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
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
The Bully in the Ballad
Was Mississippi John Hurt really the first person to sing the tragic tale of Louis Collins?
By Eric McHenry Thursday, December 15, 2022
Declassified
How genre-bending tales of espionage emerged from a childhood of pain, anger, and deception
By James Gibney Thursday, December 8, 2022
A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré Edited by Tim Cornwell; Viking, 752 pp., $40
The Road to Paradise and Back
Fires in the West, hurricanes in the East—what it’s like on the ground as we confront our rapidly changing world
By David Gessner Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Corals and the Capitalist
The key to avoiding an ecological catastrophe might be found in the wealth of nations and the spirit of innovation
By Juli Berwald Thursday, December 1, 2022
Bearing Witness Beyond Despair
The art of dislocation in the verses of Wong May
By Langdon Hammer Thursday, December 1, 2022
Our Founding Contradiction
The entrenched dichotomy at the center of the national story
By Fergus M. Bordewich Thursday, December 1, 2022
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765–1795by Edward J. Larson
Head of the State
How the FBI’s founding director ruled from the shadows
By Charles Trueheart Thursday, December 1, 2022
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Centuryby Beverly Gage
Structural Foundations
The buildings that defined the Western world
By Amanda Kolson Hurley Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Story of Architectureby Witold Rybczynski
Quark of Habit
Scientists keep pushing for larger particle colliders—but is this really wise?
By Sabine Hossenfelder Thursday, December 1, 2022
The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the Worldby Suzie Sheehy
