
On the cover: Yestock/iStock images
Letters from our readers
Authoritarianism, labor law, climate change, and more
The View from Mass Hall
President Bacow on encountering—and coming to terms with—COVID-19
On faculties and longer-range planning for Harvard
Faculty governance and long-range intellectual planning for Harvard
May-June 2020

On the cover: Yestock/iStock images
Walter Johnson writes about “The Broken Heart of America”
Walter Johnson’s radical history of St. Louis
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Brief life of a breakthrough astronomer: 1900-1979
Ways to cope with the federal debt
The politics, policymaking, and public consequences of mounting government debt—and how to cope with it
David Cutler on trimming U.S. healthcare costs
Administrative costs, greed, overutilization—can these drivers of U.S. medical costs be curbed?
RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas
Butterfly wing secrets revealed in infrared
A study reveals new dimensions to their function and beauty.
Stem cell activity linked to lifestyle
Exercise attenuates stem cell production of pro-inflammatory white blood cells.
What rights do children have in homeschooling?
Elizabeth Bartholet highlights risks when parents have 24/7 authoritarian control over their children.
Frontiers
Activity tracking to identify the at-risk elderly, and China’s offshore windfarm potential
John Harvard's Journal University news
Harvard faces coronavirus impact
The sudden dispersal from Cambridge and Boston, Commencement postponed, and the looming financial consequences
Susan Murphy
Portrait of a hockey-playing statistician—from Louisiana
Harvard rethinks online education strategy
A push to emphasize learning rather than teaching
Headlines from Harvard’s history
Headlines from Harvard’s history
Harvard Widener Library Overlooked Designer
Widener Library’s overlooked designer
Baron and Gates at Commencement, a lawsuit renewed,
Baron and Gates planned at Commencement, new Corporation member, a lawsuit renewed, and more
Divestment developments at Harvard
Developments at Harvard, Brown’s changed investments, and Yale’s engagement with companies in its portfolio
The Undergraduate on power and the denial of scholarship
A student scientist contemplates power and the denial of scholarship.
Harvard athletic season canceled
A necessary but brutal blow
Harvard fencing squad update
How Harvard fencers won an Ivy championship
Harvard basketball season wrap-up
Injuries—and the coronavirus—lead to disappointing basketball seasons.
Montage Books, creative arts, performance, and more
John Alexander follows the ups and downs of funk musician Rudy Love.
John Alexander follows the ups and downs of funk musician Rudy Love.
Rebecca Henderson, “Reimagining Capitalism” to save the planet
The Business School’s Rebecca Henderson reimagines capitalism to save the planet.
Recent books with Harvard connections
Recent books with Harvard connections
Novelist Paul Yoon and “Run Me to Earth”
Novelist Paul Yoon explores Laos’s forgotten war.
Artistic director Joshua McTaggart and the redesigned Chelsea Theatre
Joshua McTaggart leads London’s Chelsea Theatre into a new era.
“The Equivalents,” by Maggie Doherty, reviewed by Susan Ware
From “women’s confinement” to “women’s liberation” at the Radcliffe Institute
A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words
A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words
“Tightrope,” by Kristof and WuDunn, reviewed by Allison Pugh
Americans diminished by “social poverty”
Harvard SquaredWhat to do in Boston, Cambridge, and beyond
Blackstone River Valley sights and activities
Tracing America’s industrial roots in the Blackstone River Valley
Museum of Work & Culture
Woonsocket’s historic French-Canadian community
American Gold Rush, Peabody Essex Museum
“Gold Rush: Daguerreotypes of Early California,” at the Peabody Essex Museum
Harvard’s Virtual Commencement
Harvard’s 369th Commencement goes virtual.
Boston and Cambridge celebratory restaurants
Where to (eventually, again) feast with friends and family in Greater Boston
Saluting and supporting Harvard Square businesses, old and new
Looking ahead to a reopened Harvard Square
Almuni Harvardians far and wide
The Early Bird
A quest to chronicle New York City’s avian community
Overseer and HAA Director Elections
The official 2020 slates

The College Pump
Houseboating in Boston Harbor, Apthorp North, and clothing counts