Something in the Ether: A Bicentennial History of Massa

This sweeping narrative history, drawn from archival resources and over 100 personal interviews, traces the development of Massachusetts General Hospital from a hospital with only two doctors and a handful of patients to its present position as the largest civilian employer in Boston, one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world, and the largest hospital-based biomedical research institution in the United States. Today, Mass General is not merely a "quaternary care" mecca, for the treatment of patients with the rarest conditions; it is also a research powerhouse, where physician scientists search for everything from a cure for AIDS to the origins of life in the universe. In addition, it is one of the most sought-after places of training for young doctors, attracting some of the brightest men and women from all over the globe.

Thomas G. Dyer’s definitive history of the University of Georgia celebrates the bicentennial of the school’s founding with a richly varied account of people and events. More than an institutional history, The University of Georgia is a contribution to the understanding of the course and development of higher education in the South.The Georgia legislature in January 1785 approved a charter establishing “a public seat of learning in this state.” For the next sixteen years the university’s trustees struggled to convert its endowment--forty thousand acres of land in the backwoods--into enough money to support a school. By 1801 the university had a president, a campus on the edge of Indian country, and a few students.Over the next two centuries the small liberal arts college that educated the sons of lawyers and planters grew into a major research university whose influence extends far beyond the boundaries of the state. The course of that growth has not always been