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
Taking Shots
A powerful plea for vaccination
By Harriet A. Washington Monday, September 8, 2014
On Immunity: An Inoculation By Eula Biss
Man of the World
Well-traveled and erudite, John Quincy Adams sometimes had trouble appealing to his countrymen
By Annette Gordon-Reed Monday, June 9, 2014
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary By Fred Kaplan
The Skeptic
A critic’s cranky charm
By Steve Lagerfeld Monday, June 9, 2014
A Literary Education and Other Essays By Joseph Epstein
Inside the Box
How we became pod people
By M. G. Lord Monday, June 9, 2014
Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace By Nikil Saval
Numbers Game
The problems of solutions
By Owen Gingerich Monday, June 9, 2014
Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World By Amir Alexander
Dangerous Liaison
A CIA officer’s many faces
By Steven Simon Monday, June 9, 2014
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames By Kai Bird
We, Not Me
A writer feels our pain
By Gary Greenberg Monday, June 9, 2014
The Empathy Exams By Leslie Jamison
Beyond the Colonies
What else happened during the year of independence?
By Andrew Graybill Monday, June 9, 2014
West of the Revolution By Claudio Saunt
Matters of Perception
Sometimes the truth lies more in what we perceive than what we think
By William Nichols Monday, May 19, 2014
Coming to Our Senses: Perceiving Complexity to Avoid Catastrophes By Vicki McCabe
The Bard of Suburbia
John Updike’s obsession with ordinary life made him the writer by whom we came to know ourselves
By Robert Wilson Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Updike By Adam Begley
