In this sequel to his acclaimed double biography, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, Steve Heims recounts another fascinating story in twentieth-century intellectual history - a series of encounters that captured a moment of transformation in the human sciences. Focusing on the Macy Foundation conferences, which were designed to forge connections between wartime science and postwar social science, Heims's richly detailed account explores the dialogues that emerged among a remarkable group that included Wiener, von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Warren McCulloch, Kurt Lewin, Molly Harrower, and Lawrence Kubie. Heims shows how those dialogues shaped ideas in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and psychiatry.

在他广受赞誉的双联传记《约翰-冯-诺伊曼和诺伯特-维纳》的续篇中，史蒂夫-海姆斯讲述了20世纪知识史上另一个引人入胜的故事--一系列捕捉人类科学变革时刻的相遇。海姆斯以梅西基金会会议为重点，这些会议旨在建立战时科学与战后社会科学之间的联系，他以丰富的叙述方式探讨了在包括维纳、冯-诺伊曼、玛格丽特-米德、格雷戈里-贝特森、沃伦-麦库洛赫、库尔特-卢因、莫利-哈罗尔和劳伦斯-库比在内的一个杰出群体之间出现的对话。海姆斯展示了这些对话如何影响了心理学、社会学、人类学和精神病学的思想。