Celestial Jukebox

The paradox of intellectual property

What Is It Good For?

How the American military went from defense to offense

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War By Andrew J. Bacevich

Socrates' Mistake

The philosopher’s view of knowledge—forever demanding explanations, justifications, definitions, and criteria—is fantasy, and a dangerous fantasy

Battle of Anacostia

The bonus army and its unexpected legacy

The Bonus Army: An American Epic By Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen

A Standard Oil Childhood

Oil refeneries, sand dunes, and other objects of beauty and affection

Response to Our Winter Issue

The Big Roundup

John Lomax roamed the West, collecting classic songs from the cowboy era

Findings: Swept Away

The Glue Is Gone

The things that held us together as individuals and as a people are being lost. Can we find them again?

Thoreau’s Landscape Within

How he came to know nature, and through it came to know himself

Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism By David M. Robinson

Lindsey Weber

Relationships that define us

“Muse Circe Reclaims Her Lucre”

Five new prompts

In the Endless Arctic Light

A journey to the far north of Norway means confronting our changing climate

The Bears

“Faustina, or, Rock Roses” by Elizabeth Bishop

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Family/History

David Levering Lewis digs into his own origin story

In the Lions’ Studio

A new dual biography turns the lens on the towering architects of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equationby Kenneth Turan

Such People

“My Mother on an Evening in Late Summer” by Mark Strand

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Kyung Kim

Far over the misty mountains

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