Books about MIT

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People, spaces, ideas

While the MIT Press is perhaps best known internationally for our field-defining academic work, some of our most special and personal titles are the ones that bring MIT's people, spaces, and unique culture to the world, and to our wide network of alumni and supporters.

People

Like any institution, MIT is defined by our people—the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have each left an indelible mark on our campus. Our books delve deep into these stories with biographies of Nobel prize-winning biologist Salvador Luria or nanotech pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus, as well as books like Technology and the Dream which collects personal reflections of the Black experience at MIT or Portraits of Resilience which explores mental health in a competitive and high-pressure environment like MIT.

Spaces

The MIT campus is renowned for its architectural details—from the topsy-turvy jigsaw puzzle that is the Stata Center to the world-famous mixing bowl of the infinite corridor to the meditative beauty of the campus chapel. So it is unsurprising that many of our MIT books focus on the campus as a physical space. We also pull back the lens to explore MIT's proximity and partnerships with the broader community of Kendall Square, “the most innovative square mile on the planet," with books like Where Futures Converge by Bob Buderi and Born in Cambridge by Karen Weintraub and Michael Kuchta.

Ideas

Lastly, our books memorialize the history and moments that transform a university campus into a remarkable experience. March 4 captures the zeitgeist and speeches of an anti-war protest on campus and Nightwork shares the history of MIT's most famous and colorful pranks. Books like Muriel Cooper and Countless Connecting Threads highlight the design and physical objects that are the hallmark of MIT's visual culture.

Enjoy this selection of recent works about MIT's people, places, and ideas.

"They say that the longer a couple are married the more they come to resemble one another. That is certainly true of MIT Press and the Institute. MIT is constantly pushing back the boundaries of knowledge. MIT Press is constantly expanding what it means to be a university press.”

Jay Keyser, Peter de Florez Emeritus Professor in MIT's Department of Linguistics and editor-in-chief of Linguistic Inquiry

Carbon Queen

Maia Weinstock

March 7, 2023

Boston in Transit

Steven Beaucher

March 7, 2023

Salvador Luria

Rena Selya

October 25, 2022

The Hub's Metropolis

James C. O'Connell, Albert LaFarge

June 7, 2022

Where Futures Converge

Robert Buderi

May 10, 2022

Born in Cambridge

Karen Weintraub, Michael Kuchta

May 3, 2022

From the Basement to the Dome

Jean-Jacques Degroof, Bob Metcalfe

September 7, 2021

A Widening Sphere

Philip N. Alexander

August 3, 2021

The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

Ben Barres, Nancy Hopkins

October 20, 2020

Education Crossing Borders

Dara R. Fisher

August 11, 2020

The Charisma Machine

Morgan G. Ames

November 19, 2019

Centerbook

Elizabeth Goldring, Ellen Sebring, Gediminas Urbonas

November 19, 2019

Gyorgy Kepes

John R. Blakinger

June 25, 2019

Inventive Minds

Marvin Minsky, Cynthia Solomon, Xiao Xiao

April 23, 2019

Mens et Mania

Samuel Jay Keyser, Lawrence S. Bacow

February 26, 2019

March 4

Jonathan Allen, Kurt Gottfried

February 19, 2019

The Mobile Workshop

Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga

June 1, 2018

Norbert Wiener—A Life in Cybernetics

Norbert Wiener, Ronald R. Kline

March 23, 2018

Portraits of Resilience

Daniel Jackson, David A. Karp

November 16, 2017

Muriel Cooper

David Reinfurt, Robert Wiesenberger, Nicholas Negroponte, Lisa Strausfeld

September 22, 2017

Designing MIT

Mark M. Jarzombek

March 24, 2017

Building Old Cambridge

Susan E. Maycock, Charles M. Sullivan, Jill Lepore, William B. King

November 4, 2016

Rebel Genius

Tara Abraham

October 28, 2016

Inventing Atmospheric Science

James Rodger Fleming

February 5, 2016

The Life Journey of an MIT Family

Joyce Wang

November 21, 2014

Countless Connecting Threads

Deborah G. Douglas, Ariel Weinberg, L. Rafael Reif, Susan Hockfield, Thomas F. Peterson Jr.

June 7, 2013

Becoming MIT

David Kaiser

September 14, 2012

Pursuing the Endless Frontier

Charles M. Vest, Norman B Augustine

September 30, 2011

Nightwork

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson, Eric Bender

March 11, 2011

Imagining MIT

William J. Mitchell

February 25, 2011

Learning to Communicate in Science and Engineering

Mya Poe, Neal Lerner, Jennifer Craig, James Paradis

February 5, 2010

Fresh Pond

Jill Sinclair

February 13, 2009

Mind and Hand

Julius A. Stratton, Loretta H. Mannix, Paul E. Gray, Catherine Stratton

May 5, 2005

Building Stata

Nancy Joyce

April 20, 2004

Jerry Wiesner, Scientist, Statesman, Humanist

Judy Rosenblith, Edward M. Kennedy

December 5, 2003

Gaining Ground

Nancy S. Seasholes

August 29, 2003

MIT Campus Planning 1960–2000

O. Robert Simha

May 29, 2003

Q.E.D.

John E. Burchard

March 17, 2003

When MIT Was "Boston Tech"

Samuel C. Prescott

March 17, 2003

Systematic Analysis of University Libraries

Jeffrey A. Raffel, Robert Shishko, Fred C. Ikle

March 17, 2003

Technology and the Dream

Clarence G. Williams

February 28, 2003

Inventing the Charles River

Karl Haglund

November 22, 2002

The Idea Factory

Pepper White

October 12, 2001

Holding the Center

Howard W. Johnson, John S. Reed

August 24, 2001

From Whirlwind to MITRE

Kent C. Redmond, Thomas M. Smith

October 10, 2000

Exploring the Art and Science of Stopping Time

Harold E. Edgerton, James Sheldon

November 8, 1999

Architects of the Information Society

Simson L. Garfinkel, Harold Abelson

April 12, 1999

Reflections of the Dream, 1975–1994

Clarence G. Williams

April 18, 1996

The View from Building 20

Ken Hale, Samuel Jay Keyser

September 2, 1993

MIT

Kenneth R. Manning

September 23, 1991

Artificial Intelligence at MIT

Patrick Henry Winston, Sarah Alexandra Shellard

June 22, 1990

A Photographic History of Cambridge

Patricia H. Rodgers, Charles M. Sullivan, Oscar Handlin

November 21, 1984

Lifelong Cooperative Education

MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

August 18, 1983

Geology at MIT 1865–1965

Robert Rakes Shrock

September 23, 1982

Gyorgy Kepes

Gyorgy Kepes, Marjorie Supovitz

June 15, 1978

Cambridge Reconsidered

S. B. Sutton

December 15, 1976

Women in Science and Technology

Edith Ruina

August 15, 1974

Women and the Scientific Professions

Jacquelyn A. Mattfeld, Carol E. Van Aken

June 15, 1967

Guide to Cambridge Architecture

Robert Bell Rettig

July 15, 1969

Project Nero

MIT Students' System Project, Harold R. Isaacs, James V. Carroll, John F. Neyhard

April 15, 1967