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
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 Parts by Helen King
In the Mushroom
True foraging isn’t the domain of the weekend warrior; it’s serious, serious business
By Michael Autrey Monday, December 2, 2024
Island Royalty
A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary
By Madison Smartt Bell Monday, December 2, 2024
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene L. Daut
Miller's Tale
The playwright drew a line between reaching out and selling out
By Wendy Smith Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Leading Men
Authorities on the Revolutionary era say how the Founding Fathers became culture heroes.
By Anne Matthews Tuesday, March 1, 2005
A Long Cold View of History
How ice, worms, and dirt made us what we are today
By Donald Worster Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Performance
Is there a genetic predisposition to sing Streisand on street corners?
By Michelle Herman Tuesday, March 1, 2005
What Is It Good For?
How the American military went from defense to offense
By James Webb Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War By Andrew J. Bacevich
Socrates' Mistake
The philosopher’s view of knowledge—forever demanding explanations, justifications, definitions, and criteria—is fantasy, and a dangerous fantasy
By George Watson Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Battle of Anacostia
The bonus army and its unexpected legacy
By Robert S. McElvaine Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The Bonus Army: An American Epic By Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen
A Standard Oil Childhood
Oil refeneries, sand dunes, and other objects of beauty and affection