Princeton Research Articles

Judge rules against university

Case name: Doe v. Princeton University, No. 21‐20264 (D. N.J. 12/22/23).

Lachlan McNamee. Settling for Less. Why States Colonize and Why They Stop. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) 2023. xi, 240 pp. Ill. Maps. $35.00; £30.00. (E-book: $24.50; £21.00.)

Lachlan McNamee. Settling for Less. Why States Colonize and Why They Stop. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) 2023. xi, 240 pp. Ill. Maps. $35.00; £30.00. (E-book: $24.50; £21.00.)

Judge rules against university

Case name: Doe v. Princeton University, No. 21‐20264 (D. N.J. 12/22/23).

Adam Berinsky: Political rumors: Why we accept political misinformation and how to fight it, Princeton University Press, 2023

Adam Berinsky: Political rumors: Why we accept political misinformation and how to fight it, Princeton University Press, 2023

Scorched Earth and the Nature of DMZ

Scorched Earth: Environmental Warfare as a Crime against Humanity and Nature, by Emmanuel Kreike (Princeton University Press, 2021) Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters Along the Korean DMZ, by Eleana J. Kim (Duke University Press, 2022)

Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy: Contexts of Creation and Reception

HELMHOLTZ AND THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY: Contexts of Creation and Reception by Kenneth L. Caneva. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021. 735 pages, including notes (138 pages), bibliographies of primary and secondary sources (80 pages), and an index (17 pages). Hardcover; $125.00. ISBN: 9780262045755. *By examining the pagination details mentioned above, one could easily surmise that one will be reading and examining a book grounded in textual detail. And one would be spot on. The weight of the author's research is, quite honestly, breathtaking. Kenneth L. Caneva has devoted his academic life to an examination of energy concepts. He is a professor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. A former student of Thomas S. Kuhn, he has also authored two other books: The Form and Function of Scientific Discoveries (Dibner Library Lecture, 2000) and an authoritative biography, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy (Princeton University Press, 1993). Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy is his latest contribution. *Before we examine the book proper, the obvious question arises: Who was Hermann von Helmholtz? To answer that question one can best turn to the 937-page scientific biography of Helmholtz by David Cahan (Helmholtz: A Life in Science, The University of Chicago Press, 2018). Helmholtz (1821-1894), a German physiologist and physicist, is described by Steven Shapin in his review of Cahan's book as "a theorist of (not quite) everything." Helmholtz had an immense range of scientific and cultural interests: physics, physiology, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy. He invented the ophthalmoscope, measured the nervous impulse, contributed to meteorology and atmospheric physics, and helped build some of Germany's scientific and technological institutions. *Caneva wants to explore the context and reception of one of Helmholtz's early (1847) seminal essays, "Über die Erhaltung der Kraft" ["On the Conservation of Force"] by examining how this essay shaped the discussion and acceptance of a physical principle: the conservation of energy. How was "conservation of force" eventually transformed into a principle of energy conservation? Caneva offers us a contextualist historiography of this long and complex transition by providing an in-depth analysis of Helmholtz's contribution and influence in the discovery process. *The discovery of the principle of energy conservation is a classic case in the history of nineteenth-century science. Although overshadowed in the public mind by Charles Darwin's principle of natural selection, its historical development raises similar issues. Who discovered the principle of energy conservation? An easy question to pose, but a very complicated one to answer. And more to Caneva's point of interest: Is conservation of energy what Helmholtz initially meant by the conservation of