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How America Grew
… Human existence changed irreversibly after the innovation of indoor plumbing and municipally supplied … moves forward at an engaging pace. Nonetheless, a tension arises when he turns to the present, in the last fifth of the …
Issue: May-June 2016
Purse Strings of the Heart
… Odysseus struggled to resist the Sirens. Adam Smith warned of dangerous passions for … irrational. But to Laibson, credit-card borrowing is no surprise. His behavioral model, which applies "hyperbolic …
Issue: September-October 2001
Emily Dickinson—Dashed
… P rofessional funny person Alexandra Petri ’10, who lightens up the pages of The Washington Post (and occasionally these … is just a standard thing we tell everyone to do with their machines and should not be a problem, Emily! Emily: I shall …
Issue: March-April 2023
The Sorcery of Seedpods
… In his 2001 book The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan declared that the existential dilemma of a plant is its immobility. “It can’t pursue a mate, or a …
Issue: January-February 2014
Yesterday's News
… two freshmen propose inserting a huge crossbar between the two chimneys of the Boston Elevated Railway’s powerhouse, near the … Central Kitchen has installed automatic milk-pouring machines in four House dining halls, the Bulletin’ s …
Issue: January-February 2021
The Mirage of Knowledge
… ignorance and unreason in American public discourse—and then he watched it come to life all around him, in ways … be treated as equally serious. And they rejected professional know-how, he says, with such anger . That shook … is bone-deep in the American character, as much a part of the nation’s origin story as the founders’ Enlightenment …
Issue: March-April 2018
Title IX and the Critique of the Neoliberal University
… The debate around sexual-assault policy, at Harvard and … a more limited role for universities in the private lives of students, and worry, during a moment of national outrage at college sexual violence, that …
The Intoxication of Celebrity
… Nearly a quarter-century has passed since the death of Leonard Bernstein ’39, D.Mus. ’67 , yet his … continue to work their charms. Call it the afterlife of the media age. Bernstein’s epic performances of …
Issue: May-June 2014
Harvard Reflects on the “Meanings of Mandela”
… Standing at the podium in Sanders Theatre yesterday, Nobel laureate and … Soyinka, Litt.D. ’93, recalled learning about the passing of former South African president and anti-apartheid hero … “When I was asked for my reaction, I said, ‘The soul of Africa has departed, and there is nothing miraculous left …
The Financial Cost of Feeling
… In 1890, Harvard psychology professor William James sought to redefine the “self,” which, he wrote in The Principles of Psychology , includes not only our bodies and “psychic …
Issue: November-December 2008
The Long-term-care Puzzle
… thinking about it. But at some point, it touches nearly all of us. Demand for long-term care (LTC) — the medical and personal services people receive when … they're no longer able to care for themselves — is on the rise. Already, 60 to 70 percent of Americans who live to age …
Issue: July-August 2004
What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is
… Man of letters (and movies, and newspapers, and television) … on Francis Avenue in Cambridge. Especially luminous members of the Harvard faculty have houses all around him. Kaplan …
"The Doctor's Song"
… During the past several weeks, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept … Rafael Campo has been writing poems to help make sense of the crisis. Below is a draft of one still in process, but … agreed to share. THE DOCTOR’S SONG The ventilator’s rise and fall. The ambulance’s siren call. The yellow gown’s …
Pillars of the Economy
… Boston-area research universities reported jointly on their collective size, stability, and importance to the metropolitan economy. At a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce briefing on March 11, Harvard, Boston College, … use of academic discoveries and the birth of new enterprises. Engines of Economic Growth also examines the …
Issue: May-June 2003
The Phenomenon of Parenting
… Two new parenting memoirs, Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman, J.D. ’91, and Home Game by Michael Lewis, have been getting lots of press. In the June 29 New Yorker , Jill Lepore offers a fresh take rooted in the American past . The …