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Articles

Terms of Surrender

It was in the fall of 1941 that the question of atomic energy was first brought directly to my attention. At that time President Roosevelt appointed a committee to advise…

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Crossing Guards

When private ownership of a bridge gets old

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“I am Here Only for Working”

Conversations with the petroleum brotherhood in the UAE

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Dear Rose

Introduction by Ben Lerner Oceans and roses are surely among the most shopworn images in poetry, as Ocean Vuong is well aware: “I place your finger on a flower so…

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Framing The Shadows

The luminary vision of W. Eugene Smith

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The Year of The Frog

To look at him, Sweet Macho was a beautiful horse, lean and strong with muscles that twitched beneath his shining black coat. A former racehorse, he carried himself with ceremony,…

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New Books

When you consider the savagery of your run-of-the-mill fairy tale, our use of the term to connote “romance” or “idealization” smacks of nothing more than romance and idealization — a…

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Dead Ball Situation

A philosopher’s flat-footed meditations on the beautiful game

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The Cost of Living

Elizabeth Hardwick’s political conscience

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Findings

Economics students behave more selfishly than do arts majors and science majors in monetary experiments because they expect less from others. Anger shifts people toward fiscal conservatism. Deviance spurs bonding…

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Letters

Book Collective Jonathan Dee’s reflections on the status of the social novel are a welcome critique of contemporary writing, but his argument is compromised by an elision in his survey…

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Preaching to The Choir

Once, on a river-rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, I traveled with a charming, good-humored man who happened to run an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He liked…

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Harper’s Index

Number of U.S. states in which legislation has been proposed this year to protect drivers who strike protesters : 6 Percentage of Americans who say they support “white nationalism” :…

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The Working Classroom

By Malcolm Harris, from Kids These Days, a book about millennials that was published this month by Little, Brown.

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Sex Machina

From a study presented last year at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, in New Zealand. Participants were asked their opinion of various capabilities a sex robot might have. They…

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The Trial

By Maria Alyokhina, from Riot Days, a memoir. Alyokhina is a member of the music group and art collective Pussy Riot, along with Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. In February…

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Not Safe For Work

From a complaint filed by Elizabeth Scott against UploadVR in a California Superior Court in May. UploadVR is a virtual reality company based in San Francisco. Scott, who was hired…

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How?

From a folktale collected in Virginia in 1974 that is included in The Annotated African American Folktales, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar. The anthology was published…

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Shaking with Fear

From a verbal report given by Harold Howard to Kurt Castaldo, a deputy in the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County, Florida, in December 2015. Howard alleged that Yousef Muslet…

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An Off Pursuit

From a draft of a letter written in 1940 by Joan Murray (1917–42) to W. H. Auden (1907–73). The letter is included in Drafts, Fragments, and Poems, a collection of…

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Chasing Waterfalls

By László Krasznahorkai, from a story included in The World Goes On, which will be published this month by New Directions. Krasznahorkai is the author of numerous novels and books…

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II

By George Oppen (1908–84), from 21 Poems, a collection of previously unpublished works that was released in August by New Directions. Oppen was the author of seven volumes of poetry.…

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Total Eclipse of the Heart

From a Craigslist ad posted in the San Francisco area in August, preceding a total solar eclipse that passed over Oregon and other parts of the United States.

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December 2017

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