From bad to worse
Arts & Culture From bad to worse Photo illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff Sy Boles Harvard Staff Writer June 23, 2025 6 min read Harvard faculty recommend bios of infamous historical figures Writing biographies of bad people is challenging, said Harvard historian Fredrik Logevall. “Somehow monsters must be made to be human and complex if we are to understand why they behaved as they did.” To that end, we asked Logevall and other Harvard faculty members to recommend books about controversial historical figures that help us better understand humanity’s worst impulses. ‘James Henry Hammond and the Old South’ by Drew Gilpin Faust Jonathan HansenSenior Lecturer on Social Studies James Henry Hammond — who served as the governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844 and as a U.S. senator from 1857 to 1860 — was, Hansen said, “arguably one of the most articulate apologists for slavery in American history and a real shit.” “He was born very poor and did something that...