What He Stood For

How Angus Cameron, one of the most significant editors in the history of American publishing, responded to being targeted by the McCarthy blacklist

Who Is Blake Whiting?

The most astonishingly productive historian in recent times is someone you’ll never meet

The Importance of Being Idle

What Paul Lafargue taught us about work

Gilded Guilt

On Taylor Swift, Julian Fellowes, and the class conflicts that never die

The Popper Principle

Did Plato really espouse ideas that led eventually to totalitarianism?

It’s a Wonderful (Falling Apart) Life

In the disrepair of our everyday world are suggestions of life’s burdens and consolations

The Conspiracist Cotton Mather

The zealot who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials initially voiced restraint—what changed?

Baby Shoggoth Is Listening

Why are some writers tailoring their work for AI, and what does this mean for the future of writing and reading?

What Is an American Hero, Anyway?

Lists of great artists say more about the list-maker than the artist

My First Novel

A jean jacket, a muse, and a dream

On Book

August Wilson’s play just hit the big screen, but even greater rewards await on the page

The Baritone as Democrat

How Lawrence Tibbett prophesied the Metropolitan Opera crisis of today

My Cousin Manya

One survivor’s story

Writer on Board

The cruise story from Twain to Shteyngart

Nights at the Opera

Long before he wrote his masterly novels, Stendhal was transformed by the power of music

A Terrifying Delight

Following Robert Frost into the depths

Consummated in Exile

A new recording of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances conveys the breadth of the 20th-century composer’s life’s journey

The Importance of Being Different

A travel writer’s education

Stereotypes and the City

 What to make of HBO’s attempts to diversify an iconic show?

Ripeness Is All

What may be the fate of classical music’s new superstars?

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