If You Want a Better World, Act Like You Live in It
We’ve had Henry David Thoreau the environmentalist, the libertarian, the life coach. To understand his influence, think of him first as a dissident.
Books
Introducing The Atlantic’s expanded books coverage: essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and recommendations from our writers and editors
The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About
A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he?
The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
What Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?
Her new memoir captures the cost of being an impossibly popular target.
The Eighth Deadly Sin
Humankind has devised a new form of debasement.
Six Books That Simply Must Be Talked About
These six books demand discussion—with a pal, a date, or a book club.
Nine Books to Reset Your View of the World
Each of these titles will widen your perspective, offering you original insight and vision.
Seven Books to Read When You Have No Time to Read
These titles are worth picking up, even if you have only a moment to spare.
Six Books You Can Get Lost In
These novels highlight the power—both good and bad—of unchecked fantasizing.
Newsletter
The Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
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Scars
A short story
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
The Atlantic 10
The books that made us think the most this year
The Underrated Part of Jane Birkin’s Legacy
Stylish face? Secret visionary? A new book argues for a different approach to the late actor.
Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir
Can American Canto turn scandal into literature?
What History’s Fallen Societies Have in Common
A new book argues that civilizations built on centralized wealth and power contain the seeds of their own destruction.
The Long History of the Hamnet Myth
The belief that his son’s death inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet is itself inspired by an enduring, compelling, and highly questionable theory.
The Eloquence
A poem
The Germans Who Stood Up to Hitler
And the Germans who didn’t
The Great Mystery of Drumming
It’s about the flow of Time, not just keeping the beat.
The Culture War Comes to the Kitchen
How the politics of food brought together the crunchy left and the trad right
What Sam Shepard Couldn’t Outrun
The actor, playwright, and self-made cowboy was also a poet of masculine angst.