Illustration of a man typing on a computer with the Star of David as the computer's image.

The Return of the Jewish Question

The “Jewish Question” is a scapegoating conspiracy. This essay traces its appeal, partial truths, and why it falsely absolves America of blame.
A political cartoon of Stephen Miller separating families with tentacle-like arms.

Inside Stephen Miller’s Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State

Descended from Jewish immigrants, Stephen Miller's project is to close the country to people like his ancestors.
American Girl dolls in a display booth.

Navigating Preteendom in the Shadow of the American Girl Doll

A writer looks back at the book that shaped her understanding of girlhood, body, and shame.
Mark Tayac, the chief of the Piscataway Nation, in traditional dress.

We’re Still Here: The Still-Evolving Story of the Piscataway Nation

Long before the Trail of Tears, English colonists drove Maryland’s Indigenous tribes from their land. Piscataway descendants want people to know their history.

Making Sense of Sylvia Plath’s Final Act

Plath felt that marriage and children were the necessary but insufficient condition of her continued creativity.
Sydney Sweeney in a boxing ring as Christy Martin in the film "Christy."

The Real Story of Christy Martin, the Trailblazing Boxer Who ‘Created a Sport That Did Not Exist’

A new biopic starring Sydney Sweeney as the legendary athlete chronicles Martin’s fights in and outside of the ring.
The author as a boy.

We Have Talked Enough About Ourselves

How the marriage of American exceptionalism and liberal Zionism led to genocide.
Military members exercising at a CrossFit gym.

CrossFit and the Frontier Spirit

The gunslinging mojo of a fitness craze.
Map fof the San Francisco Bay area.

How California’s Legacy of Violence Against Indigenous People Impacts the Present Day

Unpacking the complexities surrounding Native authenticity.
Black and white icons of people gathered into the shape of the US.

Are You a ‘Heritage American’?

Why some on the right want to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War.
1952 artwork of six different people standing in separate boxes.

Nothing Left Inside

How America learned not to fear the inner self but lost its places of belonging.
Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul Jabbar practicing martial arts.

When Bruce Lee Trained With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

When Bruce Lee met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he was still known as Lew Alcindor, the most hyped young basketball star in history.

A History of Smoking

The Right's habit of defiance.
Hank Thompson baseball card

Hank Thompson Lived A Wild, Tragic, Forgotten Life In Baseball

A baseball’s forgotten pioneer was MLB’s third Black player. A war hero and gifted hitter, his troubled life defied the halo.
James Baldwin by Joe Ciardiello.

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love

The radical lives of James Baldwin.
John Cheever.

John Cheever’s Secrets

In a new memoir, Susan Cheever searches for the wellspring of her father’s genius.
Althea Gibson holding her tennis racket at the London airport.

Ahead of the Game

Althea Gibson, one of the great tennis players of the twentieth century, made segregation in her sport untenable.
James Baldwin

The Many Lives of James Baldwin

A new biography shows that his life was more complex than his viral fame suggests.
Four young women, the daughters of Sidonia Kahn, in fancy dresses and hats.

Southern Jews Have Always Debated Zionism

Conflicts over Israel’s founding encompassed religion, race, and politics.
Mike Davis

The Marxism of Mike Davis

On the life, influences, and “sophisticated yet lucid brand of Marxism” of the late, great writer.
Mike Gold fading into a field of stars of David.

On the Decades-Long Erasure of Jewish Working-Class Anti-Zionism

Mike Gold, Alexander Bittelman, and the paradoxes of left-wing Zionism.
55th Massachusetts marches through Charleston, 1865.
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Elevating the Few

What J.D. Vance excludes from the history of the Civil War and immigration.
Elaine Yoneda superimposed on an American flag.

The Tale of Elai Yoneda, a Jewish Woman in a Japanese American Concentration Camp

The strange fate of mixed-race families in prisons during World War II.
Japanese-American man in a military uniform.

He Spent His Life Trying to Prove That He Was a Loyal U.S. Citizen. It Wasn’t Enough.

How Joseph Kurihara lost his faith in America.
Fabric with stars on one side and George Washington on the other.

The ‘Dirty and Nasty People’ Who Became Americans

How 13 colonies came together.
New citizens at a naturalization ceremony.

Our Cherished Values and Ideals

Celebrating immigrants on the nation's birthday.
Pages from Eve Adams' Polish passport.

Deported From the U.S. for Publishing 'Lesbian Love,' She Was Later Killed by Nazis

Eve Adams was imprisoned for disorderly conduct and obscenity, then sent back to Europe, where she became a target of the Holocaust.
Color lithograph advertisement showing the interior of a Pullman dining-car, with the Pullman factory out the window, 1894.
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Walking the Race Line on the Train Line

Investigators never reached a conclusion about the death of Pullman porter J. H. Wilkins, but his killing revealed much about the dangers of his profession.
William F. Buckley during a press interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina, circa 1970s. (Alamy)

Steering Right

Sam Tanenhaus’s biography of William F. Buckley has certain limitations, but it captures the character of conservatism’s founding father.
William Buckley stands behind a podium, surrounded by a throng of people, and waves.

The Real Bill Buckley

Even some liberals toasted William F. Buckley Jr. as a patrician gentleman. A long-awaited new biography corrects that record.