Lunching on Olympus
My meals with W. H. Auden, E. M. Forster, Philip Larkin, and William Empson
By Steven L. Isenberg Thursday, January 28, 2010
Science Doubters
When healthy skepticism turns into unhealthy antagonism
By Natalie Angier Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms The Planet, and Threatens Our Lives By Michael Spector
Laissez-Faire Run Amok
The extremist, and enduring, philosophy of Ayn Rand
By Ethan Fishman Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right By Jennifer Burns
Riffs and Raptures
Zadie Smith’s essays offer crisp prose and hard-won insights
By Sarah L. Courteau Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays By Zadie Smith
Wrestling the Moose
Jefferson debunked a French theory of natural history, launching American exceptionalism
By Miranda Weiss Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America By Lee Alan Dugatkin
The Tales Buildings Tell
Architects can overwhelm their creations; time can make a hash of great visions
By Stanley Abercrombie Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories By Edward Hollis
Through Fire and Flood
Faulkner’s best fiction emerged from his willingness to face crises
By Jay Parini Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Becoming Faulkner: The Art and Life of William Faulkner By Philip Weinstein
Shylock, My Students, and Me
What I’ve learned from 30 years of teaching The Merchant of Venice
By Paula Marantz Cohen Tuesday, December 1, 2009
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
