepticism that well-founded belief must at some point rest on trusted premises, Jamieson underlines the importance of institutions that serve as custodians of knowledge. These institutions can, however, easily be undermined through misinformation, and mimicked through deliberate and deceptive manipulation. Her warning that the traditional institutional producers of knowledge are no longer protected by the halo of public credibility is substantiated through a succinct series of examples drawn from debates on prison furloughs, health care, welfare reform, and gun control.

Jamieson shows how the custodians of knowledge are undermined, whether through advertising or by new controllers of media dedicated to conflict. Pseudo-knowledge comes to take knowledge's place in a new reality not governed by credible fact. Deep-pocketed deceivers, conjurors of this new reality, threaten the public good. Citing James Madison on the need for the people to be armed with the power that knowledge gives, given that "knowledge will forever govern ignorance," Kathleen Hall Jamieson draws our attention to the importance of trust in fundamental, useful knowledge today. Her dedication to unmasking the rhetoric of deceit speaks to urgent questions in the study of the humanities today.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author or co-author of 15 books including: Presidents Creating the Presidency (2008), Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment (2008) and unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007). Jamieson has won university-wide teaching awards at each of the three universities at which she has taught, and political science or communication awards for four of her books. Her book, co-authored with Kate Kenski and Bruce Hardy, The Obama Victory: How Media, Money, and Messages Shaped the 2008 Election, received the 2010 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Award) in the area of government and politics. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the International Communication Association. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1997.

The prize was established in 1982 by a gift from the widow of Henry Allen Moe, to honor the longtime head of the Guggenheim Foundation and president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. It pays particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them. The prize is awarded annually to the author of a paper in the humanities or jurisprudence read at a meeting of the Society.

Spring General Meeting
Margaret J. Geller

The American Philosophical Society’s 2008 Magellanic Premium medal is awarded to Dr. Margaret J. Geller, Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in recognition of her pioneering observations of the universe.

Dr. Geller is a brilliant astrophysicist who studies the distribution of galaxies and matter in the universe and the processes that produce their clusterings. Almost thirty years ago she interested her colleague, Dr. John Huchra, in joining her to observe redshifts, determine distances, and produce a three dimensional map of over 10,000 galaxies. Their pioneering work, “A Slice of the Universe”, showed that the “distribution of galaxies looks like a slice through the suds in the kitchen sink.” Geller and Huchra had discovered that the universe is filled with huge, extended, relatively thin structures composed of galaxies and clusters of galaxies surrounding huge volumes devoid of galaxies. Since that paper, numerous teams have extended the observational database by orders of magnitude, and theorists have reexamined earlier ideas of the universe, but the structures discovered by Geller and colleagues remain among the largest known structures in the universe.

Dr. Geller’s visualization techniques produced striking images and captured the public’s attention. The “stick-man” image from “A Slice of the Universe” was featured prominently in The New York Times. With her MacArthur Fellowship funds, Geller studied advanced filmmaking techniques and produced six movies, some showing simulated flights through the observed galaxy distributions. Her movie, Where the Galaxies Are, produced for the Air and Space Museum, won medals in international competitions, and set a high standard for future astronomical simulations.

Dr. Margaret Geller’s work is beautifully conceived, meticulously carried out, and discussed in terms that inspire scientists and captivate the public. The medal is engraved, “Margaret J. Geller, for discoveries about the remarkable nature of galaxy distribution in the universe.”

In 1786, two years after his election to the American Philosophical Society, John Hyacinth de Magellan of London, made a gift to the American Philosophical Society of 200 guineas for a medal to be awarded “to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention relating to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted).” The medal, named the Magellanic Premium, was first awarded in 1790. It is the oldest medal recognizing scientific achievements given by a North American institution.

