Autumn 2019

Cover Story

Moral Courage and the Civil War

Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present and has an inescapable effect on the future

by Elizabeth D. Samet

Cover Story

Reflections on a Silent Soldier

After the television cameras went away, a North Carolina city debated the future of its toppled Confederate statue

by Robin Kirk

Articles

New World Prophecy

Dvořák once predicted that American classical music would be rooted in the black vernacular. Why, then, has the field remained so white?

by Joseph Horowitz

The Crisis of University Research

Academia’s pursuit of corporate and government dollars has undermined its commitment to learning

by Richard Drake

Required Reading

Sometimes teachers need to reach beyond the canon

by Anne P. Beatty

How I Learned to Talk

Conversation once offered entry into other people’s minds. Has that disappeared?

by Emily Fox Gordon

Departments

Book Reviews

Photo of Oliver Sacks

Head Cases

Field notes on a beautiful friendship

T. M. Luhrmann
Etching of 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester

The Great Convergence

How continental art and literature went global

Anka Muhlstein
Black and white photo of Susan Sontag

Image Is Not Everything

A definitive portrait of a celebrated American intellectual

Steven G. Kellman
Painting of Saint Augustine

Spirits in the Material World

Two new books consider the past and present of Christendom

B. D. McClay
Photo of Frank Lloyd Wright

He Contained Multitudes

Exploring the psychology of an iconoclastic architect

Amanda Kolson Hurley
Illustration of the body

How We Work

An anatomical tour of what it means to be human

Raj Telhan
Downsized Living

Downsized Living

Escaping the city, a writer finds contentment in a small town

Bruce Falconer