Verba was educated at Harvard College and Princeton University, and served on the faculty of Princeton, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago, before returning to Harvard, where he would spend the rest of his career.[3] As he gave notice of his intention to retire in 2006, Verba observed: "Academics are the only people I can think of for whom this sentence makes sense: 'I'm hoping to get some time off so that I can get some work done.'"[4]
Early life and education
Verba grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where his family ran a "small mom-and-pop dry goods store and always worried about money."[5] After high school he attended Harvard College, where he earned a degree in History and Literature. He began graduate school in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, intending to join the foreign service, but transferred to Princeton's politics department and earned a Ph.D.
Early career
After graduate school Verba stayed at Princeton as a research assistant and then assistant and associate professor. In 1964, Verba moved to Stanford University, where he was a full professor for four years, and the University of Chicago for another four years.[6]
Verba was ultimately responsible for Harvard's participation in the Google Books Library Project,[17] which involves a series of agreements between Google and major international libraries through which a collection of its public domain books will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online.[18] Verba's role encompassed developing digitization protocols, addressing logistical and operations issues, and administering the project. The more difficult part of his job required moderating the institutional debate about anticipated consequences inherent in conventional content-vs.-collection strategies; and sometimes he took on the role of public spokesman.[19]
Sidney Verba Endowment Fund
Friends and colleagues of Sidney Verba established a $2.5 million endowment fund in his honor. The Fund benefits the Harvard University Library, which provides University-wide services, including digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation. Under the terms creating the fund, Verba himself was given the freedom to designate the purpose of the new endowment.[20]
Political Scientist
The central focus of Verba's work as a political scientist can be summed up in one word -- "participation." Expanding the subject somewhat, that topic might be elaborated to "the issues of political participation by different groups." The great framing question of his work has been, "Whose voice is heard by the government?" Verba himself argued that issues having to do political participation have become central in America's political discourse today;[4] but he attributes his initial interest in the subject to the prescient encouragement of his mentor, Professor Gabriel Almond at Princeton University.[4] Verba earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1959;[21] and in 1963, he was named as a co-author with Almond in The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. It popularized the idea of a political culture– a concept that includes national character and how people choose to govern themselves– as a fundamental aspect of society. Sidney Verba built on the theory of civic culture that was developed in this book with many of his students and collaborators, including Kay Lehman Schlozman and Henry E. Brady, over the following half century.
12345Walker, Ruth. "Sidney Verba to retire; Appointed in 1984, Verba changed the face of the University Library,"Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback MachineHarvard Gazette. September 21, 2006.
↑Verba, Sidney (2011). "A Life in Political Science". Annual Review of Political Science. 14: i–xv. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-082409-094200. S2CID145201298. Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
↑Verba, Sidney. "Curriculum Vitae"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on March 15, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
↑"Harvard announces coordinated academic calendar."Harvard Gazette. January 15, 2008.
↑Bok, Derek. "Letter to the Harvard community about Sidney Verba's retirement (2006).
↑"Library Visiting Committee Announces $2.5 Million Endowment Fund to Honor Sidney Verba; the new Sidney Verba Library Fund will benefit programs of the Harvard University Library," HUL news archive (2007).