Nov. 16, 2019 | Chaucer’s family was proud of him. But did he really have to wear a tunic so short that it exposed his loins, in red-and-black hosiery?... more »
Nov. 15, 2019 | “I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child,” wrote Nabokov. So are his interviews at all worthwhile?... more »
Nov. 14, 2019 | When Wittgenstein went to war, the gossip machine quickly determined that he was a burnt-out wreck and a disgrace to the field... more »
Nov. 13, 2019 | Is most modern liberalism just the Christian heresy of Pelagianism by another name? A revisionist critique of John Rawls says yes... more »
Nov. 12, 2019 | Elizabeth Bishop’s dogged pertinacity: She would spend years, even decades, on a poem. Every word, every nuance, had to be perfect... more »
Nov. 11, 2019 | The National Review, American Greatness, and The Claremont Review of Books share a vision of American nationalism. That vision is a lie... more »
Nov. 9, 2019 | Lucian Freud thought Celia Paul was just another pretty muse. But she was a painter herself. Zadie Smith unpacks “museography”... more »
Nov. 8, 2019 | Science is trustworthy because it works, right? Well, most scientific theories throughout history have turned out to be false. Is our time different?... more »
Nov. 7, 2019 | Rivalries, alleged plagiarism, rapturous fandom — the giants of Russia’s golden age of literature had complicated relationships with one another... more »
Nov. 6, 2019 | Lydia Davis is a modern Vermeer, patiently observing everyday life, but from odd and askew angles... more »
Nov. 5, 2019 | In terms of its influence, The Economist has long been a publication like no other. It can plausibly be said to have made the modern world... more »
Nov. 4, 2019 | For García Márquez, the relationship between journalism and fiction was symbiotic: Journalism was an apprenticeship for fiction... more »
Nov. 2, 2019 | Jefferson's lofty vision for the University of Virginia was not shared by its early students. Riots in 1825 brought him to tears... more »
Nov. 1, 2019 | In John Hersey's day, all news was slow news. Hiroshima appeared more than a year after the bombing. The delay contributed to its style, substance, and accuracy... more »
Oct. 31, 2019 | By the end of his life, John Rawls had a stature so great that he shaped the very idea of what philosophy is. Has this become a problem?... more »
Oct. 30, 2019 | Jill Lepore's problem. She is among the most eloquent preachers of the liberal gospel. Yet she's preaching in increasingly radical times... more »
Oct. 29, 2019 | Is the modern world receptive to ancient ideas? A new series of compact and handsome pocket-sized translations seeks to find out... more »
Oct. 28, 2019 | On a February night in 1965, William F. Buckley squared off against James Baldwin. For Buckley, it was his most satisfying debate. For Baldwin, not so much... more »
Oct. 26, 2019 | Howard Zinn told America's story as a simplistic melodrama. But the latest attempt to create an appealing alternative is no less flawed... more »
Oct. 25, 2019 | Wokeness and its discontents. Has social-justice activism devolved into narcissistic sloganeering? Maybe. But the left doesn't have a monopoly on navel-gazing... more »
Oct. 24, 2019 | Auden described poetry as "a way of happening." Poetry matters because it represents the possibilities to which intelligent and humane social life should point... more »
Oct. 23, 2019 | Identity politics was the one form of politics Susan Sontag didn’t want to play. She didn't want to be a Jewish critic, a feminist author, or a lesbian writer... more »
Oct. 22, 2019 | Condé Nast’s formula: “appeal to a moneyed, aspirational readership.” As glossy magazines decline, is anything lost along with the elite tastemaker-editor?... more »
Oct. 21, 2019 | Daniel Mendelsohn's critical art. His commitment to nuance and his synoptic view of a subject, whether ancient or contemporary, make him essential... more »
Oct. 19, 2019 | Germaine Greer's On Rape has been widely lambasted as "deeply ill-informed." That's unfair, says Mary Beard. But that doesn't mean it's a good book... more »