Literature
Who Was Casanova?
The personal memoir of history's most famous lover reveals a misunderstood intellectual who befriended the likes of Ben Franklin
April 2012 |
By Tony Perrottet
Books: Teddy Roosevelt: Top Cop, Jonah Lehrer and Other Must-Read Books
TR’s rough ride as New York’s police chief shaped the man who became president just six years later
April 2012 |
By Chloë Schama
The Portrait of Sensitivity: A Photographer in Storyville, New Orleans’ Forgotten Burlesque Quarter
The Big Easy's red light district had plenty of tawdriness going on—except when Ernest J. Bellocq was taking photographs of prostitutes
March 28, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
An American Library in Paris
Founded after World War I, the City of Light's English-language library has long been a haven for expats, including Hemingway
March 25, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
When Humans Are the Prey: 5 Movies That Came Before The Hunger Games
The blockbuster book adaptation isn't the first story to feature televised death matches
March 23, 2012 |
By Daniel Eagan
Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans
His 20-volume masterwork was hailed as "the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible"—and he paid dearly for his ambition
March 21, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
What Shredded Wheat Did for the Navy
The inventor of one of the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereals was also an accidental historian
March 14, 2012 |
By Peter Smith
The Films That Led to Game Change
The HBO film has roots in two acclaimed documentaries that covered the 1992 and 1960 presidential elections
March 09, 2012 |
By Daniel Eagan
Why We Have Sliced Bread
"Here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome," a reporter wrote of the best thing to hit grocery store shelves
March 07, 2012 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Great Walks of the World
The fact that people opt to walk today, in the age of the wheel and the combustion engine, tells us there is something virtuous and irresistible in the plodding of one foot forward after the other
March 06, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
That’s Disgusting
While disgust originally protected us from potential poisons, it eventually gave rise to culturally defining flavors and odors, all perhaps tied to local microbes
March 05, 2012 |
By Peter Smith
The Aftermath of Mountain Meadows
The massacre almost brought the United States to war against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but only one man was brought to trial: John D. Lee
February 29, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
Arabic Manuscripts: It Used To Snow in Iraq
Baghdad was the bustling capital of the vast Islamic Empire a thousand years ago, when the city's climate was much different than today
February 27, 2012 |
By Virginia Hughes
Peeling Open the 1947 Chiquita Banana Cookbook
What do ham banana rolls with cheese sauce and salmon salad tropical have to say about politics?
February 24, 2012 |
By Peter Smith
“A Precise, Beautiful Machine”: John Logan on Writing the Screenplay for Hugo
The Oscar-nominated writer tells how he adapted Brian Selznick's bestseller for the screen.
February 24, 2012 |
By Daniel Eagan
Scientists Move Closer to Creating an Invisibility Cloak
As far as the microwaves were concerned, the 7-inch-long tube did not exist -- is true invisibility that far away?
February 16, 2012 |
By Joseph Stromberg
Nothing Out of the Ordinary: Squirrel Stewed, 1878
A collection of old community cookbooks reflects a changing ecology and a cultural shift: the decline of hunting, chitlins and pig's feet
February 15, 2012 |
By Peter Smith
General Grant in Love and War
The officer who gained glory as a warrior in the Civil War also had a domestic side.
February 14, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
Everything You Wanted to Know About Food and Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
What is the term for a "euphoric sensation upon eating amazingly delicious food"
February 14, 2012 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Brotherhood Spirit in Flesh Soup, or a Recipe Calling For Love
The counterculture has long been characterized by a single word: “love.” For some hippie communards, love was also a recipe ingredient
February 13, 2012 |
By Peter Smith
