Fiction Meets Chaos Theory
Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel tweaks American history and traces the disorienting consequences.
Book Review
Rewriting the Book of Genesis
Cast into political exile, and into darkness by his failing eyesight, John Milton was determined to accomplish “things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”
Beware Prophecies of Civil War
The idea that such a catastrophe is unavoidable in America is inflammatory and corrosive.
The Kleptocrats Next Door
The United States has a dirty-money problem.
The Impossible Politics of Johnny Cash
He was beloved by Americans who could agree on little else. Was he too eager to please?
Let the Record Show Is an Essential Story of the AIDS Movement
Sarah Schulman’s outstanding book is an exemplary model for creating a more complete history of a political movement.
The Martial Art I Can’t Live Without
Brazilian jiu-jitsu has been compared to chess, philosophy, even psychoanalysis. But its real appeal is on the mat.
Emerson Didn’t Practice the Self-Reliance He Preached
How Transcendentalism, the American philosophy that championed the individual, caught on in tight-knit Concord, Massachusetts
Animals of the Future
Lizards’ feet are morphing, squid are shrinking, rats’ teeth are getting shorter. What’s in store for us?
Why Did Dostoyevsky Write Crime and Punishment?
He had no choice.