Abolition Gone Wrong
Despite good intentions, some opponents of the Atlantic slave trade caused more harm
By Fergus M. Bordewich Friday, December 6, 2013
Ship of DeathBy Billy G. Smith / The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World By Greg Grandin
The Novels Don’t Change, But We Do 
Rereading those works that matter to us proves that books read us even as we read them
By Wendy Smith Friday, December 6, 2013
Eric Rohmer and Me
What a classic film from the French new wave taught me about the illusions of my youth
By André Aciman Friday, December 6, 2013
Night Train to Gijón
The fried-pepper sandwiches were oily and delicious, and the Spanish lesson was even more memorable
By Clellan Coe Friday, December 6, 2013
Incident at Mittersill
A new opera explores the mysterious death of the composer Anton Webern
By Sudip Bose Friday, December 6, 2013
Ministry of Talent
JFK’s thousand days of crisis
By Ernest B. Furgurson Friday, December 6, 2013
Camelot’s Court By Robert Dallek
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
