Several centuries of research trace the various motives behind suicide—some trivial, others political, but always tragic and disheartening. Suicide is a grim subject. Yet to artful writers, it offers not only tense moments and drama... Read More

Moving portraits of human trafficking and hard labor amongst immigrants in the US absorb and inspire. In recent years, numerous books have appeared on the subject of human trafficking, many of which highlight the sex industry. In "Life... Read More

This meandering tour through centuries of Western history finds that political civility is a fragile creature. “Commerce is a cure for the most destructive prejudices,” Montesquieu wrote in 1748. “Wherever we find agreeable... Read More

In the 1930s, General Electric and an architectural magazine sponsored “The House for Modern Living” contest, inviting architects to design a house for “Mr. and Mrs. Bliss,” an imaginary couple with two children. The organizers... Read More

Years after the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, taxi drivers in China began displaying laminated pictures of the Great Helmsman in their vehicles. Believing that his image possessed magical powers that otherwise belonged to local... Read More

During a visit to a commander who controlled provinces in northern Afghanistan, a Pakistani journalist spotted blood and chunks of flesh in the courtyard. He was told that the commander had just handed out punishment to a soldier. For... Read More

Hiking up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain in Maine, Robert Root carried a picture of Sanford Robinson Gifford’s mid-nineteenth-century painting The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine. In the picture, a lone figure sits on a... Read More

“Was there any?” was the response of a film historian when Tom Stempel, a professor of cinema, mentioned that he was researching writing in American television. Film and television screenplays usually do not appear on lists of great... Read More