The Internet had an unprecedented role in the 2008 Presidential election and rewrote the rules of grassroots campaigning. On Feb. 6, 2009, Sidney Verba, the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University and Fellow of the American Academy, visited the Academy to discuss political equality in America and the many ways the Internet contributed to the campaign and 2008 election.
Verba is a leading authority on American and comparative politics, particularly on political participation by different social groups. He is coauthor of The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, with the late Gabriel Almond. His most recent work is Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (with Kay Schlozman and Henry Brady).
Verba has also served Director of the University Library. As Harvard's Librarian for more than 20 years – a tenure longer than anyone else in Harvard’s history – he led the library through a period of unprecedented change, overseeing the effort to digitize its massive collection.