CURRENT ISSUE

July/August 2015

Features

The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii

The famous archaeological treasure is falling into scandalous decline, even as its sister city Herculaneum is rising from the ashes

Joshua Hammer

Return of the Mockingbird

Traveling back in time to visit Harper Lee's hometown, the setting of her 1960 masterpiece and the controversial sequel due within the month

Paul Theroux

The Mad King & Magna Carta

How did a peace treaty signed-and broken-800 years ago become one of the world's most influential documents?

Dan Jones

Flashes of Genius

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist, a mind-blowing experiment on a transparent minnow, and the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

Ariel Sabar

Past and Presence

The shattering nature of violence. The resilience of the human spirit. The power of photographs. A Smithsonian special project

Smithsonian magazine

Past and Presence: American Requiem

Walking far-flung battlefields to picture the nation's defining tragedy in a modern light

Photographs by Eliot Dudik, Text by Abigail Tucker

Past and Presence: The Endless Exile

As children, they escaped ruthless state-sponsored violence. Now, a century later, these Armenian women and men visit the aching memory of what they left behind

Photographs by Diana Markosian, Text by Jenna Krajeski