Upon her death in 1905, Mary A. Livermore was hailed by the Boston Transcript as “America’s foremost woman.” It was a fitting epitaph. During the Civil War, Livermore worked tirelessly to ensure proper nutrition and medical care... Read More

As befits a book about love, this one starts with a song: “Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest / Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers / Love, nightmare-like, lies heavy on my chest.” According to the author, this Gilbert... Read More

Current bestsellers on Iraqi history reveal a nation steeped in religious frenzy, poverty, and war. The fact that few, if any, Western readers can conceive of a Baghdad beyond the headlines is not the fault of politicians or media,... Read More

Ever since Dan Brown published his bestselling The Da Vinci Code in 2004, thrillers about religious history have become a lucrative, if predictable, staple of the publishing world. To stand out from the stacks, it seems, would take an... Read More

In the summer of 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s security barrier violated humanitarian law. Three years later, the wall measures 252 miles and is growing. Supporters point to the fact that suicide bombings... Read More

Alexander is obsessed with air—how to move it, heat it, cool it and clean it. In late twentieth-century South Africa, where millions crumble under weighty issues such as race, colonialism, revolution and AIDS, Alex clings to nothing.... Read More

There are few social theories on which a Victorian male scholar and a modern feminist would agree, but the suppression of women in Ancient Greece is one of them. According to the author, the tendency to mold history to fit a contemporary... Read More

Of all the places one might expect to find a Van Gogh, a Brooklyn gas station probably isn’t one of them. Over the course of his thirty-five years as an undercover investigator with the FBI’s art theft division, Thomas McShane has... Read More