Verde

Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew

Magic Men

Aging Out

Many of us do not go gentle into that good night

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

Double Exposure
loading

On our first memories

Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War

Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine

The Fair Fields
loading

Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil

Ideology as Anatomy

How shifting ideas about women’s bodies have affected their lives

Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts by Helen King

In the Mushroom
loading

True foraging isn’t the domain of the weekend warrior; it’s serious, serious business

Island Royalty

A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary

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

Leading Men

Authorities on the Revolutionary era say how the Founding Fathers became culture heroes.

A Long Cold View of History

How ice, worms, and dirt made us what we are today

Performance

Is there a genetic predisposition to sing Streisand on street corners?

Celestial Jukebox

The paradox of intellectual property

What Is It Good For?

How the American military went from defense to offense

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

Battle of Anacostia

The bonus army and its unexpected legacy

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

Response to Our Winter Issue

● NEWSLETTER

Please enter a valid email address
That address is already in use
The security code entered was incorrect
Thanks for signing up