To understand Harvard, one must first see it through the eyes of its students.

This sweeping new history of Harvard and Radcliffe colleges takes the reader into the candle-lit rooms of eighteenth-century Harvard Hall, where students plotted pranks against their tutors and created a “shadow curriculum” to debate life's greatest questions. Going beyond iconic presidents and famous alums, the book recounts the contributions of everyone else who made Harvard what it was and what it is today. It tells the stories of the enslaved persons who constructed some of Harvard's iconic buildings, women who kept dining halls running and the dorm rooms clean, and the working-class people who made their living off students' wealth.

Stretching back to the college's founding, the book reveals Harvard's early flirtation with the education of Native Americans and dark legacy of racial pseudoscience. It explores the complex politics of admissions and financial aid, changing gender dynamics, and student clubs and societies. The book even traces the origins of modern American football to what was a perennially-damp field next to the Charles River, before the first steel-reinforced concrete stadium in the world was built there.

Ultimately, this is the story of Harvard from the ground up-an unvarnished look at the people, politics, and daily realities that truly shaped America's oldest university.