Roundtable

Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.

July 17, 2015

The Rest Is History

By Angela Serratore

Segregating the sexes through architecture, fast food in ancient Rome, and the twilight of Queen Elizabeth’s corgis.

July 16, 2015

Missionary, Go Home!

By Nathan Schneider

In the 1960s, affluent American volunteers lined up to serve the neediest abroad. But the radical Catholic priest Ivan Illich urged them to reconsider their missionary zeal—“you will not help anybody by your good intentions.”

July 10, 2015

The Rest Is History

By Angela Serratore

An Ancient Greek play gets new life, reconstructing Noah’s Ark, and the origins of the ticker-tape parade.

July 02, 2015

The Rest Is History

By Angela Serratore

Confederate bedtime stories, all-American coffee, and a pair of royal underpants.

June 30, 2015

Forged Lives

By Mary Wellesley

As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene uncovered the Victorian forger who flooded the market with fake medieval art.

June 26, 2015

The Rest Is History

By Angela Serratore

Using leeches to cure what ails you, endangered historic sites, and a 1941 beard-off.

June 19, 2015

The Rest Is History

By Angela Serratore

A trash-culture icon, Napoleonic cosplay, and what, exactly, is euchre?

June 16, 2015

All That Glitters

By Miles Klee

During the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, “Soapy” Smith made a fortune taking advantage of would-be millionaires. A hundred years later, the aspirational rich are still the easiest targets.