Required Reading

A sampling of what Harvard people are saying, and what is being said about Harvard, in the press.

From the Home Office...

Parade Magazine, in its August 4 issue, surveyed the "smartest living Americans," asking them who they thought the smartest people in America are. Here are some of the Harvard-related results:

Alan Dershowitz, chutzpah-laden Harvard Law School prof, listed the following four geniuses:

*Ted Koppel of ABC.

*Red Auerbach, president and former coach and general manager of the Boston Celtics.

*Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard professor of zoology and Red Sox fan extraordinaire.

*Robert Nozick, Harvard professor of philosophy.

Dersh, by the way, teaches his "Thinking About Thinking" course with the latter two of his four "smartest people in America." Genius by association?

John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg professor of economics emeritus, lists his top choices:

*Gloria Steinem.

*Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

*U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.).

*Washington labor lawyer Joseph Rauh Jr.

*U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

In addition, many Harvard names showed up on the lists of Parade's other geniuses:

Betty Friedan named John Kenneth Galbraith.

Gloria Steinem, who made Galbraith's list, also named Galbraith.

Isaac Asimov named Stephen Jay Gould.

New York Gov. Mario Cuomo named Harvard psychiatrist and social reflecter Robert Coles.

Brown University President Vartan Gregorian named both Harvard physicist Sheldon Glashow and Harvard sociologist David Riesman '34.

DNA pioneer James D. Watson named Harvard biologist Walter Gilbert and Harvard biochemist Mark S. Ptashne.