March 3, 2020 | The computer is a greatly misunderstood device, and the misunderstanding matters greatly. Computers can’t think — and that's what makes them valuable... more »
March 2, 2020 | Why is crispy the acme of food textures? We both hear it and feel it. Inside the scientific search for the perfect crunch... more »
Feb. 29, 2020 | “Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Travel and wisdom have long been connected. They are still... more »
Feb. 28, 2020 | David Bromwich warns against the left’s complacency and presents a deeper concern: inhabiting a society without opposition... more »
Feb. 27, 2020 | By 1960, Norman Rockwell's paintings had become kitschy curios at best and objects of derision at worst. Then he underwent a political transformation... more »
Feb. 26, 2020 | Gershwin and race. Whether Rhapsody in Blue or “blackface” numbers like “Swanee,” his work is central to understanding the American soundscape... more »
Feb. 25, 2020 | What burning farms? What looting and rape? Arthur Conan Doyle’s time in the Boer War was marked by patriotic zeal... more »
Feb. 24, 2020 | Madame Yale sermonized on beauty, compared herself to Helen of Troy, and sold wildly successful tinctures. Then the Feds moved in... more »
Feb. 22, 2020 | The Brideshead Generation’s “lost girls” were known for their dry repartee and sexual dalliances. Their stories deserve telling... more »
Feb. 21, 2020 | “Lean,” “agile, “disruptive.” Corporatespeak has two goals: wasting time and creating the illusion that our work is more interesting than it really is... more »
Feb. 20, 2020 | In 1917, academic conditions in wartime Germany may have seemed moot. Then came Max Weber, modeling how to live an intellectual life... more »
Feb. 19, 2020 | The Salinger novel that wasn’t. Hapworth 16, 1924 was set for a limited, under-the-radar release. Then Amazon.com got involved... more »
Feb. 18, 2020 | Fan fiction has been around since at least the 18th century. Constant through its long history: an emphasis on bawdiness and breaking taboos... more »
Feb. 17, 2020 | Golden age for gossip. While newspapers struggle, one journalistic institution in print has stood the test of time: Page Six... more »
Feb. 15, 2020 | Yuval Noah Hariri thrives in an environment of relative critical neglect. After all, nobody is an expert on the meaning of everything, or the history of everybody... more »
Feb. 14, 2020 | James Fetzer is a prolific philosopher of science — and an advocate for some of the strangest and most odious ideas of our time... more »
Feb. 13, 2020 | Dorothy Parker comprised more than just her wit. Beneath it lay modesty, political commitment, and an acid fatalism... more »
Feb. 12, 2020 | The two Paul Samuelsons. He was an egghead mathematical savant — and also, somehow, the voice of the people... more »
Feb. 11, 2020 | C.S. Lewis, first-class curmudgeon. In a 1957 essay he revealed his mortal enemies: out-of-tune carolers and some kids who broke into his shed... more »
Feb. 10, 2020 | What America means. How the historian Perry Miller discovered America as a "city on a hill," and what he wrought... more »
Feb. 8, 2020 | Museums are increasingly recognizing their complicity with histories of subjugation. In response, they are turning to art that shames... more »
Feb. 7, 2020 | After 15 years of stalled ambition, Jenny Offill broke through. Now she belts Dylan Thomas, mimics squirrels, and creates a literature of climate change... more »
Feb. 6, 2020 | George Steiner, who died this week, was a humanities faculty in himself. But he was never entirely at home in the academy... more »
Feb. 5, 2020 | Bertrand Russell is often regarded as wanting to rid philosophy of ethics. But he had his own ethical theories. What he opposed was using ethics to prop up nationalism... more »
Feb. 4, 2020 | Jerks of academe. If you spot one in the wild — at a conference hotel, across the seminar table — react as if you had seen a bear... more »