Harper's Magazine

HARPER’S MAGAZINE, the oldest general interest monthly in America, explores the issues that drive our national conversation through such celebrated features as Readings, Annotation, and Findings, as well as the iconic Harper’s Index.

Harper’s Magazine • FOUNDED IN 1850 / VOL. 350, NO. 2098 MARCH 2025

LETTERS

EASY CHAIR • The Mask of Imperialism

SOMETHING AMI • By Rachel Cusk, from the introduction to a reissue of Martin Amis’s novel London Fields, which was published in November by Vintage, in Britain.

DREAM STATE • From reports of dreams collected in The Third Reich of Dreams, by Charlotte Beradt, a new translation of which will be published next month by Princeton University Press. Beradt gathered the reports in Germany in the Thirties. Translated from the German by Damion Searls.

JOHANNES’S VENEER • From a lecture delivered last year by Kristian Vistrup Madsen at the University of Applied Arts, in Vienna.

EARLY MODERN LOVE • From “I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer”: Letters on Love and Marriage from the World’s First Personal Advice Column, edited by Mary Beth Norton, which will be published next month by Princeton University Press. These entries originally appeared in the Athenian Mercury, a newspaper in London, between 1691 and 1694.

NOT AGAINST THE RULES • By Mónica de la Torre, from Pause the Document, which will be published this month by Nightboat Books.

THE SIMPLE LIFE • By Jenny Erpenbeck, from Things That Disappear, which will be published in the fall by New Directions. Translated from the German by Kurt Beals.

IS THIS REAL? • By Laila Lalami, from The Dream Hotel, which will be published this month by Pantheon.

GAZA… GAZA • By Nasser Rabah, from Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, which will be published next month by City Lights. Translated from the Arabic by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal, and Khaled al-Hilli.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE • Trump’s second attempt at dismantling the bureaucracy

THE BUREAUCRATIC SUBLIME

THE BALLAD OF LITTLE MARIA • What really happened to a stranded five-year-old refugee?

RANGE LIFE • A heated history of public lands

NEW WORLD SYMPHONIES • Listening for the future of music

SOLUTION TO THE FEBRUARY PUZZLE

WHY TREES

NEW BOOKS

AN UNSTOPPABLE MARCH • The story of 2 Tone

SIXES AND SEVENS (AND TWELVES)

FINDINGS