Samaritans and Charlatans
Two views on how to make good.
Briefly Noted
May|Jun 2021
Swipeout
Dating lessons from the pandemic.
Her Architect
Harriet Pattison GLA’67 looks back at herself and Lou Kahn.
His Architect
Effort under way to reprint a 1962 collection of Kahn art.
The Discard Pile
Sourdough secrets from Hannah Dela Cruz C’12.
Parties of One
Q&A on Noreena Hertz WG’91’s The Lonely Century.
The Humanist Is In
In a new book, Jason Karlawish GM’99, codirector of the Penn Memory Center, unravels the tapestry of Alzheimer’s science and history, and outlines the medical, social, and ethical challenges that lie ahead.
Black Education Before Brown
Andrew Feiler W’84 documents the Rosenwald schools, which educated hundreds of thousands of African Americans in the Jim Crow South.
No Permanent Conflict?
Tracing America and Iran’s 300-year history.
Briefly Noted
Mar|Apr 2021
After the Storm
In the pandemic, pondering its impact.
Briefly Noted
Jan|Feb 2021
Briefly Noted
Nov|Dec 2020
Clique Bait
Jessica Goodman C’12 on her YA debut, They Wish They Were Us.
Press Forward
Big changes at the Penn Press.
Briefly Noted
Sep|Oct 2020
Identity, Revised
“Recreational” DNA tests can have profound impacts.
Drawing Blood
Absorbing and episodic tale of an imperfect heroine.
Illness as Metaphor
An imaginative—and macabre—medical story.
Briefly Noted
Jul|Aug 2020
Courage Through History
From storms to serial killers to shipwrecks, bestselling author Erik Larson has made his name writing about frightening moments in history. When a new one came in the form of a global pandemic, readers found unlikely comfort in his latest book—a story of leadership, perseverance, and hope in the bleakest of times 80 years ago.
Impatient Hope
“Anything was possible, because no one knew.”
Cloak, Dagger, and Card Catalogues
Kathy Peiss on WWII’s librarian-spies. Information Hunters.