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Beinecke Library/Yale University

Edith Wharton Reveals the 'Deeper Processes' Behind Her Art

In a 1933 Atlantic article, the novelist shared her elaborate, self-aware approach to writing.

  • Ann Hulbert
February 13, 2015
A diamond engagement ring on a blue background
Koshy Koshy/Flickr

How an Ad Campaign Invented the Diamond Engagement Ring

In the 1930s, few Americans proposed with the precious stone. Then everything changed.

  • Uri Friedman
February 13, 2015
McCall's

Why Fashion Magazines Matter

A century after being ridiculed in a 1911 Atlantic article, haute couture has evolved from pretty clothes into a powerful voice of our times.

  • Tanya Basu
February 12, 2015
AP

Americans Didn't Always Worship the Founding Fathers

After the Civil War, the men who framed the Constitution gradually rose to become the Ghosts of Democracy Past: courageous, learned, and super-judgey.

  • Matt Thompson
February 12, 2015
Reuters

John Updike's 'Pygmalion'

In the 1981 Atlantic short story, a man can’t understand a social gathering until his wife reenacts it for him later in the evening.

  • Noah J. Gordon
February 11, 2015
Wikimedia/The Atlantic

Helen Keller Puts the Smackdown on Mansplaining

In her 1932 Atlantic article, "Put Your Husband in the Kitchen," the writer mocks people who have lost sight of the purpose of work—men, mostly.

  • Emma Green
February 11, 2015
A. Loeffler souvenir postcard

Revisiting 'New York After Paris'

In 1906, just as today, people loved the American metropolis less for its beauty than its vibrant energy.

  • Conor Friedersdorf
February 10, 2015
Wikimedia Commons

But Seriously, ‘Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?'

In 1859, The Atlantic published an essay asking a simple—and very, very complicated—question.

  • Megan Garber
February 9, 2015
Murray Becker/AP

Who Wouldn't Want to Marry a Jew?

A tone-deaf Atlantic article from 1939 serves as a cautionary tale today.

  • Olga Khazan
February 4, 2015
The Atlantic

Advice: Don't Try to Write Like David Foster Wallace

Marvel at his style, but don't imitate it.

  • Spencer Kornhaber
February 3, 2015
A cropped version of a daguerreotype of Oliver Wendell Holmes, showing just his face.
Library of Congress

The Best Sentence in Atlantic History?

After the Battle of Antietam, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a gripping story about his search for his wounded son. But one of the most memorable lines had nothing to do with the Civil War.

  • Jennie Rothenberg Gritz
February 3, 2015
AP

Still Wanted: Better Politicians

In 1955, the mayor of Philadelphia complained that elected office didn't attract America's best minds. His diagnosis and solutions still seem relevant today.

  • David A. Graham
February 3, 2015
Flickr/Wikimedia/The Atlantic

Some Words from Sylvia Plath and Betty Friedan's Forgotten Sister

Before The Bell Jar and The Feminine Mystique, another young Smith College grad had some sharp words for the cookie-cutter lives American women were expected to lead.

  • Lenika Cruz
February 3, 2015
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