In their new account of the 2020 election, two New York Times reporters reveal just how broken American democracy has become.
The marine biologist Rachel Carson saw immense value in helping the public cultivate a sense of wonder.
In The Last Days of Roger Federer, Geoff Dyer writes about what happens when creative geniuses age—but he might need to do some maturing himself.
In a new biography of the man whose murder sparked massive protests, two reporters tell a longer story of institutional racism.
A new book explores several major “mother-artists” of the mid-to-late-20th century, and how they managed to be both.
The Origins of Totalitarianism has much to say about a world of rising authoritarianism.
The index has a fascinating history and holds a special place for one obsessive who sees it as a sort of conceptual map.
When the revolutionary intellectual found her voice, she helped a generation of Black Kentucky women writers find theirs too.
Can a serious and heartfelt dialogue between two famous friends heal our national wounds?
Cultish, a new book by the linguist Amanda Montell, reveals how insidery language informs the communities of modern life.
A captivating new history helps us see the humble appliance’s sweeping influence on modern life.
One man’s journey through public waterways—whether sparkling or dirty or algae-filled—challenges us to look differently at the commons.
New York is getting more out of the domestic oil boom than North Dakota ever will.
His early translated works, the subject of a fascinating new book, shed light on the business of bringing the best-selling novelist to a global audience.
The writer and activist has the painful, powerful words for this political moment. America just needs to heed them.
Alaric the Goth wanted to be part of the empire. Instead he helped bring it down.
Before she died, Emily Hale donated love letters she had received from the author while his wife was ill. Now public, the writings reveal his quiet duplicity.
A recent work by the late critic Clive James about his literary idol, Philip Larkin, artfully examines the complex poet’s canon.
A new book, from the hosts of the Switched on Pop podcast, approaches the genre with laserlike focus and palpable enthusiasm.
How to assess an artist who was ruthless—and revealing—in work and life