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
The Imbalance of Power
How the Manhattan Project gave birth to the imperial presidency
By Paul Boyer Monday, March 1, 2010
Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State By Garry Wills
The Lovable Leviathan
Whales hold a special place in our imagination, but their situation is dire
By Sy Montgomery Monday, March 1, 2010
The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea By Philip Hoare
A Long, Cold Road to Paris
The 2,000-mile, 40-day journey of future first lady Louisa Catherine Adams
By Paul C. Nagel Monday, March 1, 2010
Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon By Michael O’Brien
The Debacle Before the Disaster
At Dien Bien Phu, the French got a lesson the U.S. would take two decades to learn
By Charles Trueheart Monday, March 1, 2010
Valley of Death: The Tragedy of Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War By Ted Morgan
In the Shadow of Genocide
Impressions of a Turkish town that was once in Armenia
By Graeme Wood Monday, March 1, 2010
Rebel Land: Unravelling the Riddle of History in a Turkish Town By Christopher de Bellaigue
Science Doubters
When healthy skepticism turns into unhealthy antagonism
By Natalie Angier Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms The Planet, and Threatens Our Lives By Michael Spector
Laissez-Faire Run Amok
The extremist, and enduring, philosophy of Ayn Rand
By Ethan Fishman Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right By Jennifer Burns
Riffs and Raptures
Zadie Smith’s essays offer crisp prose and hard-won insights
By Sarah L. Courteau Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays By Zadie Smith
Wrestling the Moose
Jefferson debunked a French theory of natural history, launching American exceptionalism
By Miranda Weiss Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America By Lee Alan Dugatkin
The Tales Buildings Tell
Architects can overwhelm their creations; time can make a hash of great visions
By Stanley Abercrombie Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories By Edward Hollis
