Essay Swindle & Fraud A Fish Tale By David Samuels Long before Moby Dick, Herman Melville set off on a Polynesian trip that became a famous literary hoax. More
Essay Family A Harmony in Living By Garret Keizer Happy families are indeed all alike in calling forth the best of their members’ humanity. More
Essay Travel A Little Travel Is a Dangerous Thing By D. Graham Burnett The first adventurers in the Age of Discovery didn’t just make progress into uncharted waters, they invented the very idea of progress. More
Essay The City A Matter of Optics By Warren Breckman Rulers of cities have always had an interest in visibility, both in representing their power and in controlling people by seeing them. More
Essay Celebrity A Public Man By Andrew McConnell Stott The sheer gravitational weight of Lord Byron’s fame had the power to distort everything around it. More
Essay Lines of Work A Talent for Sloth By Philip Connors Ten years as a lookout on a fire tower requires a particular aptitude for idleness. More
Essay Magic Shows A Well Without a Bottom By John Crowley Have devils, demons, and spirits disappeared from the world, or do we just no longer know their names? More
Essay The Sea A Winelike Sea By Caroline Alexander Homer’s famous “wine-dark sea” has left scholars wondering: how did the Greeks truly see the sea? More
Essay Ways of Learning Academic Virtue By Stanley Fish What is the job of higher education and what is it that those who teach in colleges and universities are trained and paid to do? More
Essay Eros Affairs of State By William Rosen How the improbable marriage of an actress, courtesan, and daughter of an animal trainer to a Byzantine emperor dramatically changed the course of European history. More