The selection committee consisted of chairman Charles P. Slichter, Research Professor of Physics and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics and Chemistry Emeritus at the University of Illinois; Nicolaas Bloembergen, Gerhard Gade University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University; Leo P. Kadanoff, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Physics and Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Chicago; and Vera C. Rubin, Staff Astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Autumn General Meeting
Alar Toomre

The 2014 recipient of the American Philosophical Society's Magellanic Premium medal is Alar Toomre "in recognition of his beautiful and prescient numerical simulations over 40 years ago of the interactions of galaxies ("Galactic Bridges and Tails," carried out with his brother, Juri), and for his development a half century ago of the key local stability criterion (the "Q" criterion) for differentially rotating disks in galaxies. He was also the first to make the remarkable suggestion and demonstrate that elliptical galaxies in the universe could arise solely from collisions of spiral galaxies. Overall, Toomre's work has had a profound influence on the understanding of galactic dynamics and has largely set the direction of research in this now very vigorous and active field." The medal is engraved, "Alar Toomre, For pioneering studies of collisions and evolution of galaxies."

Dr. Toomre joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and is now Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT.

In 1786, two years after his election to the American Philosophical Society, John Hyacinth de Magellan of London, made a gift to the American Philosophical Society of 200 guineas for a medal to be awarded "to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention relating to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted)." The medal, named the Magellanic Premium, was first awarded in 1790. It is the oldest medal recognizing scientific achievements given by a North American institution.

The selection committee consisted of Charles Slichter (chair), Research Professor of Physics, Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics and Chemistry Emeritus, University of Illinois; Andrea Ghez, Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine Chair in Astrophysics, Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles; Leo Kadanoff, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Physics and Mathematics Emeritus, University of Chicago; and Irwin Shapiro, Director Emeritus, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Timken University Professor, Harvard University, Senior Scientist, Smithsonian Institution, and Schlumberger Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Autumn General Meeting
Lionel Gossman

The 2007 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s John Frederick Lewis Award is Lionel Gossman for his monograph The Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck's “Italia und Germania” published in the Society’s Transactions, volume 97, part 5. The book is a captivating study of a once-famous German painting’s genesis and context and of the unexpectedly numerous layers of esthetic and religious meanings Dr. Gossman has cleverly shown it to contain. It is a most pleasurable read.

Born in Scotland, Lionel Gossman earned an M.A. at the University of Glasgow in 1951, a diplome d'études supérieures at the University of Paris in 1952, and a D. Phil. at the University of Oxford in 1957. After teaching at the University of Lille and at Glasgow, he came to the United States in 1958 and joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught for seventeen years. He moved to Princeton University as professor of Romance languages and literatures in 1976. Dr. Gossman was appointed the M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures in 1983, and became professor emeritus in 1999. Dr. Gossman’s interests focus on the relationship between history and literature in 17th through 19th century Europe.

Dr. Gossman's other publications include Men and Masks: A Study of Molière (1963), Medievalism and the Ideologies of the Enlightenment (1968), The Empire Unpossess'd (1981), Between History and Literature (1990), Geneva-Zurich-Basel: History, Culture and National Identity (with N. Bouvier et al, 1994) and Basel in the Age of Burckhardt: A Study in Unseasonable Ideas (2000). He received the Behrman Award in 1990 and was named an Officier des Palmes Académiques in 1991. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1996.

In 1935 the American Philosophical Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award, with funds donated by his widow, to honor this outstanding maritime lawyer who played a major role in various cultural institutions in Philadelphia. The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year.

The selection committee consisted of chairman Eugene F. Rice, Jr., William R. Shepherd Professor Emeritus, Columbia University; Glen W. Bowersock, Professor of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.

Autumn General Meeting
Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2008 John Frederick Lewis Award to Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt for her monograph Franz Boas and W.E.B. Du Bois at Atlanta University, 1906. The award was presented by Glen W. Bowersock, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the Institute for Advanced Study and chairman of the prize selection committee.

Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt is Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of the College and professor of anthropology at Agnes Scott College. Her teaching and scholarly interests include folklore and the history and theory of anthropology. She is a recipient of the Society’s Mellon Resident Research Fellowship Grant and was a Library Resident Fellow from 1996-97. She is also the author of American Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent (1988) and Wealth and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons, Anthropologist and Folklorist (1992).

