Essay The City Waiting for Goffman By Michael Dirda There are few better interpreters of modern metropolitan life than sociologist Erving Goffman. More
Essay Intoxication Last Testaments By Francine Prose What do artists and writers do when they are faced with the imminence of death? Francine Prose reviews the final works of historian Tony Judt. More
Essay Book of Nature The Art of Nature By Frederick Turner Human art, fiction, invention, and technology are not unnatural forces that have suddenly erupted into nature, but rather the natural continuation of nature’s own evolutionary processes. More
Essay Food It’s What’s for Dinner By Scott Korb To be an ethical eater, one can no longer betray a deep ignorance about the workings of nature. More
Essay States of War The Persian Way of War By Tom Holland Unlike the Greeks, Xerxes viewed war as more than a simple matter of strategy. Rather, it was a means of flaunting global mastery. More
Essay Death Last Meals By Brent Cunningham The choice of the final meal contains a curious paradox: why mark the end of a life with the stuff that fuels it? More
Essay Fashion When Women Ruled Fashion By Joan DeJean In the late seventeenth century, haute couture was produced by women, for women. 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
