• How America Got Mean

    In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world. (From 2023)

    Mirror shards arranged in the shape of the United States, reflecting a tree and the sky
    Illustration by Ricardo Tomás
  • Why Study History?

    Civic education can help us to see that not all problems have solutions, to live with tentative answers, to accept compromise, to embrace responsibilities as well as rights—to understand that democracy is a way of living, not a settled destination. (From 1988)

    A cartoony illustration of the heads of several presidents, dictators, and other symbols of war and hatred such as the swastika, all emerging from an open book with empty pages
    The Atlantic
  • The First Troll

    The wicked vendettas of Thomas De Quincey, the author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (From 2016)

    Jason Raish

Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Atlantic’s journalism, in the print edition and online.

Subscribe