force? *Caneva offers this book as an example "of how what is generally accepted as scientific knowledge is reshaped as it passes through the hands of people with different agendas using different language." It is not an individualistic process, but rather reflects a "collective construction of scientific knowledge." Caneva concludes the book with this assertion: "The cumulative force of this study has implicitly rendered otiose the question of who discovered the conservation of energy" (p. 466). In a real sense, no one individual has discovered the conservation of energy: one could reference Robert Meyer (1842), Helmholtz (1847), William Thomson (1851) [force to energy], and Helmholtz (1853) again. With meticulous detail Caneva highlights the terminological shifts that have taken place as well as the rhetorical skills exercised when the "law" or "principle" was presented to various publics, even in popular scientific settings. *The book has eleven chapters, followed by a "Historiographical Excursus: How Others Have Interpreted Helmholtz's Achievement" (pp. 471-99). In chapter 1, "Helmholtz's Self-Described Principal Concerns," Caneva traces out four factors that were central to Helmholtz's thinking: (1) a conviction that the construction of a perpetuum mobile is impossible, (2) a concern with the nature of heat and the source of animal heat, (3) a belief in the illegitimacy of a vital force, and (4)the application of rational mechanics' principles of vis viva [mv2] and its conservation. According to Caneva, Kantian philosophical concerns do not dominate, nor does Helmholtz's reliance on industrial mechanical steam-engine considerations or metaphors. Succeeding chapters (2-6) trace out the broader and more immediate contexts, the question of Kantian influence, and what Helmholtz believed he had accomplished. *Chapters 7-9 consider the reception of "The Conservation of Force." In chapter 9, "Helmholtz's Place in the Acceptance of the Conservation of Energy--by far the longest (pp. 235-428) and most important chapter--Caneva traces how Helmholtz's formulation in his 1847 essay, "The sum of the existing living and tensional forces is thus always constant" (p. 239), has been transformed into a principle of the conservation of energy. How does a paper first rejected by the physics community, yet hoping to find unifying elements in nature, lead finally to the conservation of energy (the first law of thermodynamics)? Even if one looks closely at the phrase, "tensional" forces, one notices that Helmholtz integrates force over distance, that is, force is thought of in terms of the velocity of a body rather than its acceleration. Force, for Helmholtz, is a measure of the quantity of motion rather than a cause of motion. Caneva's goal is to render intelligible Helmholtz's role and significance in the complicated transition to the final expression of the conservation law. *Near the end of the book, in the "Historiographical Excursus," Caneva critically assesses the work of earlier commentators who have written about Helmholtz and the conservation of energy. Thomas Kuhn (Caneva's advisor), Yehuda Elkana, Peter Harman, Norton Wise, all are subject to criticism. Caneva detects anachronistic tendencies, lack of sound textual evidence, and a desire to confirm a preconceived idea that lie at the root of most failed interpretations (p. 499). *The book is not an easy read. Amidst all the intricate detailed analysis and convoluted arguments what can an ASA member profitably learn? First, clarification of concepts can be a long and complicated process. Think just of the historical development of the concept of biological evolution. Secondly, ideas and concepts are shaped by a myriad of causes and influences. The art or skill lies in learning how to weigh the stunning array of causes. In the case of Helmholtz, historians have identified several causes: philosophical, physical, technological, physiological, and even cultural. How to accurately weigh each factor without becoming ahistorical, that is, misreading an author's intent by reading modern concepts into it and becoming anachronistic, has been Caneva's goal. *Reviewed by Arie Leegwater, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era

