Essential Knowledge

Articles by authors in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. Written by leading thinkers, the series offers accessible, concise books on subjects that range from the cultural and the historical to the scientific and the technical.

Latest Articles

Science & Tech	Alien Dreams: The Surprisingly Long History of Speculation About Extraterrestrials The idea that other worlds might be home to alien beings has been part of our thought for as long as we have been looking skyward. Wade Roush \| Aug 3, 2021
Science & Tech	A Century of Science Fiction That Changed How We Think About the Environment Even before the idea of climate change took hold, sci-fi began to think of the planet as something that preceded our species and could conceivably continue without us. Sherryl Vint \| Jul 20, 2021
Media	Tackling Hate Speech: In Conversation With Caitlin Ring Carlson A communications and media law expert discusses her research and suggests ways to limit the spread of hate speech. Zoë Kopp-Weber \| Mar 29, 2021
Media	How To Handle Post-Truth Now That Trump Is Gone Let's give liars the obscurity they deserve. Lee McIntyre \| Jan 26, 2021
Science & Tech	How Cognitive Bias Can Explain Post-Truth Our built-in biases help explain our post-truth era, when “alternative facts” replace actual facts, and feelings have more weight than evidence. Lee McIntyre \| Jan 21, 2021
Economics	The Baleful Consequences of Corruption Corrupt practices harshly cut across classes and castes, disturb institutions, destroy communities, and infect the very structure of people’s lives. Robert I. Rotberg \| Oct 16, 2020
Culture	What Irony Is Not A handy guide to distinguishing the notoriously slippery concept from its distant cousins coincidence, satire, parody, and paradox. Roger Kreuz \| Aug 6, 2020
Environment	Recycling Is Not Garbage Recycling may be an imperfect solution for an imperfect world, but it is no less valuable as a point of potential environmental engagement. Finn Arne Jørgensen \| Jul 20, 2020
Culture	What the National Review Gets Wrong About Deconstruction A misguided article in the conservative magazine blames the concept for the powerful cultural transformations we’re seeing today. That’s about all it gets right. David J. Gunkel \| Jul 7, 2020
Culture	Citizenship: The Great Extinguisher of Hope Hypocritical and random in nature, citizenship is an empty rhetorical shell deployed to perpetuate abuse, dispossession, and exclusion. Dimitry Kochenov \| Jun 24, 2020