Ralph W. Conant

Since 1980, he has served as a member of the Maine State Board of Education (1984–89), as special assistant to the president at Mercy College (1987–89), a Senior Fellow at the Phelps-Stokes Fund in Washington, DC.

Ralph Conant is author of books, monographs, and articles (listed below) on social policy, metropolitan governance, regional planning, and conflict resolution.

Forthcoming books are: The Future of Poverty in American Cities, with Daniel J. Myers; Revolution and the Search for World Peace, with Guillermo Owen, to be published by Chandler & Sharp in 2009.

His previous books include: The Public Library and the City, MIT, 1965; The State’s Biggest Business: Local and Regional Problems, Policy Papers for the Connecticut Commission to Study the Necessity and Feasibility of Metropolitan Government, 1967; The Politics of Community Health, Public Affairs Press, 1968; Problems of Research in Community Violence, with Molly Apple Levin, Praeger, 1969; The Prospects for Revolution, Harper & Row, 1971; The Metropolitan Library, MIT, 1972; Urban Perspectives: Politics and Policies, with Alan Shank, Holbrook Press, 1975; The Conant Report: A Study of the Education of Librarians, MIT, 1980; Private Means Public Ends: Private Business in Social Service Delivery, with Barry J. Carroll and Thomas A. Easton, Praeger, 1987.

His other writings include: Monographs: The Politics of Regional Planning, the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce Town Meeting for Tomorrow, 1965; Bibliography of Social Scientific Studies of the Fluoridation Controversy, Journal of Oral Therapeutics and Pharmacology, November 1966; The Nature of Civil Protest, the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence, Brandeis University, 1969; Public School Finance: Toward a More Level Playing Field for Our Youth, Phelps-Stokes Fund 1993.

Unpublished MSS: The Politics of Metropolitan Consolidation in a Michigan Area, doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1960; Metropolitan Problems and Politics: A Seminar, (edited papers), The University of Denver, 1962; An Evaluation of Fair Housing, Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts, 1966; The Political Aspects of Health Planning in Berkshire County (MA): A Report to the Berkshire County Health Planning Association, 1969; The Professional, Business, and Economic Service Needs of the Residents of the Suburban Library System, Chicago, 1973.