Spring Convocation & MSU Award Winners

About the MSU Spring Awards of Excellence

Each year, Montana State University honors its dedicated advisers, teachers and researchers with annual awards for faculty and staff, recognizing achievements in faculty research, teaching, outreach and creative projects.

In recognition of their award and in gratitude for their work at MSU, the library asked award winners to recommend a book to encourage reading, exploration, creativity, and cross-disciplinary discovery. Recommendations were displayed in Bobcat Browse, a popular reading collection located in the library’s atrium, at the beginning of the spring semester.

Recommended books were given a book plate listing the award winner, their department, college, or office, award name, and year awarded.

2022 Award Winners

MSU Library presents the Excellence in Open Education award to a faculty member who reduces barriers to education by using open information and resources in the classroom. Kyndra Campbell, head of the Writing and Developmental Humanities program at Gallatin College, has won this year’s Award.

Campbell was ahead of the curve and embraced online learning well before COVID-19 shifted the education landscape. She moved some of her course sections online to accommodate changes in student learning and scheduling needs and along the way found that online delivery allowed students to share more in their writing than they do in person.

In addition to offering online delivery, all of Campbell’s Gallatin College writing courses now use open educational resources, or OER. She has made a similar shift in some of the developmental writing courses at MSU, saving students nearly $6,000 in course material costs this semester. These changes are projected to save students $60,000 over a year’s time.

“Kyndra is a strong candidate for this award because she has made the effort to share forward what she learns about online delivery to Gallatin College faculty,” said Sarah Maki, associate dean of Gallatin College. “She regularly conducts training for our faculty and I am certain she would do the same with what she has learned about OER.”

MSU Library offers congratulations to Kyndra and to all the award winners. You can read more about each winner by visiting the Spring Awards of Excellence webpage.

Ryan Anderson, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research/Creativity Mentoring

Jim Becker, Electrical and Computer Engineering
James and Mary Ross Provost’s Award for Excellence

Eric S. Boyd, Microbiology and Cell Biology
Cox Faculty Award for Creative Scholarship and Teaching

Virginia K. Bratton, Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship
President’s Award for Gender Equity

Galen Brokaw, Modern Languages and Literatures
President’s Excellence in Service Learning Award

Kyndra E. Campbell, Gallatin College
Excellence in Open Education Award

Connie Chang, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Vice President for Research’s Award for Meritorious Technology/Service

Kevin Cook, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Academic Advising Award

Jamie Cornish, Academic Technology and Outreach
Excellence in Outreach Award

Ann Ellsworth, Education
Women’s Faculty Caucus Distinguished Mentor Award

Christine Foreman, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Women in Science Distinguished Professor Award

Geraldine Govaerts, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Academic Advising Award

Yuka Hara, Modern Languages and Literatures
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Anna K. Fridley Distinguished Teaching Award

Rob Maher, Electrical and Computer Engineering
President’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Christa Merzdorf, Microbiology and Cell Biology
Excellence in Outreach Award

Patrick Miller, MilTech
Excellence in Innovative Service Award

Raina Plowright, Microbiology and Cell Biology
Charles and Nora Wiley Award for Meritorious Research

John W. Sheppard, Gianforte School of Computing
Provost’s Award for Graduate Research/Creativity Mentoring

Phil Stewart, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Fox Faculty Award for Accomplishments in Teaching, Research/Creative Activity

J. Mitchell Vaterlaus, Health and Human Development
Excellence in Online Teaching Award

Nicole Wanago, Health and Human Development
Provost's Award for Exemplary Service and Fidelity to the Public Land Grant Mission of Montana State University

Stephanie G. Wettstein, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Teaching Innovation Award

Bradley M. Whitaker, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Anna K. Fridley, Distinguished Teaching Award

Jan Zauha, Library
Betty Coffey Award

2022 Award Winner Book Recommendations

Reading Recommendations

The titles found below were recommended by 2022 Spring Awards of Excellence winners.
They are available for checkout through MSU Library.

Recommended By Ryan Anderson
Chemical and Biological Engineering

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: the Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams
ISBN: 9780593359440
Publication Date: 2021-05-04
This beautifully illustrated edition of the New York Times bestselling classic celebrates the 42nd anniversary of the original publication--with all-new art by award-winning illustrator Chris Riddell. SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES * "An astonishing comic writer."--Neil Gaiman Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read It's an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur's best friend has just announced that he's an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover. Douglas Adams's mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .

