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
Scholar-Activist
Is the search for truth compatible with the fight for justice?
By James Gibney Friday, June 3, 2011
Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir By Robert Jay Lifton
A Survey and an Assertion
Twelve potted philosophers and a theory of human values
By Carlin Romano Friday, June 3, 2011
Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche By James Miller
Beyond Nerves
Three women who helped engender modern psychiatry
By Laure Murat Friday, June 3, 2011
Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris By Asti Hustvedt
Terrorist in Chief
Can anything keep Zimbabwe from slipping back into despotism?
By Paul Salopek Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe By Peter Godwin
Aping Us
Beasts behaving badly
By Clive D. L. Wynne Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Moral Lives of Animals By Dale Peterson
Patriot Games
Hollywood’s Red Scare
By Elbert Ventura Wednesday, March 2, 2011
An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War By J. Hoberman
Harlem Notes
A writer goes uptown
By Thomas Chatterton Williams Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America By Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
Bard Justice
Shakespeare and the law
By Jacob A. Stein Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A Thousand Times More Fair What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice By Kenji Yoshino
Math & Magic
The roots of Western science
By Sam Kean Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Birth of the Modern World By Edward Dolnick
Tangled Up in Dylan
The enduring appeal of a legendary American songwriter
By Louis P. Masur Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968–2010By Greil Marcus Bob Dylan in America By Sean Wilentz
