Need a Course?

Every term the editors make suggestions to those who find that with unpacking, registering, and Phillips Brooks Tea Dances their programs are a course or two shy of the minimum. These are not guts, but rather worthwhile courses fortunately free of prerequisites. Chosen for the interesting material they cover, any one of them can add the necessary dash of diversity to an otherwise dull program.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9

Soc. Sci. 127 will bone you up on the history behind the current Middle East skirmishes. Assistant Professor Richard N. Frye, who has written an excellent book on this area, holds forth in Sever 17.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10

Professor Alfred S. Romer, acclaimed for his presentation of Comparative Anatomy, shifts to the advanced G.E. courses for a one term discussion of the history and criticism of the theories of organic evolution. Specialists in the various biological fields will make up the supporting cast. The whole show, entitled Natural Sciences 111, will be in the Biological Laboratory Lecture Room.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11

Cosmography, which Webster blithely defines as "a description of the world or the Universe," will be discussed by astronomer Harlow Shapley in Nat. Sci. 115. From the catalog the course sounds as though it is intended only for those who can manipulate Einstein's formulas with aplomb, but Professor Shapley claims "the only prerequisite is a persistent curiosity." It all happens in Room 18 of the geographical Institute.

And if you are interested in what happened to your ancestors when they got to this country, Prof. Oscar Handlin will tell you in History 166. Assembling in Harvard Hall 5 this full course traces immigrants in the United States from Boston Brahmans to Bulgarian DP's.

For those who felt they just grabbed a taste of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy in the elementary Humanities courses, the Slavic Department is giving a half course- Slavic 155-covering the well-known books of the two authors in Sever 19.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12

Pulitzer Prize winner Archibald MacLeish gives a searching course in understanding and interpreting the art of poetry. Lectures take place in Burr A and the course is called Humanities 130a. Writer and critic Alfred Kazin will be the lecturer in English 171, Art and Expression in American Literature. Visiting Harvard for the year, Kazin's course will touch on history and philosophy as well as poetry and fiction. The first meeting will be in Hunt A.