Recommended by Jim Becker
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN: 9780593318171
Publication Date: 2021-03-02
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a poignant meditation on love and loneliness" (The Associated Press). * A GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick! "What stays with you in 'Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice--a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." --Booker Prize committee Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Recommended by Eric S. Boyd
Microbiology and Cell Biology

Yellowstone National Park by Jeff Henry
ISBN: 9781493059621
Publication Date: 2022-01-03
Published in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 2022, this book collects historic photographs, classic art, and an accompanying narrative that traces the history of the area from its Native American inhabitants to the present. Sidebars will include profiles of the artists such as Thomas Moran who made the park famous, how the "subculture" of park employees has evolved over the years, the role of wildlife biologists in range management, as well as the ebb and flow of its large mammal populations as an increased human presence has put pressure on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Notwithstanding these challenges, the book will be a celebration of the resilience of the place earlier visitors aptly called "Wonderland."

Recommended by Virginia K Bratton
Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship

Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall
ISBN: 9781402736070
Publication Date: 2006-10-15
Grandfather says this: "In life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you...that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes in shadow.” Grandfather says this: "Keep going.” These thought-provoking lessons, passed down by the author’s own Lakota grandfather, will inspire the hundreds of thousands who already know his work--and will tap into the market that has embraced such books as Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s The Invitation. When a young man’s father dies, he turns to his sagacious grandfather for comfort. Together they sit underneath the family’s cottonwood tree, and the grandfather shares his perspective on life, the perseverance it requires, and the pleasure and pain of the journey. Filled with dialogue, stories, and recollections, each section focuses on a portion of the prose poem "Keep Going” and provides commentary on the text. Readers will draw comfort, knowledge, and strength from the Grandfather’s wise words--just as Marshall himself did.

Recommended by Galen Brokaw
Modern Languages and Literatures

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges; Anthony Kerrigan (Editor); Anthony Bonner (Translator)
ISBN: 0802130305
Publication Date: 1994-02-01
The seventeen pieces inFicciones demonstrate the gargantuan powers of imagination, intelligence, and style of one of the greatest writers of this or any other century. Borges sends us on a journey into a compelling, bizarre, and profoundly resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal's abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return. More playful and approachable than the fictions themselves are Borges's Prologues, brief elucidations that offer the uninitiated a passageway into the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy. To enter the worlds in Ficciones is to enter the mind of Jorge Luis Borges, wherein lies Heaven, Hell, and everything in between.

Recommended by Kyndra E. Campbell
Gallatin College

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
ISBN: 9780593329825
Publication Date: 2021-07-06
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE PAPER PALACE IS: "Filled with secrets, love, lies and a summer beach house. What more could you ask?"--Parade "A deeply emotional love story...the unraveling of secrets, lies and a very complex love triangle." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club July '21 Pick) "Nail-biting." --Town & Country "A magnificent page-turner." --Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author "[An] irresistible placement of a complicated family in a bewitching place." --The New York Times A story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades. "This house, this place, knows all my secrets." It is a perfect August morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"--the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

Recommended by Kevin Cook

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray Mcbride by Joe Siple
ISBN: 9781944715366
Publication Date: 2018-05-01
Maxy Awards "Book of the Year" American Fiction Awards: Award Finalist PenCraft Awards: 1st Place in Fiction/Drama Independent Author Network Awards: Finalist in Debut Fiction With all his family and friends gone, one-hundred-year-old Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off wishes one by one. Along the way, Murray remembers what it's like to be young, and Jason fights for the opportunity to grow old. But when tragedy strikes, their worlds are turned upside-down, and an unexpected gift is the only thing that can make Jason's final wish come true.

Recommended by Jamie Cornish

Academic Technology and Outreach

A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis
ISBN: 9780062368348
Publication Date: 2015-09-22
Ruby is a thief-in-training and a keeper of secrets--ones she doesn't even know herself. A Riddle in Ruby is the first book in a witty and fast-paced fantasy-adventure trilogy for fans for Jonathan Stroud, Septimus Heap, and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates. Ruby Teach, daughter of a smuggler and pirate, has been learning how to swindle and steal and pick the most complex locks for as long as she can remember. But a collision with aristocratic young lord Athen sends her spinning into chaos. Little did she know that her whole life has been spent in hiding from nefarious secret societies and the Royal Navy . . . who are both now on her trail. In this debut middle grade adventure, Kent Davis weaves a rip-roaring tale through an alternate colonial Philadelphia. A world where alchemy--that peculiar mix of magic and science--has fueled the industrial revolution. With this highly original setting, a cast of fully rounded characters and rapid-fire, funny dialogue, A Riddle in Ruby will call to mind fantasy greats like Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett.

