A controversial new history of Communism suggests that most everything we think we know about it is wrong
By Andrew O'Hehir Jul 3, 2009
-
This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the riots. We spoke to some of the people who were there
By Jacqueline Linge
June 27, 2009
-
What is the deal with Western men's erotic obsession with the East?
By Laura Miller
June 16, 2009
-
In an era of wealth and excess, 19th century French anarchists introduced terrorism as we know it. Can a fascinating new history help us understand our own violent times?
By Andrew O'Hehir
February 27, 2009
-
The trend in sports books is to claim that a single contest changed the course of history. Sure it did.
By King Kaufman
February 26, 2009
-
We write and we write and we write on the Net, dispensing thoughts and advice. For what?
By Cary Tennis
February 4, 2009
-
In "The Invention of Air," Steven Johnson creates a fascinating portrait of Joseph Priestley, a friend of Franklin and Jefferson and a freethinker who changed history.
By Andrew O'Hehir
January 9, 2009
-
Our picks for the 10 most pleasurable fiction and nonfiction reading experiences of the year.
By Laura Miller
December 8, 2008
-
The billion-dollar scrapbooking industry may be cheesy, but as author Jessica Helfand explains, there's rich history in that glitter and glue.
By Joy Press
December 4, 2008
-
From Jim Crow laws to workplace discrimination, the history of race and the American courtroom is incendiary.
By Laura Miller
November 10, 2008
-
"Sea of Poppies," set in Calcutta, is a swashbuckling saga full of sadists, weaklings and tyrants -- and, thankfully, there are two more volumes to come.
By Laura Miller
October 14, 2008
-
News item: 1755 diary mentions baseball in England. That's nice, but we already had a 1744 reference. Not to mention David Wells.
By King Kaufman
September 17, 2008
-
Peter Trachtenberg took a tour around the world in his quest to understand why some people are crushed by suffering and others are transformed by it.
By Louis Bayard
September 5, 2008
-
How do we know what we know? A new book takes a long view of knowledge, from ancient oral traditions to the rise of universities and the Internet.
By Laura Miller
August 28, 2008
-
Giordano Bruno has been called a martyr to science and an occultist, but a new book argues that the brilliant philosopher's unconventional behavior did him in.
By Laura Miller
August 25, 2008
-
Can great art spring from a lie? Two new books about forgers raise provocative questions about the links between authenticity and genius.
By Louis Bayard
August 14, 2008
-
The 9-year-old narrator of the heartbreaking "When We Were Romans" flees family chaos through literature.
By Laura Miller
July 24, 2008
-
Who invented jokes, and why do we laugh at them? Jim Holt discusses the history of funny.
By James Hannaham
July 21, 2008
-
I hit the wall in my dead-end job, I'm sleeping on a friend's floor, but I have a dream!
By Cary Tennis
July 7, 2008
-
In Salman Rushdie's satisfying fairy tale "The Enchantress of Florence," magic and history entwine -- and so do a middle-aged emperor and a sexy princess.
By Laura Miller
June 13, 2008
-
For years America has desperately tried to outlaw sodomy and other sex acts like fellatio and cunnilingus. What are we so scared of?
By Louis Bayard
June 12, 2008
-
Eccentric scholar Joseph Needham devoted his life to documenting the brilliant innovations of Chinese civilization -- and the mystery of why the West eclipsed it.
By Andrew Leonard
May 19, 2008
-
Forget the Pilgrims. America's roots are older and more twisted, what Tony Horwitz calls a "primordial slime of false starts and mutations."
By Louis Bayard
May 9, 2008
-
An infamous 1976 photo captured a violent encounter between white Bostonians and a black lawyer during an anti-busing rally. A new book explains why this image continues to haunt and define us.
By Louis Bayard
April 28, 2008
-
A new book argues that the '60s counterculture achieved nothing of lasting importance. So why does the era continue to fascinate us?
By Gary Kamiya
April 9, 2008
The un-American way of life
Remembering the Stonewall riots
White male seeking sexy Asian women
Bomb the middle class
Best! Game! Ever! Played! 
Will our words ever be heard again?
Father of the ecosystem
Salon Book Awards 2008
Beyond the valley of the doilies
Are you white enough?
"Sea of Poppies"
So much misery, so little time 
The road to Wikipedia
The heretic
A fraud's life
The history boy
The good humor man
Rushdie the romantic
Kiss my ass
The China syndrome
Is everything we know about American history wrong?
Flagging America's racial divide
Through a bong, darkly
GigaOM Network
Joan Walsh
Broadsheet