January-February 2005

THE CENTER OF THE WORLD The Middle East and western Asia are again, as ever, at the center of the world: the birthplace of recorded history…

For generations now, critics as well as poets have debated what relationship, if any, poetry has to rational thought. The majority view is that…

Once so degraded that residents avoided touching the brackish water, the 106-acre Wilson Bay in Jacksonville on the North Carolina coast now…

Outgoing North Carolina senator John Edwards wasn’t the first person to notice the Second America, which he described in a primary campaign…

For generations now, critics as well as poets have debated what relationship, if any, poetry has to rational thought. The majority view is that…

All cattle will build a social order within the herd. While the rank of a dairy cow is based almost entirely on its mass, Aberdeen-Angus beef…

Bury the Chains: Prophets, Slaves, and Rebels in the First Human Rights Crusade, by Adam Hochschild ’63 (Houghton Mifflin, $26.95). A printer, a…

Dorothy Richardson reports that in William Dunlap’s 1828 farce A Trip to Niagara, the character Job Jerryson (a black waiter who claims to…

From photographer Berenice Abbott to labor activist Elaine Black Yoneda, from Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross (born in 1876) to Tejana…

A full slate of events can be found throughout the University this season, ranging from South African plays, Japanese calligraphy, and Viennese…

It is strangely joyful to walk down the narrow, Colonial-era streets of Charlestown, lit by vintage-style gas lamps, and through the doors of…

Christoph H. Schmidt ’55 and his wife, Babette, initially retired to their summer home in Cushing, Maine, but after several years, they moved…

Ragtop down, a spectacular view of San Francisco Bay and the city below suddenly opens up for two seconds as we tear around another bend…

When headed abroad on a story, Mark Danner, who knows French and Spanish, prepares very thoroughly beforehand by learning about the local…

Five thousand years ago in the Mesopotamian marshes, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq, the Sumerians began history. They…

Physical anthropologist Henry Field led an expedition to southern Iraq in 1934 for an anthropometric study of the Marsh Arabs, or Ma’dan…

"It’s a mistake to blame Islam, a religion 14 centuries old, for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam, a totalitarian…

Adapted from an article by Pipes that ran in the Jerusalem Post on November 26, 2003If militant Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the…

No study of Daniel Pipes would be complete without a few words about the trenchant Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near…

By today’s standards, Harvard College before the Civil War was a provincial academy, competent (judged Henry Adams) at preparing students to…

Nanoscientists manipulate objects and forces at a scale one-millionth the size of the period at the end of this sentence. At that size, matter…

Harvard’s 35-3 demolition of Yale at the Stadium on November 20 was the crowning moment in a football season of peak performances: a perfect…

After a year of consulting with fellow faculty members, the steering committee of the newly named Harvard Initiative for Global Health (HIGH…

Thirty-two photographs hang on the curving wall along the spiral staircase that connects the economics department offices in Littauer Center…

Harvard’s Capitol Hill alumni (defined for this exercise as graduates of or matriculants in a degree program) will drop from 42 members in the…

"The single most beautiful and pristine moment of my three years at Harvard Law School (or possibly my entire life) occurred on that frozen…

Hanna Holborn GrayNannerl O. KeohaneCourtesy of Hanna Holborn GrayCourtesy of Duke UniversityCorporation member Hanna Holborn Gray, Ph.D. ’57…

The new academic structure created by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in the summer of 2003 has yielded its twin first fruits. The…

Further progress toward moderating the rate of expense growth, and stable revenue growth, yielded "reasonably good results" for…

Endowment income distributed for operations makes up the largest share of Harvard’s revenue: 31 percent in the fiscal year ended June 30…

Many of Harvard’s leading humanities scholars convened on October 22 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Humanities Center—and to…

The editors take great pleasure in recognizing three contributors to Harvard Magazine during the past year, awarding each $1,000 for their…

1915 Undergraduate protests against beer at class banquets prompt Bulletin editors to note that "the increase of abstinence and temperance…

In the fall of 2003, dean of Harvard College Benedict H. Gross—once an undergraduate here himself—paused in his work as a…

Biomedical PioneersGeorge Q. DaleyJustin Ide / Harvard News OfficeXiaoliang Sunney XieCourtesy Xiaoliang Sunney XieThe National Institutes of…

Routing Penn and Yale in the pivotal games of a history-making season, the football team finished 10-0, won the Ivy League championship, and…

Field HockeyThe stickwomen (11-7, 6-1 Ivy) won a share (with Penn) of their first Ivy title since 1991. The Crimson’s 3-1 victory over the…

I think the enormity of my decision hit me when the plane flew out of Sydney airport and I watched the famous Opera House, its distinctive half…

A central purpose of Harvard University is to do what we can to ensure that everyone in America has a chance. Such a concept could be considered…

Edward Conlon ’87 cruises the streets of the South Bronx in an unmarked car looking out for Angel, an 18-year-old drug dealer suspected in the…

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has events lined up in Cambridge, Los Angeles, and Mexico this winter.On January 22, alumni will gather in…

Due to errors at the HAA, the entry about HAA Award winner Dan Huntington Fenn Jr. ’44, A.M. ’72, in the November-December issue contained…

Harvard clubs host gatherings all around the country. On January 21, for example, the Harvard Club of Cape Cod presents Menzel research…

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by."The senior thesis, a big chunk of original work, is the culmination…

Photograph courtesy of Harvard University Art Museums © President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeJust as a pair of Mandarin ducks, a symbol…