In Search of the Broad Highway
Dave Tell
Revisiting Meredith v. Fair, we get the inside story of how critical race theory was developed in the years after Brown.
Rare Gift, Rare Grit
Martha Bayles
It’s nice to think that a gift like that possessed by Ella Fitzgerald will always find its way. But luck matters too.
The Department of Everything
Stephen Akey
A world that has tossed out the print edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in favor of Wikipedia is not necessarily a richer one.
Adventures Close to Home
Phil Christman
The cases for travel are often sillier than the cases against, and I think it’s important to question them.
Current Issue
Of Continuing Interest
A selection of articles from the archives
The Critic’s Critic
Richard Hughes Gibson
An important part of his legacy is his criticism of the critics.
Fanfares for the Common Man
Phil Christman
Those who write about the rural, white, poor South often alternate between disgust and empathy.
TikTok Extends the Wasteland
Jeff Hewitt
Television is a paradigm that frames all visual communication as entertainment.
American Captivity
Ed Simon
The captivity narrative is the most American of genres, not just in fostering fear, paranoia, and violence but in contributing to the creation myth of a new variety of person: the American.