Shayla Lawson: All of Us Came from the Same Root
The poet and essayist Shayla Lawson, author of This Is Major, talks about the meaning of race, Black History Month, and her love for Lizzo.
“Grangerization” Made Beautiful Books Even Better
But the eighteenth-century readerly hobby angered critics, who saw it as a “monstrous practice.”
Wounded Knee and the Myth of the Vanished Indian
The story of the 1890 massacre was often about the end of Native American resistance to US expansion. But that’s not how everyone told it.
“To Reach the Pure Realm of the Imaginary:” A Conversation with Cixin Liu
The science fiction author Cixin Liu is best known for his mind-bending trilogy The Three Body Problem.
The Invention of the Archive
Seventeenth-century scholars were horrified by how much ancient knowledge had been lost when the monasteries dispersed.
Editors’ Picks: What We’re Reading
The history of Native resistance, the philosophy of love, the medicalization of madness, color in fairy tales, and dinosaur bones.
The Anti-Jewish Tropes in How the Grinch Stole Christmas
You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You’re in keeping with the medieval tradition of viewing the Jew as an outcast and a baleful force in society.
Who Decides Which Books Are “Great?”
The concept of “Great Books," the historian Tim Lacy explains, developed in the late nineteenth century as an attempt to foster a “democratic culture.”
The Patron Saint of Bookstores
100 years ago, Sylvia Beach, the first publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses, opened the doors to her legendary bookstore, Shakespeare & Co.
Burn This Book!
Li Zhi’s exasperation with the corruption, greed, and superficiality of the powerbrokers in his society fueled his rebellious writing.