Feeling No Pain
A philosopher argues we should not be misled by our hearts
By Nathalie Lagerfeld Monday, December 5, 2016
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion Paul Bloom
A Life Written in Invisible Ink
In her rebellious and much-celebrated poetry, Adrienne Rich both deciphered and created the feminist world she inhabited
By Sandra M. Gilbert Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Second Thoughts
To manipulate time, we must first understand how it works
By George Musser Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Time Travel: A HistoryBy James Gleick / Now: The Physics of Time By Richard A. Muller
The Virtue of an Educated Voter
The Founders believed that a well-informed electorate preserves our fragile democracy and benefits American society as a whole
By Alan Taylor Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Chicago Hope
Can the collaboration between a progressive boarding school and a big-city charter academy transform American Public High School Education?
By Lincoln Caplan Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Darkness Illuminated
A horror writer whose real demons were off the page
By Susan Cheever Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life By Ruth Franklin
Out of Sight
Inside a community tucked away from civilization
By Sarah Rice Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Territories of Conquest
A new history of the bloodletting that opened the frontier
By Andrew Graybill Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West By Peter Cozzens
Writing the Unimaginable
When future generations look back at the fiction of our time, what will they make of the failure to address the crisis of climate change?
By Amitav Ghosh Tuesday, September 6, 2016
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
