Our Founding Contradiction
The entrenched dichotomy at the center of the national story
By Fergus M. Bordewich Thursday, December 1, 2022
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765–1795 by Edward J. Larson
Head of the State
How the FBI’s founding director ruled from the shadows
By Charles Trueheart Thursday, December 1, 2022
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage
Structural Foundations
The buildings that defined the Western world
By Amanda Kolson Hurley Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Story of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski
Quark of Habit
Scientists keep pushing for larger particle colliders—but is this really wise?
By Sabine Hossenfelder Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World by Suzie Sheehy
Beauty Born of Ashes
The story of a lyrical masterpiece that almost wasn’t
By A. E. Stallings Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis
Keepers of the Old Ways
Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025
“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Island Royalty
A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary
By Madison Smartt Bell Monday, January 13, 2025
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christopheby Marlene L. Daut
The Writer in the Family
The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025
The Weight of a Stone
Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology