British ‘First Fleet’ brought smallpox to Australia—and may have killed millions

Religious rites, rock concerts, and other transcendent moments stem from directing our attention to “something more than human”

Hydrogen: clean fuel of the future — if we can find a cheap and clean way to ship it

America the Great

Open Thread

Trespassing

In Praise of the World Cup’s Little Guys

Why Some Wealth Gaps Closed—and Others Didn’t

Hannibal, Missouri is a company town, and the local industry is Mark Twain. "The perfume of manufactured nostalgia hangs heavy in the air"

Democratic Capitalism—Not Socialism

The Man Who Invented Online Sports Betting—and Went to Prison for It

The 5th Circuit Says a Houston Cop Reasonably Killed 2 Innocent People Falsely Accused of Selling Heroin

A Natural History of William Kentridge’s Studio

It Wasn’t Just the Founders

Vasily Grossman died believing that his masterpiece had been seized by the KGB and lost forever

Hit by a car, beset by family tragedy, diagnosed with cancer: William T. Vollmann may be dying, but he’s also just finished a 3,000 page opus

Two Ways to Remember the Declaration of Independence

Open Thread

A New Kind of State

Today in Supreme Court History: July 3, 1941

The Hispanic Founder