Recommended by Geraldine Govaerts

Chemical and Biological Engineering

How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett
ISBN: 9780544133310
Publication Date: 2017-03-07
A new theory of how the brain constructs emotions that could revolutionize psychology, health care, law enforcement, and our understanding of the human mind Emotions feel automatic, like uncontrollable reactions to things we think and experience. Scientists have long supported this assumption by claiming that emotions are hardwired in the body or the brain. Today, however, the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology--ans this paradigm shift has far-reaching implications for us all. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose theory of emotion is driving a deeper understanding of the mind and brain, and shedding new light on what it means to be human. Her research overturns the widely held belief that emotions are housed in different parts of the brain and are universally expressed and recognized. Instead, she has shown that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning. This new theory means that you play a much greater role in your emotional life than you ever thought. Its repercussions are already shaking the foundations not only of psychology but also of medicine, the legal system, child-rearing, meditation, and even airport security. Why do emotions feel automatic? Does rational thought really control emotion? How does emotion affect disease? How can you make your children more emotionally intelligent?How Emotions Are Made answers these questions and many more, revealing the latest research and intriguing practical applications of the new science of emotion, mind, and brain.

Recommended by Rob Maher

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars by Eileen M. Collins; Jonathan H. Ward
ISBN: 9781950994052
Publication Date: 2021-10-19
The long-awaited memoir of a trailblazer and role model who is telling her story for the first time. Eileen Collins was an aviation pioneer her entire career, from her crowning achievements as the first woman to command an American space mission as well as the first to pilot the space shuttle to her early years as one of the Air Force's first female pilots. She was in the first class of women to earn pilot's wings at Vance Air Force Base and was their first female instructor pilot. She was only the second woman admitted to the Air Force's elite Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA had such confidence in her skills as a leader and pilot that she was entrusted to command the first shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster, returning the US to spaceflight after a two-year hiatus. Since retiring from the Air Force and NASA, she has served on numerous corporate boards and is an inspirational speaker about space exploration and leadership. Eileen Collins is among the most recognized and admired women in the world, yet this is the first time she has told her story in a book. It is a story not only of achievement and overcoming obstacles but of profound personal transformation. The shy, quiet child of an alcoholic father and struggling single mother, who grew up in modest circumstances and was an unremarkable student, she had few prospects when she graduated from high school, but she changed her life to pursue her secret dream of becoming an astronaut. She shares her leadership and life lessons throughout the book with the aim of inspiring and passing on her legacy to a new generation.

Recommended by Patrick Miller

MilTech

How to Travel the World on $50 a Day by Matt Kepnes
ISBN: 9780399173288
Publication Date: 2015-01-06
With this fully updated edition featuring new chapters on traveling in China, Japan, and India, you will discover how to travel cheaper, longer, and smarter. No Money? No Problem. For nearly a decade, Matt Kepnes (aka Nomadic Matt) has been showing readers of his enormously popular blog that traveling around the globe can be affordable to all. He proves that as long as you think outside of the box, get off the tourist trail, and travel like locals live, your trip doesn't have to break your bank, nor do you have to give up your comforts. How to Travel the World on $50 a Day reveals Nomadic Matt's tips, tricks, and secrets to comfortable budget travel based on his experience traveling the world without giving up the sushi meals and comfortable beds he enjoys. Offering advice ranging from travel hacking to smart banking to finding cheap flights, he'll show you how to- Avoid paying bank fees anywhere in the world Earn thousands of free frequent-flier miles Find discount travel cards that can save on hostels, tours, and cheap transportation Use the Internet for free travel Save money on day-to-day activities in any locale With this fully updated edition featuring new chapters on traveling in China, Japan, and India, you will discover how to travel cheaper, longer, and smarter.

Recommended by Raina Plowright

Microbiology and Cell Biology

Spillover by David Quammen
ISBN: 9780393346619
Publication Date: 2013-09-09
A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerging human diseases, Spillover is "fascinating and terrifying ... a real-life thriller with an outcome that affects us all" (Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction). In 2020, the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon--in which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife--is known as spillover, and it may not be long before it happens again. Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover's devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, and a suburban woodland in New York, and through high-biosecurity laboratories. He interviewed survivors and gathered stories of the dead. He found surprises in the latest research, alarm among public health officials, and deep concern in the eyes of researchers. Spillover delivers the science, the history, the mystery, and the human anguish of disease outbreaks as gripping drama. And it asks questions more urgent now than ever before: From what innocent creature, in what remote landscape, will the Next Big One emerge? Are pandemics independent misfortunes, or linked? Are they merely happening to us, or are we somehow causing them? What can be done? Quammen traces the origins of Ebola, Marburg, SARS, avian influenza, Lyme disease, and other bizarre cases of spillover, including the grim, unexpected story of how AIDS began from a single Cameroonian chimpanzee. The result is more than a clarion work of reportage. It's also the elegantly told tale of a quest, through time and landscape, for a new understanding of how our world works--and how we can survive within it.

