Fractured Odysseus
The psychiatrist Jonathan Shay’s books on Homer are the key to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey
By Colin Dickey Thursday, August 20, 2026
Gratitude Isn’t Everything
The revolutionary Patriots owed much to their forefathers, but their fight for universal rights embraced a wider mission
By Robert A. Gross Friday, July 31, 2026
It All Comes Down to This
As the recent World Cup showed, the drama of a penalty shootout can at times be Shakespearean
By Eric Wills Thursday, July 30, 2026
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
By Jonathan Coleman Friday, April 24, 2026
Who Is Blake Whiting?
The most astonishingly productive historian in recent times is someone you’ll never meet
By Andrew Lawler Thursday, April 16, 2026
The Importance of Being Idle
What Paul Lafargue taught us about work
By Robert Zaretsky Monday, March 30, 2026
Gilded Guilt
On Taylor Swift, Julian Fellowes, and the class conflicts that never die
By Jessa Crispin Friday, February 13, 2026
The Popper Principle
Did Plato really espouse ideas that led eventually to totalitarianism?
By Robert Zaretsky Thursday, January 29, 2026
It’s a Wonderful (Falling Apart) Life
In the disrepair of our everyday world are suggestions of life’s burdens and consolations
By Ben Slote Friday, December 19, 2025
The Conspiracist Cotton Mather
The zealot who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials initially voiced restraint—what changed?
By Colin Dickey Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Rage Against the Machine
If the American symphony orchestra is to survive, it must be rewired and reengineered
By Douglas McLennan Thursday, October 13, 2022
The Mule on the Stairs
Remembering the school in the midcentury South where “We Shall Overcome” was born
By Richard Tillinghast Thursday, October 6, 2022
Bad Jew
Reckoning with a heritage as painfully distant as it is impossible to lose
By Laura Bernstein-Machlay Thursday, September 22, 2022
The Changing of the Guard
This year’s US Open showed the world that tennis’s next generation is here
By Eric Wills Thursday, September 15, 2022
The Allure of the Enigmatic
“Mod” London takes center stage in Michelangelo Antonioni’s mind-blowing Blow-Up
By David Lehman Thursday, August 25, 2022
The Affair Rekindled
Remembering the plight of Dreyfus and the effect it had on a young Marcel Proust
By Robert Zaretsky Thursday, August 11, 2022
The Disappearing Modernists
Where did it all go wrong for so much music of the 20th century?
By Mark N. Grant Thursday, August 4, 2022
Our Remedy
Quack Covid cures and New Age elixirs are just a 21st-century spin on 19th-century patent medicines
