A review is presented of experimental results for electron scattering from the deuteron. The data encompass elastic, threshold inelastic and quasielastic scattering. The emphasis is on determining the active degrees of freedom (mesonic, nucleonic, ...) and testing the limits of validity of the meson‐nucleon picture. The role of new experimental capabilities, such as double polarization experiments and/or out‐of‐plane detection are described. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.