A Blast of a Time
The scientific underpinnings of Armageddon
By Jeffrey Lewis Thursday, June 26, 2025
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Frank Close
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
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
Power to the People
Winning the Revolution did not assure ordinary Americans a role in governing themselves
By Richard E. Nicholls Thursday, September 1, 2005
Words into Ploughshares
The Georgics in English just American enough
By A. E. Stallings Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Universal Truths
The stories we’ve told ourselves about the heavens and the Earth
By Jennifer Michael Hecht Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Moral Exemptions
Should the law give special rights to the religious?
By R. Laurence Moore Wednesday, June 1, 2005
An Epitapher of Literary Ghosts
William Dean Howells secured the reputations of others, but not his own
By William P. Kelly Wednesday, June 1, 2005
