January 27, 2021
The Multitude of Books
Complaints about the number of books in circulation started as soon as printing was invented.
Read MoreRoundtable
Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.
July 21, 2025
January 26, 2021
Revolutionizing Bureaucracy
The scene in Angoulême, a backwater in French Revolutionary politics.
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January 25, 2021
Finding an Audience
On the laws that kept Saadat Hasan Manto’s stories—and the work of his successors—out of readers’ reach.
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January 22, 2021
The Rest Is History
Cuneiform, Regency romances, and an archaeologist tiff.
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January 20, 2021
A Constitution of Freedom
During the 1860 presidential election, political parties dueled over the intent of the framers.
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January 15, 2021
The Rest Is History
Whaler art, vaccine rollouts, and a very American mob.
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January 14, 2021
Most Execrable and Abominable or Irreligious
When Pope Clement VII tested poisons on condemned bodies “for the benefit of the public.”
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January 12, 2021
Who Knows What to Expect When You’re Expecting
The unknown female body in early modern Italy.
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January 11, 2021
Glossary: Democracy
From auctoritas to wasta, the language of the voting public.
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August 07, 2023
Monumental Mistakes
2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
May 22, 2023
Revolutionary Lovebirds
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.