Bending Toward Justice
Rejecting the “race riot” myth means facing the ugly truth
By Sally Greene Thursday, July 16, 2026
They Stole a City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live With Its Legacy by Lauren Collins
Verse From the Abyss
How a Jewish poet rebuilt his mother tongue in the wake of the Holocaust
By Piotr Florczyk Thursday, July 9, 2026
Paul Celan: A Life by Anna Arno, translated by Soren Gauger
Where Are We?
Finding our bearings has never been so risky
By Peter Turchi Monday, June 29, 2026
Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World By Katherine Dunn
Blood—and Beauty—at the Root
Fifty years ago, Alex Haley’s landmark novel changed the way many Americans thought about race
By Brandon Tensley Monday, June 15, 2026
Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World by Lucas L. Johnson II
In Defense of Difficult Reading
The tomes of the past cultivate the lost art of sustained attention
By Todd Shy Friday, June 5, 2026
What’s So Great About the Great Books?: Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) Naomi Kanakia
Inside Man
A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 1, 2026
How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University By Theo Baker
Things Fall Apart
A meditation on entropy, obsolescence, and death
By Steven G. Kellman Monday, June 1, 2026
How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information By Thomas S. Mullaney
Into the Wilds
The tangled terrain of untrammeled lands
By Miranda Weiss Monday, June 1, 2026
The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness By Cal Flyn
The Painter Time Forgot
An overdue reckoning of an artist’s volcanic genius
By Rebecca Bedell Monday, June 1, 2026
Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World By Victoria Johnson
Canonical Contempt
Even in the 18th century, Edward Gibbon’s misogyny set him apart
By Michael O'Donnell Monday, June 1, 2026
The Conversions of Edward Gibbon: A Modern Biography By Martha Saxton
Indefensible Torture, Unfree Speech
What Censorship Kept America from Learning about the Futility of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
By Lincoln Caplan Saturday, November 7, 2020
The Black Banners Declassified: How Torture Derailed the War on Terror after 9/11 by Ali Soufan with Daniel Freedman
Black America’s Tough-Minded Truth Teller
How an autobiography shaped the image of a civil rights icon
By Robert J. Norrell Monday, October 26, 2020
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
A Pioneering Appetite
The story of America’s first culinary celebrity
By Anne Matthews Monday, October 19, 2020
The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James BeardJohn Birdsall
Verifiable Truths
The thinkers who tried to strip metaphysics from philosophy
By Gary Saul Morson Thursday, October 15, 2020
The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna CircleDavid Edmonds
Saved By Accident
Only dumb luck has stood in the way of atomic annihilation
By Marc Ambinder Thursday, October 8, 2020
Gambling With Armageddonby Martin J. Sherwin
Sonic Geographer
The composer whose music bears witness to a planet in peril
By Sudip Bose Monday, October 5, 2020
Admired and Abhorred
The German composer whose legacy continues to confound
By Steven G. Kellman Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of MusicAlex Ross
Beneath the Powdered Wig
Reinterpreting the life of our trendiest Founding Father
By Nancy Isenberg Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons From a Misunderstood Founder by Christian Parenti
Varieties of Experience
Culture rewires our brains and shapes how we think
By T. M. Luhrmann Wednesday, September 23, 2020
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrichby Joseph Henrich
Bugging Out
The buzzing, crawling creatures we would be lost without
By Natalie Angier Thursday, September 17, 2020
The Butterfly Effect: Insects and the Making of the Modern Worldby Edward Melillo
