Books & Literary Life
Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.
Author and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams finds beauty in the world around us.
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
The Racial Tensions That Roiled Texas
Annette Gordon-Reed on the real history of Texas, and Juneteenth
Arabic translator Marilyn Booth
Marilyn Booth translates Arabic literature for Anglophone readers.
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
Excerpt from “The WEIRDEST People in the World,” by Joseph Henrich
Reinterpreting the distinctive psychology of the human West