The American Scholar, the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society

“Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens

Poems read aloud, beautifully

by Amanda Holmes | Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Our Pragmatic Present

There is no prescribed meaning or purpose to our lives—and that’s okay

by John Kaag | Monday, March 27, 2023

Cherry Blossom Bonanza

Naoko Abe on how an English eccentric saved Japan’s beloved cherry trees—and spread them around the world

by Stephanie Bastek | Friday, March 24, 2023

On the Record, At Last

My father never got to tell his story at the war crimes trials at Nuremberg—it’s taken decades for the truth to come out

by George Anders | Thursday, March 23, 2023

“Three O’Clock 1942” by Grace Cavalieri

Poems read aloud, beautifully

by Amanda Holmes | Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Filling in the Fragments

Diane Rayor on translating the poetry of Sappho

by Stephanie Bastek | Friday, March 17, 2023

Phantoms

What it’s like to navigate the world when your senses conjure up phenomena that others can’t perceive

by Caitriona Lally | Thursday, March 16, 2023

Current Issue

“Tinnitus means I hear things that don’t exist. The sounds are real to me, they exist in my subjective reality, but they cannot be heard by others.” —Caitriona Lally, “Phantoms”

Plus: Elizabeth Kadetsky on what a set of stolen stone goddesses can tell us about our current reckoning with antiquities trafficking; Matthew Denton-Edmundson imagines an animal rights movement not based on suffering; and John Dos Passos’s grandson reflects on his namesake’s love of the sea

Essays

The Goddess Complex

A set of revered stone deities was stolen from a temple in northwestern India; their story can tell us much about our current reckoning with antiquities trafficking