On the cover: Sandra Susan Smith. Photograph by Jim Harrison

Letters

Cambridge 02138

"Shoddy," maskupmanship, American exceptionalism

The Basics

President Bacow on the principles by which to steer the University

The Home Front

Balancing past obligations, the pandemic, and the future of Harvard’s core mission

May-June 2021

On the cover: Sandra Susan Smith. Photograph by Jim Harrison

Features

Jobs and Jail

Sandra Susan Smith studies work and incarceration in an unequal, atomized America.

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

al-Hariri

Brief life of a master storyteller

by Michael Cooperson

Straight-Up News

Chris Wallace has “the toughest job of any television journalist.”

by Craig Lambert

Democracy Requests the Pleasure of Your Company

Active citizens are humanists.

by Doris Sommer

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

Power, Petitions, and the People

Petitioning campaigns are a vital complement to democratic voting.

Is There Better Than Better?

Ellen Langer rejects binary thinking, embracing instead a “third way.”

Linking Mental and Fiscal Health

Around the globe, Vikram Patel finds, improvements in financial or mental health support both.

John Harvard's Journal University news

COOP Conversion

Renovation and consolidation at a Harvard Square institution

Education, Reschooled

Harvard Graduate School of Education introduces core courses and a restructured professional curriculum.

Braxton Shelley

A gospel scholar shapes music theory.

Yesterday’s News

Headlines from Harvard’s history

This Spring, Next Fall

The spring semester, coronavirus KO’s in-person Commencement, and fall prospects

“Neither Comfort nor Cover”

A withering investigation of sexual harassment

Climate-Change Changes

Harvard Management Company issues its first “Climate Report,” and an update on divestment advocacy, and other institutions’ progress

News Briefs

Bigger Allston ambitions, an admissions-lawsuit appeal, and a new center for cities

Brevia

Less construction in prospect, quantum science and engineering, and more

Between Harvard and St. Louis

The Undergraduate learns about making knowledge mutual.

The Bottomless Sport

Andrew Rueb’s experience on the professional tennis circuit informs his coaching.

Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more

A Life in Harmonica

Scott Albert Johnson finds his path.

The Tensions That Roiled Texas

Annette Gordon-Reed on the real history of Texas, and Juneteenth

Finding Voices

Marilyn Booth translates Arabic literature for Anglophone readers.

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Not Just “Office Helpers”

From a huge new book on the history of information, an excerpt on the role of secretaries

“Like Driving at Night”

Maggie Shipstead’s time-spanning, globe-circling new novel

Transitions Gradual and Cataclysmic

Andrew Knoll on the planet’s past—and fraught future

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Harvard Squared What to do in Boston, Cambridge and beyond

A Cultural Escape

The renewed community life of a grand Cape Cod estate

Alexander Gassel’s “Painted Poetry”

A blend of Russian Orthodox iconography and mythical motifs

All American

The Worcester Art Museum spotlights baseball garb.

Al Fresco

Boston's Piattini Wine Café 

Where to Gift Your Grad

They've got the mortarboard—now support these worthy brick-and-mortars. 

Almuni Harvardians far and wide

Keeping Them Close

A pediatrician cares for a city’s children.

Vote Now

The Overseer and Harvard Alumni Association director slates