Home | Harper's Magazine
[Essay]
The Old Guard
Confronting America’s gerontocratic crisis
by
Samuel Moyn
Current Issue
May 2026
Get
Harper’s
in print, instant digital access, and our 175-year archive—all for $25.99 a year $25.99 per year
Subscribe Now
Thank you for being a subscriber. Click here to give a gift for $25.99 per year
Give a Gift
Account
[Letter from Utah]
Redshift
Rehearsing for humanity’s future on Mars
by
Elena Saavedra Buckley
[Miscellany]
Night Soil
On love, shit, and parking
by
Kristin Dombek
Order a print copy of the
current
issue at our online store.
Shop Now
[Harper’s Index]
Average amount that a U.S. worker has saved for retirement
: $955
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of Americans aged 30 to 47 who have spent some of their retirement savings in the past six months
: 57
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Estimated number of Americans who worked two full-time jobs in January 2015
: 172,000
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
In January 2026
: 476,000
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of U.S. employees who would recommend working for their current employer
: 1/4
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Average total value of reported OSHA penalties levied against U.S. workplaces each month between 2009 and 2024
: $18,621,908
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Since Trump’s second inauguration
: $10,230,027
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Estimated capital investment required to create one permanent job in a U.S. data center
: $54,000,000
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
To create one permanent job in any other sector of the U.S. economy
: $322,000
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Minimum number of international trips given as gifts to U.S. House representatives and their staffers last year
: 551
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Number of these trips that were to Israel
: 156
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
That were to the United Kingdom, the second-most-visited nation
: 65
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of Republicans under the age of 50 who describe themselves as anti-Semitic
: 1/4
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
As racist
: 3/10
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage by which Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe that Bigfoot exists
: 19
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
By which Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe that aliens exist
: 33
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage by which Democrats are more likely to believe that contact with aliens would be good for civilization
: 46
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Chance that an American believed that the government was concealing information about the moon landings in 2016
: 1 in 4
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Last year
: 1 in 3
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of 16-year-old American boys who have gambled in the past year
: 1/2
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Of 11-year-old American boys who have
: 1/3
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of American males aged 16 to 24 who are neither employed, in school, nor in job training
: 12
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Average number of hours per day that such a male spends sleeping
: 10
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Of waking hours per day that he spends alone
: 8
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of incoming UC San Diego freshmen taking a placement exam last year who failed to solve for x in “7 + 2 = x + 6”
: 1/4
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Who failed to round 374,518 to the nearest hundred
: 3/5
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of Americans with postgraduate degrees who report using AI “almost constantly”
: 46
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Of those with a high school education or less who do
: 20
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of U.S. corporate executives who say that AI saves them at least twelve hours of work per week
: 19
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Of U.S. nonmanagement employees who say so
: 2
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of American mothers who say that children should start using AI “as early as possible”
: 3/10
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of Americans who say that, as children, they knew a compassionate, nonjudgmental adult
: 35
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of these Americans who say that their mother was such a person
: 50
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
That their father was
: 5
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Portion of Americans who strongly believed in 2018 that society is “better off if more people are married”
: 1/5
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Who strongly believed this last year
: 1/10
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Percentage of American men who say that it is acceptable for women to be topless at a public beach
: 38
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Of American women who say so
: 17
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
Estimated chance that an American woman’s middle name is Ann or Anne
: 1 in 12
May 2026
[Harper’s Index]
That her first name is Ann or Anne
: 1 in 5,000
May 2026
Weekly Review
April 21, 2026
In Los Angeles, California, three people were convicted of insurance fraud after one of them dressed up in a bear costume, broke into their vehicles, and blamed a bear for the damage; a woman sued the town of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, for sending her a cease-and-desist letter warning that she would be arrested if she continued recording interactions between residents and local geese; and it was reported that the band Geese is an industry plant.
Get the Weekly Review in your inbox
A weekly email taking aim at the relentless absurdity of the 24-hour news cycle.
Got it! Thanks for signing up!
General Interest
April 12, 2026
Gaby Del Valle on reporting from conservative events, the young New Right, and Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy
Get General Interest in your inbox
A biweekly roundup of articles, features, and interviews from Harper's Magazine.
Got it! Thanks for signing up!
