Richard Nelson Frye devoted his life to Persian history and asked to be buried in Isfahan, but Iran’s hard-liners refused. As Iran and the United States fight a widening war, his story offers a parable of a relationship surrendered to hard-liners.
Harvard University
Posted inIn Memoriam
A Liberal Without the Elitism: Robert Coles, RIP
I studied with the late Harvard professor who had a nuanced understanding of class and race in America.
Posted inPolitics
Social Capital: Which U.S. Regions Are Bowling Alone?
You’ve probably heard of Bowling Alone, the hugely influential 2000 book diagnosing our country’s malaise by Robert Putnam, the Harvard University political scientist. In it, Putnam showed that Americans’ stock of social capital—the fabric of a community’s trust and cooperation—had been plummeting since the 1950s, and that its decline was harming our well-being, personal relationships, […]
Posted inMagazine
How Trump Learned to Stop Worrying and Love DEI
The administration that vowed to end identity politics has simply changed the beneficiary list.
Posted inHigher Education
The United States of America v. Higher Education
Harvard’s lawsuit fighting the Trump administration’s freeze on its research grants is one that every higher education institution should join. Here’s why.
Posted inHigher Education
Reports of Western Civilization’s Death at Harvard Are Greatly Exaggerated
The real crisis is the collapse of undergraduate interest in the humanities.
Posted inHigher Education
Academic Freedom: How Universities Lost Their Way
A canceled issue of a Harvard scholarly journal illustrates the dangers of the Trump era.
Posted inHigher Education
A Harvard Champion of Affirmative Action Accepts Reality
As the university’s longtime president, Derek Bok fought for racial preferences. Now, the nonagenarian icon of the educational establishment not only bows to the monumental Supreme Court ruling against Harvard but also has wise ideas for making campuses truly diverse.
Posted inBooks
The Bleak, All But-Forgotten World of Segregated Virginia
Former Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust’s extraordinary memoir recalls painful memories for her–and me.
Posted inMagazine
Affirmative Action for Lax Bros
A closer look at the Harvard admissions case now before the Supreme Court shows that it’s whites who benefit most from discrimination against Asians.
