In Search of William Tell
Seven hundred years ago, William Tell shot an arrow through an apple on his son's head and launched the struggle for Swiss independence. Or did he?
Mountain of the Lord
Beyond the war zone, Mount Sinai remains a refuge in a landscape of strife
Trouble in Paradise
The idyllic Mediterranean retreat of Corsica also harbors homegrown terrorists, bent on achieving the island's secession from France
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Yalta: Witness to History
When the Big Three Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin convened at this fabled Crimean seaside resort in 1945, the whole world was watching
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Cyprus Lives in Love and Strife
Despite ethnic tensions, today's tourists can't resist the past and present of this ancient Mediterranean crossroads
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Chief Justice Marshall Takes the Law in Hand
Upsetting Presidents and setting precedents, he helped forge a nation
The Man Who Dreamed Up Madeline
A dashing nonconformist himself, Ludwig Bemelmans conferred a winning waywardness on his headstrong heroine
For Whom the Bell Tolled
In the Spanish Civil War, as a horrified world watched, the future of Europe seemed at stake
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Books, Books, Books, My Lord!
After 140 triumphant years as cultural icon, and 35 years of fuss, the Reading Room of the British Museum is now open at a new address
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Declaring an Open Season on the Wisdom of the Ages
Under the stewardship of scholars Diderot and d'Alembert, the 18th-century's Encyclopédie championed fact and freedom of the intellect
He Huffed and He Puffed Et Voila! Un Chateau Redux
Richard Hurbain is no Bourbon, but with pail, shovel and plenty of true grit, he rescued an old castle from rack, ruin and red tape
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A Woman Writ Large in Our History and Hearts
The free-spirited author George Sand scandalized 19th-century Paris when she defied convention and pioneered an independent path for women
The Rise, and Fall, of a Fervid Third Party
In the 1850s, a burgeoning coalition of self- proclaimed nativists, or Know-Nothings, swept into office and called out for radical change
Rising From the Sea, the Mysterious Handwork of Giants
On the tiny Mediterranean islands of Malta, massive megaliths constitute a singular treasure: the oldest freestanding stone monuments
Let's Hear It for the Lowly Sound Bite!
In which it is amply demonstrated that the sound bite, long a pariah of pundits and pooh-bahs, is really a help meet to man
Where You Went if You Really Had to Get Unhitched
In the days when divorce was still a sin and a shame, the city of Reno grew rich and infamous, catering to domestic disharmony
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