Autumn 2018

Cover Story

Stress Test for Free Speech

Social media are destroying the democratic culture that the First Amendment is meant to protect

by Lincoln Caplan

Articles

Finding Time

Geochronologists establish precise dates for events that occurred eons ago

by Michael W. Robbins

Dangerous Ground

When confronting matters of race, some boundaries are more easily breached than others

by David Gessner

Present Tense

Even in this interminable drugstore line, my daughter’s last summer before college is slipping by far too quickly

by Laura Bernstein-Machlay

My Family’s Siberian Exile

A writer pieces together the forgotten history of life in Stalin’s special settlements

by Megan Buskey

The End of Literature

Even if writing is reduced to tweeted epigrams to keep readers reading, won’t writers still tell stories?

by Robert Coover

Departments

Book Essay

Bringing In the Horse

Bringing In the Horse

Virgil’s account of the sacking of Troy has similarities to the political situation of our day

Mary Lefkowitz

Book Reviews

The Loyal Opposition

The Loyal Opposition

A timely new biography of an avatar of courage and bipartisanship

Richard Moe
A Poet in Purgatory

A Poet in Purgatory

An inside look at a literary marriage that ended in disaster

Sandra M. Gilbert
The Runaway Question

The Runaway Question

How people fleeing bondage helped transform the nation

Louis P. Masur
The House for the Soul

The House for the Soul

Investigating the rhythmic beat at the center of our lives

Raj Telhan
Lives of the Artists

Lives of the Artists

The vistas and losses of two great English painters

Meryle Secrest
A Proximity to Greatness

A Proximity to Greatness

How a reclusive writer’s work came to be published

Jerome Charyn