Purpose-Driven Life
Evolution does not rob life of meaning, but creates meaning. It also makes possible our own capacity for creativity.
By Brian Boyd Sunday, March 1, 2009
Second Chances, Social Forgiveness, and the Internet
We need the means, both technological and legal, to replace measures once woven into the fabric of communities
By Amitai Etzioni Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Potency of Breathless
At 50, Godard’s film still asks how something this bad can be so good
By Paula Marantz Cohen Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Peacock Problem
What does evolution say about why we make art?
By Alexander Nehamas Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Art Instinct By Denis Dutton
The Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Lincoln
The hatter Boston Corbett was celebrated as a hero for killing John Wilkes Booth. Fame and fortune did not follow, but madness did.
By Ernest B. Furgurson Sunday, March 1, 2009
Vibrato Wars
Elgar, served neat and unshaken, stirs up the Brits
By Sudip Bose Sunday, March 1, 2009
Founding Portraitists
By Fergus M. Bordewich Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Painter’s Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art By Hugh Howard
The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
By Janna Malamud Smith Friday, January 24, 2025
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Thursday, January 23, 2025
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Unionby Richard Carwardine
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