Ilyana Kuziemko of Princeton University and Suresh Naidu of Columbia University review “The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era” by Gary Gerstle. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Examines the history of the political order that took shape under Ronald Reagan and achieved dominance under Bill Clinton in the 1990s and early 2000s, highlighting the sharp distinction of this political order from those that preceded it.”

Josh Simons (2023). Algorithms for the people: Democracy in the age of AI. Princeton University Press.

Josh Simons (2023). Algorithms for the people: Democracy in the age of AI. Princeton University Press.

Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy: Contexts of Creation and Reception

HELMHOLTZ AND THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY: Contexts of Creation and Reception by Kenneth L. Caneva. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021. 735 pages, including notes (138 pages), bibliographies of primary and secondary sources (80 pages), and an index (17 pages). Hardcover; $125.00. ISBN: 9780262045755. *By examining the pagination details mentioned above, one could easily surmise that one will be reading and examining a book grounded in textual detail. And one would be spot on. The weight of the author's research is, quite honestly, breathtaking. Kenneth L. Caneva has devoted his academic life to an examination of energy concepts. He is a professor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. A former student of Thomas S. Kuhn, he has also authored two other books: The Form and Function of Scientific Discoveries (Dibner Library Lecture, 2000) and an authoritative biography, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy (Princeton University Press, 1993). Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy is his latest contribution. *Before we examine the book proper, the obvious question arises: Who was Hermann von Helmholtz? To answer that question one can best turn to the 937-page scientific biography of Helmholtz by David Cahan (Helmholtz: A Life in Science, The University of Chicago Press, 2018). Helmholtz (1821-1894), a German physiologist and physicist, is described by Steven Shapin in his review of Cahan's book as "a theorist of (not quite) everything." Helmholtz had an immense range of scientific and cultural interests: physics, physiology, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy. He invented the ophthalmoscope, measured the nervous impulse, contributed to meteorology and atmospheric physics, and helped build some of Germany's scientific and technological institutions. *Caneva wants to explore the context and reception of one of Helmholtz's early (1847) seminal essays, "Über die Erhaltung der Kraft" ["On the Conservation of Force"] by examining how this essay shaped the discussion and acceptance of a physical principle: the conservation of energy. How was "conservation of force" eventually transformed into a principle of energy conservation? Caneva offers us a contextualist historiography of this long and complex transition by providing an in-depth analysis of Helmholtz's contribution and influence in the discovery process. *The discovery of the principle of energy conservation is a classic case in the history of nineteenth-century science. Although overshadowed in the public mind by Charles Darwin's principle of natural selection, its historical development raises similar issues. Who discovered the principle of energy conservation? An easy question to pose, but a very complicated one to answer. And more to Caneva's point of interest: Is conservation of energy what Helmholtz initially meant by the conservation of force? *Caneva offers this book as an example "of how what is generally accepted as scientific knowledge is reshaped as it passes through the hands of people with different agendas using different language." It is not an individualistic process, but rather reflects a "collective construction of scientific knowledge." Caneva concludes the book with this assertion: "The cumulative force of this study has implicitly rendered otiose the question of who discovered the conservation of energy" (p. 466). In a real sense, no one individual has discovered the conservation of energy: one could reference Robert Meyer (1842), Helmholtz (1847), William Thomson (1851) [force to energy], and Helmholtz (1853) again. With meticulous detail Caneva highlights the terminological shifts that have taken place as well as the rhetorical skills exercised when the "law" or "principle" was presented to various publics, even in popular scientific settings. *The book has eleven chapters, followed by a "Historiographical Excursus: How Others Have Interpreted Helmholtz's Achievement" (pp. 471-99). In chapter 1, "Helmholtz's Self-Described Principal Concerns," Caneva traces out four factors that were central to Helmholtz's thinking: (1) a conviction that the construction of a perpetuum mobile is impossible, (2) a concern with the nature of heat and the source of animal heat, (3) a belief in the illegitimacy of a vital force, and (4)the application of rational mechanics' principles of vis viva [mv2] and its conservation. According to Caneva, Kantian philosophical concerns do not dominate, nor does Helmholtz's reliance on industrial mechanical steam-engine considerations or metaphors. Succeeding chapters (2-6) trace out the broader and more immediate contexts, the question of Kantian influence, and what Helmholtz believed he had accomplished. *Chapters 7-9 consider the reception of "The Conservation of Force." In chapter 9, "Helmholtz's Place in the Acceptance of the Conservation of Energy--by far the longest (pp. 235-428) and most important chapter--Caneva traces how Helmholtz's formulation in his 1847 essay, "The sum of the existing living and tensional forces is thus always constant" (p. 239), has been transformed into a principle of the conservation of energy. How does a paper first rejected by the physics community, yet hoping to find unifying elements in nature, lead finally to the conservation of energy (the first law of thermodynamics)? Even if one looks closely at the phrase, "tensional" forces, one notices that Helmholtz integrates force over distance, that is, force is thought of in terms of the velocity of a body rather than its acceleration. Force, for Helmholtz, is a measure of the quantity of motion rather than a cause of motion. Caneva's goal is to render intelligible Helmholtz's role and significance in the complicated transition to the final expression of the conservation law. *Near the end of the book, in the "Historiographical Excursus," Caneva critically assesses the work of earlier commentators who have written about Helmholtz and the conservation of energy. Thomas Kuhn (Caneva's advisor), Yehuda Elkana, Peter Harman, Norton Wise, all are subject to criticism. Caneva detects anachronistic tendencies, lack of sound textual evidence, and a desire to confirm a preconceived idea that lie at the root of most failed interpretations (p. 499). *The book is not an easy read. Amidst all the intricate detailed analysis and convoluted arguments what can an ASA member profitably learn? First, clarification of concepts can be a long and complicated process. Think just of the historical development of the concept of biological evolution. Secondly, ideas and concepts are shaped by a myriad of causes and influences. The art or skill lies in learning how to weigh the stunning array of causes. In the case of Helmholtz, historians have identified several causes: philosophical, physical, technological, physiological, and even cultural. How to accurately weigh each factor without becoming ahistorical, that is, misreading an author's intent by reading modern concepts into it and becoming anachronistic, has been Caneva's goal. *Reviewed by Arie Leegwater, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

TennCare Disenrollment Led To Increased Eviction Filings And Evictions In Tennessee Relative To Other Southern States.

Previous research suggests that enrolling in Medicaid reduces evictions by improving health and providing financial protection. However, previous studies have not examined whether the loss of Medicaid affects eviction outcomes. We analyzed eviction filings and completed evictions after a large, mandatory Medicaid disenrollment in Tennessee in 2005. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis using data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University and found that relative to other southern states, the TennCare disenrollment led to a 27.6percent greater increase in the average annual number of eviction filings at the county level during the period 2005-09 and a 24.5percent greater increase in the average annual number of completed evictions at the county level during that same period. Our findings have implications for the housing stability of Medicaid recipients today, many of whom are being disenrolled because of the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision that is occurring across the country. To protect housing stability for people disenrolled from Medicaid, policy makers may wish to consider new initiatives aimed at preventing an increase in eviction.

Serendipitous Sociologist: Transitions and Turning Points in My Journey

Serendipity, curiosity, and lived experience shaped my career as a social demographer and my interests in social policy. I transitioned from the humanities to sociology and demography as a graduate student the University of Texas at Austin, where I discovered my affinity for quantitative research. My interest in Latin American demography gave way to domestic concerns as new opportunities arose at each of the three institutions where I have had the privilege to work—the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University. That all three institutions hosted vibrant demography and policy programs facilitated my research about the Hispanic population, family structure, urban poverty, college access, and myriad aspects of socioeconomic inequality and immigrant integration. Superb colleagues and talented graduate student collaborators deserve major credit for my career accomplishments. I attribute numerous opportunities to serve on philanthropic and corporate boards to the strength of weak ties. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 50 is July 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

From incorporation to emplacement in the cultural sociology of immigration

AbstractCultural sociology can be useful for uncovering factors facilitating and hindering immigrant incorporation. The process of incorporation blends different logics and pressures, where the work of incorporation is divided between immigrants who pursue incorporation, and social groups (from nations, to communities, and from classrooms to corporations) that facilitate, hinder, and shape trajectories of inclusion. Cultural sociology has much to contribute to our understanding of the relation between immigrants and the role of others in the process of incorporation. In this essay, I first summarize underlying ideas in the cultural sociology of immigration and immigrant incorporation. I argue that incorporation entails two types of agency on the part of immigrants: mastery and change-making. I then bring three books, Elizabeth Becker’s (Mosques in the metropolis: incivility, caste, and contention in Europe. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2021), Nancy Foner’s (One quarter of the nation: immigration and the transformation of America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2022), and Heba Gowayed’s (Refuge: how the state shapes human potential. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2022), into conversation with cultural theory, reflecting on how the theory challenges the books, and also how the books challenge the theory. I conclude with a proposal for a new approach to thinking about processes of incorporation as consisting of emplacement and acceptance. Adopting this approach contributes to cultural theory by eliminating the need for an outgroup in the construction of the social solidarity.

The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. By Hajar Yazdiha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023. 286p. $95.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. - After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle. By Cedric Johnson. New York: Verso Books, 2023. 416p. $34.95 cloth.

The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. By Hajar Yazdiha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023. 286p. $95.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. - After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle. By Cedric Johnson. New York: Verso Books, 2023. 416p. $34.95 cloth.

Multiplex colonial sociology

This article assesses George Steinmetz’s The Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought: French Sociology and the Overseas Empire. Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford, 2023. ISBN 9780691237428 (hbk) xvi + 551. Expertly illuminating the neglected constellation of French colonial sociology, Steinmetz emphatically extends recent reconciliatory moves on the question of decolonizing sociology. With and beyond Bourdieu, taxing issues persist concerning the nature of the perspective being rehabilitated and the one being marshalled in analysis.

Financial Return on Investment: An Analysis of the Top-Ranked Private Universities in the United States

The increasing cost of an undergraduate education in the United States of America has caused alarming degrees of student loan debt with deleterious consequences to the lives of graduates. Although there are myriad considerations when choosing an institution to attend, the avoidance of unmanageable debt should be prioritized. In this regard, institutions of interest should be examined based upon potential earnings in light of the actual cost of attendance. The purpose of this study was to examine the return on investment for an undergraduate education (i.e., the ratio of median annual earnings after attendance to the average annual cost of attendance) between the top-ranked private universities in the United States as per the U.S. News & World Report top-20 rankings for 2024. Annual earnings and cost of attendance data were gathered from the College Scorecard. Findings for 18 private universities reveal major differences between published tuition and fees and the actual cost of attendance (on average, the latter is 32% of the former) with an average return on investment of 6.6; however, there is a wide range of return on investment (2.9–24.4). Findings further reveal that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Princeton University are the top three institutions with respect to both the ROI and U.S. News & World Report rankings

How to Navigate the Pitfalls of AI Hype in Health Care.

