April 05, 2013
Pet Cemetery
It’s long been suggested that animals (dogs, cats, and even dolphins) have connections to other worlds. A history of animal sixth senses, from ancient Egypt to modern-day Alaska.
Read MoreRoundtable
Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.
May 4, 2025
March 20, 2013
That Intoxicating Pink
Beautiful, expensive, and rare, rose champagne has been the drink of choice for courtesans and kings for centuries.
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March 19, 2013
The Addicted Life of Thomas De Quincey
How Thomas De Quincey turned his debilitating addiction to opium into a revival of the English essay.
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March 14, 2013
A Pilgrim’s Drunken Progress
Starting on the Mayflower, the pilgrims had a complicated relationship with alcohol—one modern history tends to ignore.
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February 20, 2013
Blowing Your Mind
Total freak-out or total bliss? For centuries, LSD and its derivatives have been dreamland for the initiated, and a nightmare for those caught unawares.
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February 11, 2013
Good ’Til the Last Drop?
In 1911 Coca-Cola was put on trial by the U.S. government, not because it contained cocaine, but because of a far more addictive substance: caffeine.
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January 28, 2013
The Botanical Origins of a Medieval Madness
Before LSD, medieval life was plagued with the “bad trip” of ergot poisoning, a fungus that caused men and women to hallucinate the devil and dance themselves to death.
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December 24, 2012
The Eggnog Riot
In 1826, an out-of-control dorm party at West Point determined the future course of our nation’s military—all because its participants were hopped up on the nog.
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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.