[Letter from the Vendée]
Past Perfect
Politicizing history at France’s favorite amusement park
By
Nat Segnit
[Story]
The Shit
By
Joshua Cohen
[Reviews]
Discretion Advised
Francis King’s arts of concealment
By
Charlie Tyson
“Light Study
(Glasses,
Forks, and Bottle Opener),”
a photograph by
Daniel Gordon
included in
his
book
Objects at Hand,
published by Radius Books
in
2026. Image courtesy Radius Books and Daniel Gordon
© Daniel Gordon
Due dormienti,
1966, and
L’inverno
(Couple
au lit),
1967, paintings
(acrylic
and sand) by Domenico Gnoli, whose work is on view through May 23 at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, in New York City. All works by Domenico Gnoli © 2026 Artists Rights Society
(ARS),
New York/SIAE, Rome
. C
ourtesy Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York
“Radioactive Cats,” a photograph by Sandy Skoglund, whose work is included in
the book
Cat
, which was published in February by
Phaidon
1980 Sandy Skoglund
The Rabbit,
a painting by Annika Tucksmith, whose work is on view
through
April 25
as part of the exhibition Innocence and Intruders at Fredericks Freiser Gallery, in New York City © The artist. Courtesy Fredericks Freiser Gallery
“Peeps Marshmallow Chicks cooling on a conveyor belt before packaging,” a photograph by Christopher Payne, whose work is on view through September 27 at Cooper Hewitt, in New York City © Christopher Payne/Esto. Courtesy of the artist
Most Read
[Essay]
The Old Guard
by
Samuel Moyn
[Report]
The Goon Squad
by
Daniel Kolitz
[Letter from San Francisco]
Child’s Play
by
Sam Kriss
[Letter from Utah]
Redshift
by
Elena Saavedra Buckley
[Miscellany]
Night Soil
by
Kristin Dombek
Past Issues
Get Access to Print and Digital for $25.99 per year
Subscribe Now
Thank you for being a subscriber. Click here to give a gift for $25.99 per year
Give a Gift
Account
May 2026
April 2026
March 2026
February 2026
January 2026
December 2025
November 2025
October 2025
September 2025
August 2025
July 2025
June 2025
Harper’s Finest
[Article]
from the
July 1994 Issue
Ticket to the Fair
by
David Foster Wallace
For the May issue of Harper’s Magazine, Nat Segnit
visited
a popular yet controversial French theme park that stages idealized depictions of the nation’s history. “Can a theme park flirt with fascism and still be the best in the world?” Segnit asks. But this is far from the first time a Harper’s writer has taken a critical scalpel to a site of amusement.
This edition of the From the Archive Newsletter
includes Richard H. Horne’s 1873
tour
of European fairs and markets; David Foster Wallace’s
account
of the Illinois State Fair; Murray Sayle’s
notes
from the opening day of Tokyo Disneyland; and Sarah Nović’s
impressions
of a creationist replica of Noah’s Ark.
“Donnybrook Fair,” by Erskine Nicol. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
From the Archive
Timeless stories from our 175-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day.
Got it! Thanks for signing up!
[Article]
from the
February 1873 Issue
The great fairs and markets of Europe
By
R.H. (Richard H.) Horne
[Article]
from the
August 1983 Issue
Of mice and yen
By
Harper's Staff
[Findings]
Microplastics were found in sixty-two of sixty-two human placentas from a biobank in Texas.
[Findings]
Toxicity has remained a consistent feature of online interactions since 1989.
[Findings]
Humans are losing their ability to digest cellulose.
[Findings]
A metal scar on the surface of the white dwarf WD 0816-310 indicated that it has cannibalized other bodies in its orbit.
[Findings]
An orca acting alone killed a great white shark and ate its liver.
[Findings]
Genomic analysis indicated that psychedelic mushrooms emerged around the time of the Mesozoic–Cenozoic mass extinction.
[Findings]
The playing speed of a metal guitarist directly correlates with his intrasexual competitiveness but not his mating success.
[Findings]
Depression in humans is correlated with higher body temperature, and cold-water swimming mitigates menopause symptoms.
[Findings]
Researchers warned that, as temperatures rise, humans should prepare for more diarrhea.
[Findings]
Off the Five Finger Islands, a team of cetologists aboard the Glacier Seal conducted an extended conversation with a female humpback named Twain.
[Findings]
Astrophysicists argued that the development of advanced alien technology requires an atmosphere composed of at least 18 percent oxygen.
[Findings]
Onshore wind turbines severely deter German bats from foraging.
[Findings]
An AI that was fed the employment and health data of six million Danes turned out to be more accurate than existing sociological methods at predicting if a given person was about to die.
[Findings]
A mother is 4.6 percent more likely to give birth in the same month she was born, and adjacent siblings are 12.1 percent more likely to be born in the same month as one another.
[Findings]
Electric eel discharge transforms the DNA of zebrafish larvae.
[Findings]
True crabs independently evolved to live out of the ocean up to seventeen times.
[Findings]
The average American girl born in 2019 will take prescription drugs for more than half her life.
[Findings]
Scientists were not certain whether the globally synchronized waves observed in the brains of wakeful rats on ketamine or LSD were a cause or a symptom of hallucinations.
[Findings]
Geoscientists were confident that, given access to the oldest barnacles on the flaperon of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, they could help pinpoint its crash site.
Join us.
Join us.
Due to an issue with our newsletter provider, we need subscribers to reconfirm their subscriptions to the Weekly Review and other emails. Thank you!
Due to an issue with our newsletter provider, we need subscribers to reconfirm their subscriptions to the Weekly Review and other emails. Thank you!
From Upton Sinclair to Barbara Ehrenreich,
Harper’s
has been home to America’s most daring journalists.
Subscribe now
From Upton Sinclair to Barbara Ehrenreich,
Harper’s
has been home to America’s most daring journalists.
Subscribe now
Debug