The Kafka Challenge
Paul Reitter
The Kafkaesque lends itself to translation.
Of Goats and Ancient Politics
Ryan S. Olson
In decrees and other political and civic inscriptions of the ancient world, historians have begun to recognize that various emotions such as fear, pride, and excitement were expressed to generate solidarity that held groups together in a place and with a shared name (Spartans in Sparta).
The Birth of Modern Choice
Daniel T. Rodgers
Most of us live the important parts of our lives not in town halls and public forums but in the aisles of supermarkets, among the friends we elect to cultivate, or in the mazes of online opinion bazaars.
The Word Made Lifeless
Talbot Brewer
The development of AI reads less like a familiar chapter from the history of consumer capitalism and more like the storyboard of a Bond film in which we’ve all been cast as extras.
Current Issue
Of Continuing Interest
A selection of articles from the archives
The Age of the Average
Olivier Zunz
How did we reach the age of the average, and what did it mean for American democracy?
Principled to a Fault
Becca Rothfeld
On the face of it, Simone Weil is a remarkably poor candidate for domestication.
Hipster Elegies
Greg Jackson
The death and life of the great American hipster offers an alternative history of culture over the last quarter century.
No Country for Old Age
Joseph E. Davis
The normative appeal of the new gerontology to individual autonomy and responsibility makes it even clearer that “failure” is precisely what is at stake.