In the Courtyard
The smell of jasmine and the murmur of family life in prewar Damascus
By Vicki Valosik Monday, September 8, 2014
Two Philosophers
What would Kierkegaard and Hegel do about the crises of our day?
By David Lehman Monday, June 9, 2014
Man of the World
Well-traveled and erudite, John Quincy Adams sometimes had trouble appealing to his countrymen
By Annette Gordon-Reed Monday, June 9, 2014
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary By Fred Kaplan
The Fear Factor
Long-held predictions of economic chaos as baby boomers grow old are based on formulas that are just plain wrong
By Lincoln Caplan Monday, June 9, 2014
The Skeptic
A critic’s cranky charm
By Steve Lagerfeld Monday, June 9, 2014
A Literary Education and Other Essays By Joseph Epstein
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
By Megan Craig Thursday, January 2, 2025
Verde
Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew
By Jesse Lee Kercheval Thursday, December 12, 2024
Aging Out
Many of us do not go gentle into that good night
By Anne Matthews Thursday, December 5, 2024
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Ageby James Chappel
Under a Spell Everlasting
Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war
By Samantha Rose Hill Monday, December 2, 2024
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Monday, December 2, 2024
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Unionby Richard Carwardine
The Fair Fields 
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
By Rosanna Warren Monday, December 2, 2024