In this Medical News article, Arvind Narayanan, PhD, a professor of computer science at Princeton University, discusses the benefits of using artificial intelligence in research and clinical settings while remaining cautious of hype, biases, and data privacy issues.

Alternate Architectural Subjects: An Apple Tree That Lived on Long Island

AbstractExploring how the human became a troublesome concept, Sylvia Lavin, Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University, takes us to Long Island, where a house was rearranged by an unlikely inhabitant – an apple tree. While trees have typically served to reflect and reinforce idealised definitions of the human, the architecture made for this tree shortly after the Second World War suggests instead how interspecies relations were already pointing towards architecture beyond humanity.

Evaluating integrated maternity care policies with causal inference methods and routine-collected observational data

Background: Two integrated maternity care policies implemented in the Netherlands in recent years have been continuously evaluated to create a learning evaluation as part of the implementation process.
 Methods: In this presentation, we will zoom in on the quasi-experimental methods we use for the evaluation of integrated maternity care policies. This evaluation targets involved disciplines, e.g. care providers in the medical and social domain, policy makers and patients. The integrated maternity care organizations were involved in the design of the learning evaluation.
 Difference-in-differences is an often used quasi-experimental design, derived from economic evaluations, and well-suited for policy evaluations.[1] When carefully modelling the treatment and control group, effects of the integrated care policies can be evaluated with difference-in-differences based on observational data.[2] 
 In the Netherlands, we created an anonymized data-infrastructure focused on maternity care and early life. This data-infrastructure contains nation-wide, routine-collected observational data from electronic health records, claims data and background characteristics linked on an individual level. We use this data-infrastructure in the evaluation of integrated maternity care policies with difference-in-differences that controls for unobservable confounding variables, e.g. level of collaboration in maternity care regions.
 We used this data-infrastructure to evaluate bundled payments in maternity care. This policy was implemented in 2017 on an experimental and voluntary basis to enhance integrated care between the different maternity care providers. Difference-in-difference analysis was used to evaluate the effects of bundled payments on child and maternal outcomes and healthcare costs. Furthermore, we evaluated the promising start program that aims to improve the first 1000 days of every child, in particular of vulnerable pregnancies, by increasing collaboration between both the medical and social domain.
 Results: We will describe the process of creating our national-level observational data-infrastructure and its contents. Secondly, we will indicate how similar processes could be initiated in other countries and other areas of healthcare. We will then discuss in more detail how we evaluated the two integrated maternity care policy interventions: bundled payments and the promising start program; and present preliminary results of these evaluations. For example, in the evaluation of bundled payments, we found integrated maternity care organizations (intervention group) reached cost savings compared to organizations without integrated care contracts and bundled payments (control group). We will discuss our findings from these evaluations in more detail as an illustration for other integrated care policy evaluations using observational data. 
 Conclusion: Opportunities and limitations of a nationwide, observational data-infrastructure to evaluate integrated care policies via causal inference methods will be shared and discussed with the audience. Next to this, we will discuss and summarize several lessons learned and challenges that we encountered during the evaluations of integrated care policies. Additionally, we will also touch on the added value and possibilities to integrate qualitative research in interpreting the quantitative data and outcomes based on observational data. 
 [1] Hernán MA. Methods of Public Health Research - Strengthening Causal Inference from Observational Data. N Engl J Med. 2021;385(15):1345-8
 [2] Angrist J, Pischke JS. Princeton University Press; Princeton: 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion.

Preliminaries on an Unknown Greek Translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by Sophronios of Kilis

Abstract This study offers preliminary remarks on a hitherto unknown Greek translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by the Patriarch Sophronios of Kilis. The translation is preserved in a single miscellaneous codex entitled Sarakēnika, which was compiled between 1770 and 1780 by the renowned Phanariot scholar and bibliophile Nikolaos Karatzas, a former official of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (MS Gr. 112, Princeton University Library). As the inclusion of the translation in the codex is representative of the cultural transfers that took place between the Arabic-speaking and the Greek peoples during the 17th- and 18th-century Ottoman Empire, this study examines, in particular, the knowledge regimes for the production of the text. In the Appendix, an editio princeps of the translation is provided.

Christianity's American fate. How religion became more conservative and society more secular. By David A. Hollinger. Pp. xvi + 200. Princeton–Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2022. £25. 978 0 691 23388 8

Christianity's American fate. How religion became more conservative and society more secular. By David A. Hollinger. Pp. xvi + 200. Princeton–Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2022. £25. 978 0 691 23388 8