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Christopher Beha

From this author

[Podcast]

Hamed Esmaeilion

The life of an Iranian-Canadian writer and activist in exile

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[Podcast]

The Gen X Novel

Reading Zadie Smith’s 'The Fraud' as Gen X literature

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[Podcast]

Generation X

In his September cover story for Harper’s, Justin E. H. Smith sets out to define Generation X, that nameless cohort wedged between boomers and millennials whose members, in midlife, now…

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[Podcast]

The Lost Child

In the spring of 2001, Benjamin Hale’s six-year-old cousin went missing in the Arkansas Ozarks, prompting one of the largest search-and-rescue missions in Arkansas history. Her miraculous discovery is a…

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[Podcast]

Joyce Carol Oates

In “The Return,” Joyce Carol Oates’s story for the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, a woman visits an old friend whose husband has recently died, only to discover that the…

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[Podcast]

Scientism and COVID-19

In his August cover story for Harper’s Magazine, Jason Blakely argues that an overreliance on scientific authority, or “scientism,” only furthered the divide between those who adhered to and those…

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[Podcast]

Genetic Responsibility in Nigeria

An estimated one out of every four Nigerians is a silent carrier of sickle cell disease, a hemoglobin disorder that can cause serious health problems and even death. With recent…

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[Podcast]

Nancy Lemann

There and back: the author of Lives of the Saints discusses her career, religion, and influences

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[Podcast]

Kate DiCamillo

All ages show: the celebrated children’s book author discusses the art of writing for younger and older audiences

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[Easy Chair]

Sample Truths

One of the few clear goods to have emerged from the social and political turmoil of the past decade is a collapse of faith in public opinion polls. Last fall’s…

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[Podcast]

Thomas Chatterton Williams

On James Baldwin, expatriate writers, and the tension between the United States and France

Host ,Guest
[A Special Supplement]

Life After Trump

Reality after trump Tabloids after trump Movies after trump Relationships after trump Manners after trump Imagination after trump Gold after trump Conversation after trump Punctuation after trump Apologies after trump…

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[Editor’s Desk]

A Novel Approach

This issue marks the debut of two new Harper’s Magazine columnists: Hari Kunzru will now be alternating with Thomas Chatterton Williams in the Easy Chair, while Claire Messud takes over…

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[Editor’s Desk]

Future Sense

In February 2017, one month after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times ran a story by Nate Cohn, with the headline president’s approval ratings are down, but how much…

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[Reviews]

Because God Did Not Relax

The difficult pleasures of William Gaddis

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[Editor’s Desk]

The Letter and Its Discontents

On July 7, we published on our website an open letter signed by more than one hundred and fifty prominent writers, artists, and scholars. “The free exchange of information and…

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[Editor’s Desk]

Fighting Words

Ever since a New York Times newsroom revolt over a controversial op-ed, American media—if not American society at large—has been engaged in another round of debate about the limits of…

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[Editor’s Desk]

Reality Check

On the morning of May 26, Donald Trump posted a pair of tweets about voting by mail. “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than…

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[Editor’s Desk]

States of Emergency

When President Trump announced several months ago that the spread of the novel coronavirus constituted a national emergency, he invoked—whether he knew it or not—the National Emergencies Act, the 1976…

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[Editor’s Desk]

Tests of Time

Among the many things disrupted by the spread of the novel coronavirus and the global mobilization against it has been our sense of time. In part, this is simply the…

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[Podcast]

Tests of Time

Making a magazine during a pandemic

Host ,Guest
[Reviews]

Difficulties Everywhere

Can Kierkegaard tell us how to live?

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[Reviews]

How to Read the Bible

The gospel according to John (and Karen)

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[Easy Chair]

Winning the Peace

In October 1939, C. S. Lewis delivered a sermon at Oxford’s University Church, later published under the title “Learning in War-Time.” World War II had been under way for just a…

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[Reviews]

Mallo My!

Spain’s answer to Knausgaard arrives in English

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[Reviews]

Ove and Out

Knausgaard’s struggle comes to an end

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[Reviews]

Head-Scratcher

Can neuroscience finally explain consciousness?

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[New Books]

New Books

Conversion tales are perennially popular, but there is less of an audience for stories about what comes after — the daily struggle to live out your faith when the first…

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[Reviews]

Metaphysics In a Teacup

Annie Dillard gets pickled

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[Commentary]

Part of the Problem

Jonathan Chait's flawed attack on David Bromwich's critique of Barack Obama's presidency
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[Commentary]

A Legitimate Distinction

In defense of the PEN America Center's decision to give Charlie Hebdo its Freedom of Expression Courage Award
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[Reviews]

How Much Damage Can It Do?

