Books

Postwar Cornell: How The Greatest Generation Transformed a University 1944-1952 (Cayuga Lake Press, 2015; 164 pp.)

This beautifully designed book combines hundreds of first-person narratives with photographs, illustrations, and excerpts from newspapers, reports, letters, and diaries.  The material is organized by themes such as the GI Bill, the role of women students, football and sports, dating and sex, and the Cold War on campus. Narration is kept to a minimum, so the story can be told in the voices of those who lived through it. Postwar Cornell takes readers on “a marvelous journey back in time,” according to foreword author Isaac Kramnick, “to the era when present-day Cornell was born.”  Buy it here.

Ice Cream Social:  The Struggle for the Soul of Ben & Jerry’s (Berrett Koehler, 2013; 304 pp). 

This is the first book to tell the full, inside story of the inspiring rise, tragic mistakes, devastating fall, determined recovery, and ongoing renewal of one of the most iconic mission-driven companies in the world. No previous book has focused so intently on the challenges of staying true to that mission. No other book has explained how the company came to be sold to corporate giant Unilever, or how that relationship evolved through years of conflict to allow Ben & Jerry’s to pursue its mission on a much larger stage. It’s a funny, sad, surprising, and ultimately hopeful tale.  For more information, go to the site icecreamsocialbook.com, or just buy it here.