In this video, beloved @harvard professor Harvey Mansfield describes the philosophical framework underpinning his new book, The Rise and Fall of Rational Control.
The book is a survey and summary of the legendary course he taught at Harvard for fifty years—to star students who have defined our politics and discourse ever since.
Mansfield locates the birth of modern political philosophy in the work of Niccolò Machiavelli, the first to assert that the objective of politics is not to achieve wishful ideals of justice or virtue—as the ancients had it—but to manipulate the brute facts of the world in service of interests.
This concept, which he calls “rational control,” has been challenged and disregarded over the centuries, stranding us now in the murky, subjective waters of postmodernism.
Mansfield asks: Where do we go from here?
Out now. To keep reading, tap the link in our bio. 📚🔗
Despicable. Dangerous. And darkly-alluring.
The true story of French aristocrat, cowboy, and international scoundrel Marquis de Morès:
The first political leader to master the blend of racialized hatred, cross-class solidarity, and paramilitary violence Benito Mussolini would call “fascism.”
A key figure behind the Dreyfus affair, he took France by storm with his media savvy and violent stunts.
“A parasite in every community where he has lived” according to the @chicagotribune , his legacy is both unbelievable and necessary to believe.
Out now. Learn more at the link in bio.
From 1921 to 1944, approximately one million ethnic Mexicans living in the United States were removed across the border to Mexico.
What officials called “repatriation” was in fact banishment—
According to historian Marla A. Ramírez.
60% of those expelled were US citizens, mainly working-class women and children whose husbands and fathers were Mexican immigrants.
In her new book, Banished Citizens, Ramírez describes how these removals served political interests on both sides of the border.
Drawing on oral histories, transnational archival sources, and private collections, Ramírez unveils the lasting effects of coerced mass removal.
To learn more, tap the link in our bio.
Despite publicly opposing slavery for four decades, Thomas Jefferson made no effort to facilitate or realize Black freedom.
At home, he enslaved more than 600 people, including Sally Hemings and the four children he fathered with her.
Near the end of his life, he made his most famous statement about American slavery: “We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.”
Far from egalitarian, historians Christa Dierksheide and Nicholas Guyatt argue in Jefferson's Wolf that the key to understanding the Founding Father's antislavery position is his commitment to racial exclusion.
In other words, to avert racial violence, Jefferson believed the gradual abolition of slavery necessitated Black exile.
Keep reading at the link in bio.
What exactly is manipulation?
What sets it apart from attracting, convincing, or nudging?
Drawing on examples from mythology, literature, history, and politics, in Captive Minds: A Study of Manipulation, leading philosophers and political thinkers Avishai Margalit and Assaf Sharon argue manipulation is not just a form of deceit and intellectual harm—
It is, above all, an exercise of power.
Out now.
Keep reading at the link in bio.
Harvard University Press mourns J. Craig Venter (1946–2026), the intrepid scientist who decoded the human genome.
His book, The Voyage of Sorcerer II—written with award-winning science journalist David Ewing Duncan—details Venter's journeys sailing around the world, collecting millions of marine samples that would revolutionize our understanding of microbial science.
Keep reading at the link in our bio.
We also encourage you to read @nytimes 's touching obituary.
@newsweek magazine dubbed 1984 “the Year of the Yuppie”—the young, upwardly mobile urban professional.
You may recognize the archetype from movies like American Psycho and Wall Street, but how did yuppies happen? What have they left us? Who are their contemporaries?
In today’s @nytimes , Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies, answers these questions and more—it’s linked in our story now.
Discover his book at the link in our bio. Out May 12.
As for us? We have to return some video tapes.
📼
Mary Oliver’s ‘A Poetry Handbook’ (Ecco, 1994) and Helen Vendler’s ‘Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries’ (from the Belknap Press imprint of @harvardpress , 2010) are two classic introductions to writing and reading poetry.
If you have any favorite books that inspire a love of poetry, let us know! Visit the International Poetry Forum’s website (link in bio) for more resources for the study and appreciation of poetry.
#poetryanalysis #poetrybooks #books #harvard #emilydickinson
Spring in our step ✔️
Trees freshly in flower ✔️
New titles on our shelves ✔️
Our big spring books are here, and they're just as compelling as they look.
Swipe for a sneak peek, keep learning at the link in our bio... and, for a limited time, save 25% with the code NEW25. 💐📚
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
Giveaway alert!
We’ve teamed up with @emilydickinson.museum to offer a special bundle to one lucky winner. Here’s what’s inside: 🧺
- The Letters of Emily Dickinson
- A beautiful set of Dickinson-themed notebooks
- Emily Dickinson’s Poems (As She Preserved Them)
- A limited-edition set of Mabel Loomis Todd postcards
- The Poems of Emily Dickinson
🪶
To enter, tap the corresponding link in @harvardpress ’s bio.
Winner will be announced on Harvard University Press’s Instagram story May 20.
P.S. The font featured in this video (“wren scratch”) was created by @_milabarry , and modeled after Emily’s handwriting (as preserved in the @houghtonlibrary archives).
“A thriving, vibrant city built on inequality, a democracy at the hub of a tyrannical empire, a beacon of enlightenment riddled with superstition.”
We spoke with writer and director David Stuttard about his new book, Hubris: Pericles, the Parthenon, and the Invention of Athens, to learn about Ancient Greece—in all its glory and paradox.
Swipe for a preview, and enjoy the full conversation at the link in our bio.
The starry heavens above me, the moral law within me… and a great book before me. Happy birthday, Immanuel Kant! ✨
One of the most important philosophers of the modern era, Kant’s intellectual legacy has influenced everything from the German Constitution to the @unitednations charter.
Today, we celebrate his birthday with Marcus Willaschek’s Kant: A Revolution in Thinking. 🪶
Suitable for pros and newcomers alike, this book tours readers through Kant’s life and ideas—beginning with his political arguments and moral theory, and expanding into more abstract considerations of science, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Keep learning at the link in bio. 🔗
“An expert and engaging new introduction.” — @newyorkermag
