In his landmark book “The Origins of the Urban Crisis,” Tom Sugrue, the Bicentennial Class of 1940 Professor of History and Sociology, dissected the hidden history of racial discrimination and violence, suburbanization and deindustrialization that afflicted our great urban centers in the second half of the 20th century.

Can amoral Hollywood really provide moral instruction to those of us sitting in the dark? Robert Cort C’68,G’70,WG’74, the producer of 52 films, including “Three Men and a Baby” and the soon-to-be-released “Against the Ropes” starring Meg Ryan, not only thinks so, he’s written a novel, titled “Action” (Random House, 2003), that proves it.

Can amoral Hollywood really provide moral instruction to those of us sitting in the dark? Robert Cort C’68,G’70,WG’74, the producer of 52 films, including “Three Men and a Baby” and the soon-to-be-released “Against the Ropes” starring Meg Ryan, not only thinks so, he’s written a novel, titled “Action” (Random House, 2003), that proves it.

Jeremy A. Sabloff C’64, Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has announced that he will be stepping down from the directorship on June 30, 2004. Sabloff will have completed 10 years of service as head of one of the world’s great archaeology and anthropology museums.

Staff Q&A/A friend lends Susan Anthony a book to read, and the next thing you know, she’s got a club going “I went on the web and found ‘Book Clubs for Dummies.’”

The Annenberg Public Policy Center is poised to begin their second National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES), a rolling-cross sectional survey of the American electorate, on November 1.

Carl Gunter, professor of computer and information science, has designs on your credit cards. He wants to turn them into smart cards. He’s already got one—a Barclays Bankcard with a tiny gold square on the front, no bigger than a thumbtack, which is a programmable computer chip.

Belief isn’t just about religion. The city fathers of Baltimore are promoting a campaign of civic improvement called “Baltimore Believes.” Othello believes that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful. Will the Phillies snag a wild card slot? “You’ve got to believe.”

Why are the French thinner than Americans? In the land of six-cup-holder SUVs and super sized fries, the news from Psychology Professor Paul Rozin is that it’s the portion size, stupid.

The bad news is that the United States ranks 27th on the latest Index of Social Progress. The worse news is that we are moving in the wrong direction.