On the Cover

As of March 2021, most Perspectives readers will have been social distancing, wearing masks, and taking other precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19 for a full year. In "American Solitude: Notes Toward a History of Isolation," Jeffrey Mathias discusses mid-20th-century isolation studies conducted by psychologists and US military and space scientists. He describes the sensation of living through “an apocalypse not yet arrived and yet unending.” Yet even in isolation, we are rarely truly alone. AHA staff Emily Swafford and Sarah Jones Weicksel report on how the Association used new technologies and started new projects to connect historians while “Confronting a Pandemic.”

Collection of Robert R. Holt, courtesy of the Holt family