The Latest

“I could trace the origin of this story for pages, back and back and back.”

Sequestration remonstration, shticklomacy in North Korea, and the menagerie of Nutzu the Pawnbroker

A short documentary about a town whose Autolite spark-plug plant moved most of its jobs to Mexico in the wake of NAFTA.

The empty palaces of Rome

How underground comic books helped give rise to Archer

From the introduction to Newman’s magnum opus, In Partial Disgrace

“Tights, 1987–2011,” by Daido Moriyama, whose work appeared in the Readings section of the March issue. © the artist. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London

An adaptation of T. C. Boyle’s short story (Harper’s Magazine, January 2010)

A classic short story about the desperate acts and philosophical consolations of a middle-aged man who has become romantically obsessed with one of his neighbors.

Filmmaker Adam Hall on capturing the dark magic of a T. C. Boyle short story

Papal preparations, Polish diacritics, and Norwegian wood critics

Behind the scenes of recent scandals, Chinese government factions vie for influence

Grief and recovery on the Badlands of North Dakota

Uncle Sam? Not much

Phillip Lopate on eclectic curiosities and the old-school essayists

Michelle Orange on the art of the personal essay, navigating cultural overload, and the distance that separates two human heads

Meteoric tidings, a paraplegic piglet's wheelchair, and Chubby Checker's Chubby Checker check

On the attractions and sway of a master

St. Valentine's Day — Hawking in Central Park. Harper's Magazine, March 1879.

If the president wants the public’s support, he should be making a forceful case for spending

Pope Benedict XVI retires, as does the world’s most prolific streaker

Jetty, Niger Delta. A man arrives at the end of the day to sell ice cream to children who have finished helping unload diesel fuel from the creeks. © Samuel James

Please join photographer Samuel James and Harper’s Magazine art director Stacey D. Clarkson on Tuesday, February 12, for a discussion of James’s work.

Guns, the big game, and circular fast-food logic

Behind the rescue of Mali’s historic manuscripts

Alex Gibney on his documentary investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex-abuse cases

A core piece in the canon of criticism on criticism

Please join Harper’s Magazine associate editor Christopher Beha at the New School on Monday, February 4, for a panel discussion on the role of critics.

The photography of Richard Ross, who won a National Magazine Award for his work in Harper’s, is exhibiting at the Feldman Gallery until February 16.

Inauguration week politics, Aramaic vowel preservation, and Canadian foreskin awareness