The Idol of Our Age is a learned essay at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. It is a diagnosis and critique of the secular religion of our time, humanitarianism, or the “religion of...
December 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Aleksandr Isaievech Solzhenitsyn. A writer of immense talent and spiritual... Read More
Observer critics pick their must reads of 2018, from life in 50s Harlem to a tale about the Troubles via Michael Wolff's lurid profile of... Read More
Like all of Andrew Roberts's histories, Churchill is massively researched and exquisitely written.1 The author's sharp sense of humor is... Read More
“I think news is incredibly important to society and democracy,” Mark Zuckerberg told a group of editors and media executives in... Read More
The American left, which has sometimes been poor in institutions, has always been wealthy in political philosophy—and you can see the... Read More
The Southern Catholic literary pantheon may have a new elder stateswoman enshrined soon, if Christine Flanagan has anything to say about... Read More
When the Social Security program launched in the mid-1930s, it was the concept of the SSN—the Social Security number, that unique... Read More
One could make the case that Yale professor Joanne Freeman is obsessed with people getting shot. And we should be grateful. Freeman, who has... Read More
Decades before the rise of social media, polarisation plagued discussions about language. By and large, it still does. Everyone who cares... Read More
As you would guess, Smithsonian scholars, in their pursuit of knowledge, are voracious readers. This year, they dove into innumerable titles,... Read More
The Idol of Our Age is a learned essay at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. It is a diagnosis and critique of the secular religion of our time, humanitarianism, or the “religion of...
Was America born capitalist? it is often asked. Ever since Max Weber proposed a causal relationship between early Protestants' longing... Read More
My novel, which had been given the title My Struggle 1, had been written in solitude. Apart from my publisher Geir Gulliksen and best friend... Read More
The story of Agrippina's death is well known, but remains mostly remarkable for the farcical way it was carried out. Had it been dreamed up... Read More
In his speech at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, September 24, 2016,... Read More
This is a superb biography. Yet it begins in the most inauspicious place. It is 1964, and Saul Bellow has just become absurdly rich and famous. His struggle, doubt, grit, immigrant story, artistic dreams — all were told in Volume 1 of Zachary Leader's biography, “To Fame and Fortune.” Here in Volume 2, “Love and Strife,” the novel “Herzog” is published on the very first page and reac Read More
When Apollo 8 launched Dec. 21, 1968, the first manned flight to leave low Earth orbit gave its astronauts an unprecedented view: the entire planet. It's strange to think that only 50 years have passed since humans were first able to see the whole globe, especially considering how long they have been drawing maps.In his gorgeous book, “Theater of the World,” Thomas Reinertsen Berg provides d Read More
