Pursuing the White Whale
A briny exploration of Melville’s greatest work
By William Howarth Monday, December 2, 2019
Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick by Richard J. King
Alternate Universes
Quentin Tarantino has, over the course of his career, reimagined the art of filmmaking
By Jerome Charyn Monday, December 2, 2019
New World Prophecy
Dvořák once predicted that American classical music would be rooted in the black vernacular. Why, then, has the field remained so white?
By Joseph Horowitz Friday, September 13, 2019
Head Cases
Field notes on a beautiful friendship
By T. M. Luhrmann Tuesday, September 3, 2019
And How Are You, Dr. Sacks? A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence Weschler
Moral Courage and the Civil War
Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present and has an inescapable effect on the future
By Elizabeth D. Samet Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Great Convergence
How continental art and literature went global
By Anka Muhlstein Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture by Orlando Figes
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
