Putting Man Before Descartes
Human knowledge is personal and participant—placing us at the center of the universe
By John Lukacs Monday, December 1, 2008
The Future of the American Frontier
Can one of our most enduring national myths, much in evidence in the recent presidential campaign, be reinvented yet again?
By John Tirman Monday, December 1, 2008
Affirmative Action and After
Now is the time to reconsider a policy that must eventually change. But simply replacing race with class isn’t the solution.
By W. Ralph Eubanks Monday, December 1, 2008
A Country for Old Men
Having reached the shores of seniority himself, the author finds a surprising contentment in the eyes of his fellow retirees
By Edward Hoagland Monday, December 1, 2008
Collateral Damage
The Civil War only enhanced George Whitman’s soldierly satisfaction; for his brother Walt, however, the horrors halted an outpouring of great poetry
By Robert Roper Monday, December 1, 2008
My Bright Abyss
I never felt the pain of unbelief until I believed. But belief itself is hardly painless.
By Christian Wiman Monday, December 1, 2008
The High Road to Narnia
C. S. Lewis and his friend J. R. R. Tolkien believed that truths are universal and that stories reveal them
By George Watson Monday, December 1, 2008
The Censor in the Mirror
It’s not only what the Chinese Propaganda Department does to artists, but what it makes artists do to their own work
By Ha Jin Monday, September 1, 2008
The Torture Colony
In a remote part of Chile, an evil German evangelist built a utopia whose members helped the Pinochet regime perform its foulest deeds
By Bruce Falconer Monday, September 1, 2008
Asteroid Hunters
The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks
By Jessie Wilde Friday, March 7, 2025
Tiger Mom
At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind
By Elizabeth Kadetsky Monday, March 3, 2025
American Carthage 
Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present
By Charles G. Salas Monday, March 3, 2025
Lessons From Harlem
A white blues player’s streetside education
By Adam Gussow Monday, March 3, 2025
Maximalisma
A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her
By Lisa Russ Spaar Monday, March 3, 2025
Raspberry Heaven
A yearly back-yard harvest opens a door to the divine
By Garret Keizer Monday, March 3, 2025
In the Matter of the Commas
For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music
By Matthew Zipf Monday, March 3, 2025
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 Thursday, February 6, 2025
The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
By Janna Malamud Smith Friday, January 24, 2025
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
