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Three book covers displayed on a light background, featuring titles and authors.

Must-Read Harvard Books Winter 2025

From aphorisms to art heists to democracy’s necessary conditions 

by Gabriella Gage

British soldiers and local police searching homes to interrogate subjects during Mau May rebellion, c. 1954

Realities of Empire

A new history indicts the British imperium.

Illustration depicting social fissures during pandemic by tearing of the U.S. Constitution

The Broken Social Contract

Danielle Allen on America’s broken social contract

Bradley Scott Davis standing in front of a wall of frog paintings

A Wildlife Painter's Fantastic Beasts

Bradley Scott Davis's conservation-minded artwork

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photograph of the Lincoln Memorial

Open Book

Michael Ignatieff on Abraham Lincoln on solace

Woodblock print based on The Tale of Genji

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Mike Schur on the set of The Good Place

Mike Schur on the Good Life

A humorous guide to ethics and philosophy, from the sitcom creator

by Stuart Miller

Phillip Golub playing piano

Experimental Magic

Jazz composer Phillip Golub and the art of making magic

by Nancy Walecki

Photograph from staging of Eurydice, opera by Matthew Aucoin

Music and Language, Reconciled

Matthew Aucoin on opera

by Thomas Forrest Kelly

Celia Pym at work with a needle and thread

Damage and Repair

Textile artist Celia Pym knits meaning into mended clothes.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photo of anti-vaccination protest, Los Angeles, October 12, 2021

Thinking Straight

Steven Pinker on rationality