Recommended by Dr. John W. Sheppard, FIEEE

Gianforte School of Computing

Great Philosophical Objections to Artificial Intelligence by Robin Zebrowski; Eric Dietrich; Chris Fields; John P. Sullins; Bram Van Heuveln
ISBN: 9781474257114
Publication Date: 2021-01-14
This book surveys and examines the most famous philosophical arguments against building a machine with human-level intelligence. From claims and counter-claims about the ability to implement consciousness, rationality, and meaning, to arguments about cognitive architecture, the book presents a vivid history of the clash between the philosophy and AI. Tellingly, the AI Wars are mostly quiet now. Explaining this crucial fact opens new paths to understanding the current resurgence AI (especially, deep learning AI and robotics), what happens when philosophy meets science, and the role of philosophy in the culture in which it is embedded. Organising the arguments into four core topics - 'Is AI possible', 'Architectures of the Mind', 'Mental Semantics and Mental Symbols' and 'Rationality and Creativity' - this book shows the debate that played out between the philosophers on both sides of the question, and, as well, the debate between philosophers and AI scientists and engineers building AI systems. Up-to-date and forward-looking, the book is packed with fresh insights and supporting material, including: - Accessible introductions to each war, explaining the background behind the main arguments against AI- Each chapter details what happened in the AI wars, the legacy of the attacks, and what new controversies are on the horizon.- Extensive bibliography of key readings

Recommended by Phil Stewart

Chemical and Biological Engineering

The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
ISBN: 0880013346
Publication Date: 1993-11-01
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, a stunningly beautiful collection of poems that encompasses the natural, human, and spiritual realms Bound together by the universal themes of time and mortality and with clarity and sureness of craft, Louise Glück's poetry questions, explores, and finally celebrates the ordeal of being alive.

Recommended by J. Mitchell Vaterlaus

Health and Human Development

The Twenty-Ninth Day by Alex Messenger
ISBN: 9781094091242
Publication Date: 2020-11-10
A six-hundred-mile canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness is a seventeen-year-old's dream adventure, but after he is mauled by a grizzly bear, it's all about staying alive. This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts seventeen-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive. Over the next hours and days, Alex and his companions tend his wounds and use their resilience, ingenuity, and dogged perseverance to reach help at a remote village a thousand miles north of the US-Canadian border. The Twenty-Ninth Day is a coming-of-age story like no other, filled with inspiring subarctic landscapes, thrilling riverine paddling, and a trial by fire of the human spirit.

Recommended by Nicole Wanago

Health and Human Development

The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger
ISBN: 9781324004493
Publication Date: 2021-05-04
An NPR Favorite History Book of 2021 The surprising, often fiercely feminist, always fascinating, yet barely known, history of home economics. The term "home economics" may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and businesspeople. And it has something to teach us today. In the surprising, often fiercely feminist and always fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics, Danielle Dreilinger traces the field's history from Black colleges to Eleanor Roosevelt to Okinawa, from a Betty Crocker brigade to DIY techies. These women--and they were mostly women--became chemists and marketers, studied nutrition, health, and exercise, tested parachutes, created astronaut food, and took bold steps in childhood development and education. Home economics followed the currents of American culture even as it shaped them. Dreilinger brings forward the racism within the movement along with the strides taken by women of color who were influential leaders and innovators. She also looks at the personal lives of home economics' women, as they chose to be single, share lives with other women, or try for egalitarian marriages. This groundbreaking and engaging history restores a denigrated subject to its rightful importance, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.

Recommended by Dr. Stephanie G Wettstein

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
ISBN: 9780345472328
Publication Date: 2007-12-26
The updated edition of the bestselling book that has changed millions of lives with its insights into the growth mindset "Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset--those who believe that abilities are fixed--are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset--those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment. In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love--to transform their lives and your own.

Recommended by Bradley M. Whitaker

Electrical and Computer Engineering

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; Judith John (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9781787557031
Publication Date: 2019-09-13
Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. A complex and profound book, The Tale of Two Citiesexplores the consequences of tyranny, fate and self-sacrifice. With much of the narrative played out in Paris, during the French Revolution Dickens examines the interplay between personal action, and the flow of history. Dr Manette, having travelled to Paris finds himself imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 brutal years, unable to see his kind and loving daughter Lucy. On his eventual return to London the two of them become witnesses in a treason case against Charles Darney who is accused of giving secrets to the French. Lucy finds a way of exonerating him, Darney falls in love with her and by some strange twist of fate he finally reveals the terrible secret that his own uncle was responsible for Manette's years in the Bastille. Manette is shocked but eventually persuaded by Darney's sincerity and true love for this daughter, so he allows them to marry, bringing happiness finally to them all.