America’s Indispensable Man

America’s Most Enduring Belief Is Also One of Its Most Dangerous

On America's 250th Birthday, the United States Arms the World's Tyrannies

After 250 Years, Are America's Best Days Still Ahead?

American Brands Seem Lukewarm on America’s Birthday

1776 All-Stars: George Washington Was a Model of Restraint

It Wasn’t Just the Founders

Mignon Dunn (1928 – 2026) Mezzo-Soprano

Artur Dmitriev (1968 – 2026) Ice Skater

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

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

America’s Promise and Achievement

A Natural History of William Kentridge’s Studio

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

Synthetic Cells to Sell Synthetic Biology

Original Intent of the Declaration

Birthright Blunders

Where Kant and Rousseau theorized, George Forster sailed the world to learn what makes humans human

The Mirror of 1776

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

Open Thread