Essay Archives

The Spy

by Rachel Cusk,

On seeing without being seen

My Generation

by Justin E. H. Smith,

Anthem for a forgotten cohort

Doctor’s Orders

by Jason Blakely,

COVID-19 and the new science wars

Doing the Work

by Ian Buruma,

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness

Why Are We in Ukraine?

by Benjamin Schwarz, Christopher Layne,

On the dangers of American hubris

The Age of the Crisis of Work

by Erik Baker,

What is the sound of quiet quitting?

The Melancholy Universe

by László F. Földényi,Translated by John Batki,

Michael H. Parkinson reappears on the No. 56 streetcar

Truth Takes a Vacation

by Mark Edmundson,

Trumpism and the American philosophical tradition

Apocalypse Nowish

by Michael Robbins,

The sense of an ending

In the Running

by Sarah Smarsh,

The trials of an almost candidate

Courting Disaster

by Ian MacDougall,

Why liberals should give up on the judiciary

One Manner of Law

by Marilynne Robinson,

The religious origins of American liberalism

Empire Burlesque

by Daniel Bessner,

What comes after the American Century?

Permanent Pandemic

by Justin E. H. Smith,

Will COVID controls keep controlling us?

In the Land of Living Skies

by Suzannah Showler,

Reacquainting ourselves with the night

The Eros Monster

by Agnes Callard,

Breaking free without breaking up

Routine Maintenance

by Meghan O’Gieblyn,

Embracing habit in an automated world

A Posthumous Shock

by Will Self,

How everything became trauma

“Put on the Diamonds”

by Vivian Gornick,

Notes on humiliation

The Portrait Gallery

by Ann Patchett,

What the American Academy of Arts and Letters taught me about death

The Third Force

by Garret Keizer,

On stupidity and transcendence

Men in Dark Times

by Rebecca Panovka,

How Hannah Arendt’s fans misread the post-truth presidency

History As End

by Matthew Karp,

1619, 1776, and the politics of the past

A Complicating Energy

by Elisa Gabbert,

Notes on a year without strangers

When Children Die

by Perri Klass,

Tragedies in the margins of history

Prayer for a Just War

by Greg Jackson,

Finding meaning in the climate fight

Devils in the Deep

by Jill Bialosky,

On suicide and Moby-Dick

Il Maestro

by Martin Scorsese,

Federico Fellini and the lost magic of cinema

The Silenced Majority

by Rana Dasgupta,

Can America still afford democracy?

Is America Ungovernable?

by David Bromwich,

The difference between protest and reform

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