"Born in Cambridge is both a history book and a story of contemporary events. It provides several dozen vignettes of innovative people who did formative work in Cambridge, such as African American social critic and early Civil Rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois and television chef Julia Child. It also describes inventions made here, such as the sewing machine, the instant camera and modern radar. The stories are broken down into eight chapters, focused on: literature, social reform, 19th century science, industrial development, war-time innovations, digital advances, pop culture and 21st century biology. A final chapter sums up the lessons of four centuries of innovation and reinvention, explaining why Cambridge has managed to thrive, despite deindustrialization and other challenges"--