He took George Washington’s and John Quincy Adams’s anti-imperialist admonitions to heart; he spoke passionately about the ...

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I led a virtual discussion of War and Peace, with the thought that someone else might enjoy reading the novel with me. Three thousand people ended up ...

This month’s Letters section is devoted to remembrances of Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024), the editor of Harper’s Magazine from 1976 to 1981 and from 1983 to 2006. I first worked for Lewis just out of ...

From Mysticism, which was published last month by New York Review Books. “Mysticism” is the word for what we modern, critical philosophers are meant to distrust in the name of enlightenment. It is all ...

The AARP stands for nothing. In 1999, the group announced that its four-letter initialism, which for more than forty years had denoted the American Association of Retired Persons, would thenceforth ...

From Mourning a Breast, which was published in July by New York Review Books. Translated from the Chinese by Jennifer Feeley. Every fall, my friends and I get together to admire the lanterns of the ...

Lewis H. Lapham’s correspondence with Henry Kissinger can be read here. Lewis H. Lapham wanted to be remembered as a literary man and an essayist, and no one should begrudge his… ...

From a letter sent in August by Rachel Chambliss, the executive director of operations for the Satanic Temple, to members of the Osceola County school board in Florida. Dear members, On behalf of the ...

Does anyone believe in college education anymore? Republicans certainly don’t—a mere 19 percent of them expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education in a Gallup poll ...

From the Archive Timeless stories from our 174-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day.

Factor by which Americans are more likely to disapprove of a woman’s election to the presidency than a person of color’s ...