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
Totalitarianism in Practice
Terror as a way of life in East Germany, Poland, and Hungary
By Gary Saul Morson Friday, December 7, 2012
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 By Anne Applebaum
No Sentiment
Baudelaire’s shock of the new
By Peter Fritzsche Friday, December 7, 2012
La Folie Beaudelaire By Roberto Calasso
Fantastic Visions
Not crazy, just creative
By T. M. Luhrmann Friday, December 7, 2012
Hallucinations By Oliver Sacks
Paint Fight
Two titans of art go head to head
By Ingrid D. Rowland Friday, December 7, 2012
The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Artistic Duel that Defined the RenaissanceBy Jonathan Jones /Leonardo and the Last Supper By Ross King
Confounding Father
Thomas Jefferson and the economics of slavery
By T. H. Breen Thursday, October 4, 2012
Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves By Henry Wiencek
Questions of Being
What if our minds are the ultimate reality?
By Jay Tolson Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story By Jim Holt
Kerouac in His Own Words
An old friend explores his search for a new approach to the novel
By Deborah Baker Tuesday, September 4, 2012
The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac By Joyce Johnson
A Monster at Large
Crime, politics, and the vagaries of Japanese justice
By James Fallows Tuesday, September 4, 2012
People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo — And the Evil That Swallowed Her Up By Richard Lloyd Parry
Golden Rules
Wealth and culture in early Christian times
By Sarah Ruden Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 ADPeter Brown
Risky Journeys
A cautionary tale of quixotic ambition and heroic achievement
By George O’Brien Friday, June 1, 2012
James Joyce: A New Biography By Gordon Bowker
