Letters
Cambridge 02138
ARGUING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE Joan Wickersham’s exploration of “Bricks and Politics” (September-October, page 50) evokes a famous...
November-December 2007
Features
Two Women, Two Histories
As the second world war drew to a close, two women thought about applying to Harvard Law School. The first was an African-American native of...
Dazzlers
The English essayist and critic William Hazlitt gazed on the white marble sculptures of antiquity and thought them cold. “[T]he finest...
The Horror and the Beauty
A glaring anomaly stares out from the curriculum vitae of Maria Tatar, whose 10 scholarly books and scores of articles otherwise display a...
William Brewster
William Brewster was too frail, his eyesight too poor, said his parents and doctors, for him to attend Harvard. Instead, early each morning, he...
The Undiscovered Planet
All images courtesy of Roberto Kolter, unless otherwise noted Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton—these are familiar names. During a...
RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas
Nixing the News
If those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it—as philosopher George Santayana, A.B. 1886, once wrote—and if news...
The "Sellout"
In the hazardous waters of American race politics, a particular danger shadows the successful black American who achieves status and acclaim in...
Googling Google
Google, which earned $1.1 billion in operating income in the second quarter of 2007 alone, is now the single most important company on the...
John Harvard's Journal University news
Twenty-eighth, and First
Honored historian, seasoned scholar steeped in universities’ distinctive role, adept academic administrator—Drew Gilpin Faust...
"Knitt Together...As One"
I stand honored by your trust, inspired by your charge. I am grateful to the Governing Boards for their confidence, and I thank all of you for...
The Endowment: Up, and Upheaval
A strong year for investors generally was a very strong year for the University. Harvard Management Company (HMC), concluding its first full...
An Unexpected Risk Factor
One risk to continued strong endowment performance not addressed in Mohamed A. El-Erian’s annual letter was the uncertainty arising from...
Janet Browne
Photograph by Harrison Janet Browne When Darwin biographer Janet Browne emigrated from University College London a year ago to become Aramont...
Green Gauge
The ever-useful Harvard University Fact Book (published annually by the Office of Budgets, Financial Planning, and Institutional Research, and...
Think Tank for Aid Workers
After Michael J. VanRooyen finished his residency in emergency medicine in 1991, he went to Somalia. Eager to see how his medical training would...
Counting the War Dead
How lethal are modern methods of warfare? Political scientists affiliated with the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO)—the...
A New Dean Designs without Borders
Expect bold ideas from Mohsen Mostafavi when he begins his term as dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD). On a late September visit to...
Getting and Spending
The University’s annual financial accounting—usually a forbidding and retrospective document—this year sports a new look and...
Yesterday's News
1912 The Associated Harvard Clubs have established scholarships for freshmen from southern and western states to ensure greater diversity within...
Faculty Well-Being: A Status Report
For the first time, Harvard has asked its faculty members how happy they are. A survey conducted last November by the two-year-old Office of...
Gender and Minority Metrics
The report from the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity published this summer also contains the third annual accounting of gender and...
"First Day of School" for Engineering
With speeches and feasting, Harvard celebrated the launch of its new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) on September 20. During a...
Directing Development
Tamara Elliott Rogers ’74 has been appointed the University’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, President Drew...
Venturing into China
The Harvard China Fund, established in 2006 to strengthen the University’s academic connections with the People’s Republic, has made...
Anniversary Announcements
No one knows when John Harvard was born, but a record book from Southwark Cathedral in London announces his baptism there on November 29, 1607...
Brevia
2+2 = M.B.A. Harvard Business School (HBS) has launched a deferred-admissions program for future M.B.A. candidates, aiming to attract...
Concentration Complications
Of all the difficult decisions one confronts as an undergraduate, the selection of concentration is perhaps the hardest. Fortunately, it is also...
Lights! Camera! Action!
It’s now 104 years old, but after a three-stage, $5-million makeover, Harvard Stadium may be one of the nation’s best-equipped...
Polo Renaissance
Yes, there was one gleaming black Bentley (but only one) parked on the greensward at Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. True...
Soccer Summary
Men’s Soccer The Crimson (7-1-1), ranked sixth nationally in one September poll, started strongly and tied the defending national...
Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more
The Actor Explores
In Moscow there are 200 theaters, and the drama students from Cambridge who study there can see plays every night in the company of impassioned...
Off the Shelf
I’ll Drink to That: Beaujolais and the French Peasant Who Made It the World’s Most Popular Wine, by Rudolph Chelminski ’56...
Chapter & Verse
Editor’s note: “If anything can go wrong, it will,” officially identified as “Murphy’s Law” in our copy of...
A Poet's Warning
In June 1946, Harvard celebrated its long-awaited Victory Commencement. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, alumni and...
The Presidents We Pick
James MacGregor Burns, Ph.D. ’47, Woodrow Wilson professor of government emeritus at Williams College, a distinguished scholar, gifted...
Unnerved by the Urge to Win
Paul Hoffman ’78 was a child chess prodigy and now, after a 25-year break from tournament chess, he has started playing again. He has...
Almuni Harvardians far and wide
The Socially Acceptable Bohemian
Tickets are a stiff $40 apiece, but the Sit ’n’ Bull Pub in Maynard, Massachusetts, is full. Folksinger Tom Rush ’63 stands...
Job Notices
Several college programs match students with paid and unpaid jobs and internships. To find out more about how alumni can provide these learning...
Well Done
The Harvard Alumni Association Awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to Harvard University through alumni...
Couch Agent
Daniel Hoffer ’99 is no stranger to start-ups. A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” he spent a great deal of time creating...
