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 Christophe by 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 Age by 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 Union by 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
Aping Us
Beasts behaving badly
By Clive D. L. Wynne Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Moral Lives of Animals By Dale Peterson
How Longfellow Woke the Dead
When first published 150 years ago, his famous poem about Paul Revere was read as a bold statement of his opposition to slavery
By Jill Lepore Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Interview with a Neandertal
What I always wanted to ask our distant cousins about love and death and sorrow and dinner
By Priscilla Long Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Patriot Games
Hollywood’s Red Scare
By Elbert Ventura Wednesday, March 2, 2011
An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War By J. Hoberman
‘I Tried to Stop the Bloody Thing’
In World War I, nearly as many British men refused the draft—20,000—as were killed on the Somme’s first day. Why were those who fought for peace forgotten?
By Adam Hochschild Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Harlem Notes
A writer goes uptown
By Thomas Chatterton Williams Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America By Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
Bard Justice
Shakespeare and the law
By Jacob A. Stein Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A Thousand Times More Fair What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice By Kenji Yoshino
