How to combine human history with natural history and environmental studies shapes much of MIT history professor Harriet Ritvo鈥檚 reading. She reads books 鈥渢hat attempt to transcend conventional political and geographical limits鈥�. After the Ice by Steven Mithen (Harvard, 2004) 鈥渦ses an imaginative literary technique to evoke scenes from prehistory while also explaining how scientists have arrived at current consensus or disagreement about them鈥�. In John F. Richards鈥檚 The Unending Frontier (California, 2003) and John McNeill and William McNeill鈥檚 The Human Web (W. W. Norton, 2003), she says the authors use their title metaphors to connect apparently unrelated developments in disparate areas of the world.
And for fun? 鈥淚 have always been an enthusiastic novel reader.鈥� She enjoyed Mark Haddon鈥檚 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Random House, 2003) and The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai (Houghton Mifflin, 2004). 鈥淚 am looking forward to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (叠濒辞辞尘蝉产耻谤测).鈥