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Frank sought to compile "a spontaneous record of a man seeing this country for the first time." Indianapolis, 1956 is typically short on particulars but laden with symbols.

Robert Frank’s Curious Perspective

In his book The Americans, Robert Frank changed photography. Fifty years on, it still unsettles

"Politicians made more sense when they relied on oracles and omens."

In Politics, Just Follow the Signs

Politicians made more sense when they relied on oracles and omens says Joe Queenan

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Letters

Readers Respond to the September Issue

Courtesy of Municipal Gallery in Lenbachhaus. Two riders before the red, 1911, woodblock, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Feeling Blue: Expressionist Art on Display in Munich

Visitors catch a glimpse of the groundbreaking, abstract art created bypreeminent 20th century expressionists

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November Anniversaries

After almost two centuries, the flag's frail state became plain. The icon's new high-tech home will protect it from exposure to bright light, humidity and ambient pollution.

Star-Spangled Banner Back on Display

After a decade’s conservation, the flag that inspired the National Anthem returns to its place of honor on the National Mall

Now seen as early evidence of prehistoric worship, the hilltop site was previously shunned by researchers as nothing more than a medieval cemetery.

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey’s stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization

During the campaign, Lincoln confided he would have preferred a full term in the Senate "where there was more chance to make a reputation and less danger of losing it."

Election Day 1860

As soon as the returns were in, the burdens of the presidency weighed upon Abraham Lincoln

Author of "Banner Days," Robert Poole.

Robert Poole on “Banner Days”

Smithsonian magazine staff writer and author of "One Man's Korean War."

Abigail Tucker on “One Man’s Korean War”

Andrew Curry is a professional journalist based in Germany with degrees in international relations and Russian and East European studies and is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine. You can find more of his work at www.andrewcurry.com.

Andrew Curry on “The World’s First Temple?”

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Fake Radio War Stirs Terror Through US: Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds turns 70

Seventy years ago, Orson Welles whipped millions of Americans into a martian-crazed panic with a radio play adaptation of H.G. Welles’ War of the Worlds

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Last-Minute Costume Ideas

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Dino Blog Carnival: Edition #1

Andy Warhol, Founding Collection, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.

Warhol’s Pop Politics

Andy Warhol’s political portraits anticipated today’s blurred boundaries between public office and stardom

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Dinosaurs of a Feather, Flock Together

The Whole Gory Story: Vampires on Film

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Scariest. Pumpkin. Ever.

A beach in Tayrona National Park, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

Colombia Dispatch 1: Revisiting Colombia

Journalist Kenneth Fletcher returns to Colombia to investigate how the government and its people hope to rise above their problematic past

Children pose for the camera in El Pozon, a slum on the outskirts of Cartagena.

Colombia Dispatch 2: The Slums of El Pozon

In a vast impoverished neighborhood near the Caribbean coast, Colombians invade vacant lots hoping to become landowners

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