A Portrait of the Scholar
The life of Ireland’s towering literary figure became a work of art in its own right
By Michael O'Donnell Thursday, June 19, 2025
Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Maker by Zachary Leader
The Unjolly Green Giant
How C. F. Seabrook became the Lear of the vegetable fields
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 9, 2025
The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by John Seabrook
The Rascal of Pont-Aven
Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life
By Hannah Stamler Monday, June 2, 2025
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
Sticking With It
A sobering chronicle of our toxic times
By Juli Berwald Monday, June 2, 2025
They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals by Mariah Blake
Unbuilding the Mystery
What might Indigenous spiritual practices have in common?
By Ilan Stavans Monday, June 2, 2025
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion by Manvir Singh
A Blast of a Time
The scientific underpinnings of Armageddon
By Jeffrey Lewis Monday, June 2, 2025
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Frank Close
Farmed Out
The uncertain future of the nation’s heartland
By Donald Worster Monday, June 2, 2025
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty
Streams of Consciousness
A writer’s intrepid exploration of troubled waters
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 2, 2025
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
An Enigma at the Center
The story of the American West in one photograph
By Alix Christie Thursday, May 22, 2025
The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha S. Sandweiss
Doing Nothing Is Everything
An areligious writer finds peace in a Benedictine monastery
By Costică Brădăţan Thursday, April 10, 2025
Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer
Over There
A pugnacious public intellectual looks to Europe for his ideal
By Jean Bethke Elshtain Sunday, June 1, 2008
Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century By Tony Judt
Democracy in Three Dimensions?
How the nation’s capital rose from a fetid forest on the backs of slaves
By Heather Ewing Sunday, June 1, 2008
Washington: The Making of the American Capital By Fergus M. Bordewich
Ireland Revised
Where the Celtic Tiger came from, and where it has gone
By George O’Brien Sunday, June 1, 2008
Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change 1970–2000 By R. F. Foster
Repatriating Art
A museum director examines the controversy over whether nations own their cultural artifacts
By Susannah Rutherglen Sunday, June 1, 2008
Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage By James Cuno
A Look Beyond the Tragic Mystique
By Matthew Ladd Sunday, June 1, 2008
Posthumous Keats By Stanley Plumly
The Art of Doing
Let’s give our hands a great big hand
By Wayne Curtis Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Craftsman By Richard Sennett
A Dangerous Weapon
The fault is not in the camera, but in ourselves
By Andy Grundberg Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Soiling of Old Glory: The Story of a Photograph that Shocked America By Louis P. Masur
Drought and Famine
What the past teaches us to fear most about global climate change
By Dan Bouk Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations By Brian Fagan
Sleepless Nights
Getting cranky about the things that keep us awake
By Sarah Fay Saturday, March 1, 2008
Insomniac By Gayle Greene
The Case of the Defective Detective
By Britt Peterson Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective By Kate Summerscale