The seeds of Franz Boas and W.E.B. Du Bois at Atlanta University, 1906 were planted at the American Philosophical Society Library, where Dr. Zumwalt was researching the papers of the anthropologist William Shedrick Willis. In these papers she discovered an unpublished draft manuscript, Boas Goes to Atlanta, which Willis had conceived as a study of Franz Boas’s work in black anthropology.

Using the first chapter of this manuscript as a jumping off point, Zumwalt goes on to consider the Father of American Anthropology’s trip to Atlanta in great depth. Drawing from a wealth of archival correspondence and bibliographic research, she relates the history of Boas’s time on the Atlanta University campus; responses to his talk by blacks and whites; and the conflict that the trip itself caused between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.

In 1935 the American Philosophical Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award with funds donated by his widow. The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year.

The selection committee consisted of chairman Glen W. Bowersock, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; Helen F. North, Centennial Professor Classics Emerita, Swarthmore College; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.

Autumn General Meeting
Stephen G. Brush

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2009 John Frederick Lewis Award to Stephen G. Brush for his book Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930-1970. The award was presented by Mary Patterson McPherson, Executive Officer of the Society.

Stephen Brush worked at he Lawrence Livermore Laboratory from 1959-1965. He then went to Harvard, where he was a member of the Harvard Project Physics and was a lecturer in Physics and the History of Science until 1968. From 1968 to 2006 he was at the University of Maryland in University Park with a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Institute for Physical Science & Technology. He retired in 2006 and holds the title Distinguished University Professor of the History of Science Emeritus.

His book Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930-1970 discusses evolution, Darwin, and natural selection in the twentieth-century Anglo-American biological community. Dr. Brush examines the beliefs and theories of prominent biologists and evolutionists, including Ronald Fisher, Sewall Wright, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and Ernst Mayr.

In 1935 the Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award with funds donated by his widow. The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year.

The selection committee consisted of Glen W. Bowersock (chair), Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; Helen F. North, Centennial Professor Classics Emerita, Swarthmore College; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.

Autumn General Meeting
A. Mark Smith

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2010 John Frederick Lewis Award to A. Mark Smith for his book Alhacen on Refraction: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of Book 7 of Alhacen's De Aspectibus, the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitab al-Manazir. The award was presented by Glen Bowersock, chair of the Lewis Award Committee and Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study.

Professor Smith teaches a variety of courses in medieval history as well as the history of science from antiquity to the late Enlightenment.  Broadly speaking, his interests lie in the field of intellectual history from the pre-Socratics to the Enlightenment, his scholarly focus being on the evolution of pre-Newtonian theories of visual perception.  He received his Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he now holds a professorship.  He has published a number of other works with the American Philosophical Society, including Descartes's Theory of Light and Refraction (1987), Ptolemy's Theory of Visual Perception (1996), Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics (1999), and, naturally, the three texts which contain the first six books of De Aspectibus.

A. Mark Smith has worked with the American Philosophical Society on Alhacen's De Aspectibus for 10 years.  Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception, which contained the first three books, was printed in 2001, Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection, which contained books four and five, was printed in 2006, and Alhacen on Image-Formation and Distortion in Mirrors, which contained book six, was printed in 2008.  In this final publication, Alhacen on Refraction, which translates the seventh and final book of the De Aspectibus, Alhacen undertakes a comprehensive analysis of refraction, starting with the basic phenomenon and its underlying principles, and ending with an explanation of the apparent displacement and size-distortion of celestial bodies caused by atmospheric refraction. Certainly the most intriguing portion of the De Aspectibus, book seven is also the most problematic in terms of questionable theoretical suppositions and the logical inconsistencies that flow from them.

Mark Smith’s publication of the Latin version of Ibn al-Haytham's Optics is one of the great contributions to the history of science of our time.  The edition is based upon an exhaustive examination of the manuscripts, the translation of the difficult, and at times obscure, text a model of clarity, and the introduction and commentary are exemplary in placing the work within the history of optics and explaining its technicalities and difficulties.  This is a work of scholarship that will endure and be consulted for ages.

In 1935 the Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award with funds donated by his widow.  The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year.  The selection committee consisted of Glen W. Bowersock (chair), Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; Helen F. North, Centennial Professor Classics Emerita, Swarthmore College; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.