Essays

No one book could ever hope to encompass a country as complex and multi-faceted as Iran. But if you read these five, you’ll be on your way.

“Why not write an excerpt for the home page?” the web editor suggested.

June 21 begets reading lists. These are some of the better ones that have been put together this year.

The Virginia Quarterly Review was first published by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in the spring of 1925. Conceived as a “national journal of discussion,” the journal was created by liberal Southern educators who sought to...

This weekend I will be taking a journey into the heart of America and Americana with my grandfather to attend a D-Day commemoration at the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

President Obama’s health care reform could be a huge legislative achievement and, not incidentally, a boon to the arts.

Palestinian territories as an island nation, Shell goes on trial for Nigerian atrocities, poets weathering the recession, and more.

What obligation does a TV show have to present life-or-death decisions in a realistic light?

In these days of excessive credit card fees and imminent financial regulation, one of the most bandied-about (and misused) Shakespearean phrases is “a pound of flesh.”

The film may end up being far different than the novel, or the film may simply be marketed conventionally: via promises of explosions, endangered children, gunplay, and gory death scenes.