Campus Currents

Faculty Book Picks

Terry Gottschall, professor of history, recommends Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944, to May 7, 1945, by Stephen E. Ambrose (1998). In this book, Ambrose combines history and journalism to describe how American GIs battled their way to the Rhineland. Ambrose focuses on the combat experiences of ordinary soldiers, as opposed to the generals who led them—used car salesmen and college students one day, soldiers in the trenches the next.

Jonathan Neidigh, assistant professor of chemistry, recommends The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (1995). Few great
discoveries have evolved so swiftly—or have been so misunderstood as nuclear power. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the bomb with frightening rapidity. Rhodes provides the definitive story of man’s most awesome discovery and invention.

Julie Scott, assistant professor of marketing, recommends Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001). Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry’s drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America’s diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways.

Carolyn Shultz, professor of English, recommends Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostien Gaarder (1996). A desire to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe is not the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book’s enormous popularity has demonstrated. Essentially, Sophie’s World is a history of Western thought as told in a novel.

Alden Thompson, professor of religion, recommends A Search for Identity by George Knight (2000). A Search for Identity chronicles the development of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. How did Adventists come to believe what they believe? How have those beliefs changed? Knight describes how Adventist doctrine has developed, grown, and changed over the years.  W

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