JULY 2. 2026

Between Independence and Freedom

How a fundamental tension in the declaration echoed through U. S. foreign policy.

When The Machines Deserve Our Consideration

We will never know for sure if AI can be conscious. A neuroscientist argues that we shouldn’t wait for proof to decide how to treat it.

Is the Artist Present?

By transforming her own old paintings into new works of art, Eliza Douglas raises questions about sincerity and cynicism.

The Eyes Have It

Carol Rama’s abstractions from the late 1960s conjure burned, brutalized bodies.

The Judeo-Bolshevist Target

Popular memory in the West tends to separate the Holocaust from the German war against the Soviet Union, but for the Nazi regime they were two faces of the same undertaking.

Compromised Values

Joe Manchin’s memoir reveals that the West Virginian Senator worshipped “work” at the expense of supporting his party’s efforts to help working people.

On the Precipice

Critics who call André Breton’s Nadja a novel miss its most innovative aspects.

The New Ellis Island

A history of five families in El Paso reveals the city’s significance as a bellwether of America’s immigration policy.

Song of Our Cells

Though a mystery to Darwin in his lifetime, the constant mutation of our genes is what allows for life’s magnificent diversity.

The Late Bohemian

Rosemary Tonks emulated French Symbolist poets before converting to Christianity and renouncing all her own works.

When India Reinvented Prints

Two forceful exhibitions have shown how Indian artists and presses met the cultural upheaval of the nineteenth century with lithographic prints that rendered Hindu gods more approachable and helped to galvanize national identity.

Space Oddity

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.

Hungary: The Flood

Peter Magyar’s landslide electoral victory in April made clear that after sixteen years, Hungarians were tired of Viktor Orbán.

Climate and Punishment

Vigil finds George Saunders returning to the theme of his first novel, grief—this time not for a person but for a planet.

An Uncertain Triumphalism

America’s centennial in 1876 was celebrated with a grand exhibition that projected an image of national unity and inventiveness in the anxious aftermath of civil war and recession.

Wonder & Disillusion

The naturalist George Forster was fascinated by plants and animals, but he was also driven by a passionate belief in the rights of all people regardless of race, gender, or social status.

Fashion Forward

Why has the Metropolitan Museum of Art sold prime gallery space to the fashion industry?

The Hypocrisy That Shields Erdogan From Global Criticism

Rising human rights violations in Turkey should be called out.

The Strategy Behind the Battle for Crimea

Ukraine’s new offensive on the territory has military stakes far beyond payback.

RFK Jr. Claims He’s Investigating Terrorism Now, Too

The HHS secretary is targeting the largest Muslim civil rights organization as Republicans run on Islamophobia in a tough midterm cycle.