On the intellectual element in modern fiction

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[Readings]

Nymphéamaniac

From La Colère du Tigre, a play by Philippe Madral about the friendship between Georges Clemenceau and Claude Monet, which premiered at the Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris in September. After…

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[From the Vault]

John R. Tunis’s “The Olympic Games” (1928)

Is it worth carrying on with the Olympic Games?
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[Reviews]

Does Mailer Matter?

The Young Writer and the last literary celebrity

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[Six Questions]

The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village

Anna Badkhen on life in rural Afghanistan and the friction between violence and beauty
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[Commentary]

The Literary Response to Radical Atheism

Christopher R. Beha is an associate editor of Harper’s Magazine. His first novel, What Happened to Sophie Wilder, was published in June by Tin House Books. In the current issue…

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[Reviews]

Reason for Living

The good life without God

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

As the occupation of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan finished its first month, the Occupy Wall Street movement spread to cities and college campuses across the United States and to…

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[Commentary]

Notes on the For-profit University Trough

Christopher R. Beha is an associate editor of Harper’s Magazine. His last article for the magazine, “Supernumerary,” appeared in the March 2011 issue. His first novel will be published next…

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[Report]

Leveling the Field

What I learned from for-profit education

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

An earthquake with a Richter magnitude of 5.9 and an epicenter in Mineral, Virginia, shook much of the East Coast, and Irene, a Category 1 hurricane, made landfall in North…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

A bomb exploded at the Norwegian capitol building in Oslo, killing eight people. Hours later, a gunman opened fire at an island camp for young members of Norway’s ruling Labor…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Former senator John Edwards was indicted for soliciting contributions to his 2008 presidential campaign that were intended for covering up his affair with Rielle Hunter and Hunter’s subsequent pregnancy. Edwards…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya continued air strikes against antigovernment forces as fighting there devolved into civil war. Rebels took control of the oil port at Ras Lanuf but were…

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[Article]

Supernumerary

Onstage with the People’s Opera

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

A gunman opened fire on a “Congress on Your Corner” event held by Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.) in a mall in Tucson, killing six people and wounding more than…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Mail bombs sent from Yemen and addressed to a Chicago synagogue were intercepted by law enforcement officials in Britain and Dubai acting on a last minute tip, by way of…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Two thousand seven hundred twenty-two days after U.S. troops crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, U.S. combat operations there officially ended. Vice President Joseph Biden arrived to usher in ”Operation…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Wikileaks released thousands of military field reports from six years of the war in Afghanistan, including several asserting that representatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence met with Taliban leaders to coordinate…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Israeli naval commandos raided the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship in an aid flotilla that sought to circumvent Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and killed nine people.New York TimesAccording to Israeli…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

After weeks of gentle rumbling, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, covering Northern Europe with black ash and shutting down airports as far away as Ukraine. The disruption in international travel was…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Amid hundreds of rocket and mortar explosions that killed dozens of people throughout the country, Iraq held parliamentary elections. Large numbers of Sunnis, who had boycotted previous elections, voted. “We…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

President Barack Obama addressed the nation with the results of a security review he ordered after the failed Christmas Day underwear bombing. “We are at war against Al Qaeda,” he…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other accused September 11 plotters would be tried in federal court in lower Manhattan. “It is fitting that 9/11…

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[Article]

Voodoo Academics

Brandeis University's hard lesson in the real economy

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

After months of negotiation by the bipartisan “gang of six” in the Senate, Senator Max Baucus unveiled his $776-billion health-care reform bill, which is supported by none of the gang’s…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Protesters supporting Mir Hussein Moussavi clashed with security forces throughout Iran as Moussavi called for further civil disobedience and the nullification of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president. “I am ready…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

The Sri Lankan government declared an end to their 26-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, after a final battle in which Tiger leader Vellupillai…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

The Senate passed a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that included more than 8,000 congressional earmarks, among them provisions for improving blueberry products in Georgia and controlling the spread of…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

The House and Senate reached agreement on a $789 billion economic-stimulus plan, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law despite a lack of support from Republicans.New York…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

The war between Israel and Hamas entered its third week as Israeli forces pushed into heavily populated areas of Gaza City. A UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, which…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Israel bombed Hamas targets in Gaza for three days, killing at least 300 people, 50 of them civilians, and blowing up a mosque and a television station. Palestinians seeking to…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Barack Obama was elected the 44th president, and first African-American president, of the United States, receiving 365 electoral votes in an election that saw perhaps the highest turnout among registered…

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[Weekly Review]

Weekly Review

Stocks on Wall Street and other exchanges throughout the world dropped as brokerage Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America, insurance giant AIG sought tens of billions of dollars…

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