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
What’s Wrong (and Right) with Science Journalism
Remarks to the University of Iowa on October 8, 2008, for the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry
By David Brown Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Decline of the English Department
How it happened and what could be done to reverse it
By William M. Chace Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Brush Up Your Berlin
And beware of kiss-me-I’m-poetical junk
By David Lehman Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Facing the Music
What 1930s pop culture can teach us about our own hard times
By Morris Dickstein Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A Day in the Life
Reading Joyce’s Ulysses as a guide to urban living
By Sudip Bose Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce’s Masterpiece By Declan Kiberd
