Trial and Eros
When Lady Chatterley’s Lover ran afoul of Britain’s 1959 obscenity law, the resulting case had a cast worthy of P.G. Wodehouse
By Ben Yagoda Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Our Madness for War
Must we persist in using the military option when it so rarely works?
By Michael Sherry Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq By John Dower
Prozac for the Planet
Can geoengineering make the climate happy?
By Christopher Cokinos Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Human Kind
Is selflessness in our nature?
By Sissela Bok Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness By Oren Harman
Every Last One
A guy with a weakness for demography goes door to door for the census and discovers what a democracy is made of
By Brad Edmondson Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Abe’s Evolution
How Lincoln went from frontier lawyer to Great Emancipator
By Philip Dray Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery By Eric Foner
Going Home, Going Away
At a 50th high school reunion, a well-known traveler recalls his pride in the hometown he was so eager to leave behind
By Paul Theroux Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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
Ideology as Anatomy
How shifting ideas about women’s bodies have affected their lives
By Sierra Bellows Monday, December 2, 2024
Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Partsby Helen King
