Books & Literary Life
Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.
Open Book: A New Nuclear Age
Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy’s latest book looks at the rising danger of a new arms race.
Recent books with Harvard connections
Recent books with Harvard connections
Secretaries’ role in history of information
From a huge new book on the history of information, an excerpt on the role of secretaries
Novelist Maggie Shipstead and “Great Circle”
Maggie Shipstead’s time-spanning, globe-circling new novel
by Dan Kelly
Andrew Knoll, “A Brief History of Earth,” reviewed by Jonathan Shaw
Andrew Knoll on the planet’s past—and fraught future
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
al-Hariri, a master storyteller
Brief life of a master storyteller
An intellectual history of the Cold War era
In a new book, Louis Menand probes the cultural currents of postwar America.
An innovative gate for Harvard Yard
At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard
by Jacob Sweet
A monumental book reveals a monumental work of art
Nicholas Callaway publishes the Sistine Chapel in closeup.
Excerpt from “Shoddy,” by Hanna Rose Shell
“From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags”—a surprising account of scrap