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Panting of a woman lounging with a book, titled “Dolce far niente” (The Sweetness of Doing Nothing), by Auguste Toulmouche, 1877.

We’re Distracted. That’s Nothing New.

Ever since Thoreau headed to Walden, our attention has been wandering.
by Caleb Smith via The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 10, 2023
The Armed Services Edition of the book "The Grapes of Wrath."
partner

America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

Recent years have witnessed a record number of challenges against books, especially in school libraries. But attempts to ban certain books isn't new in the U.S.
by Brianna Labuskes via HNN on February 22, 2023
Woman standing on a wall of books, holding a megaphone, 1919.

Choice Reading

Nineteenth-century New York City was filled with books, bibliophilia, and marginalia.
by Denise Gigante via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 21, 2022
Octavia E. Butler.

The Spectacular Life of Octavia E. Butler

The story of the girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, loved her mom and grandmother, and wrote herself into the world.
by E. Alex Jung via Vulture on November 21, 2022
Mary Cassatt painting of a nurse reading to a little girl.
Exhibit

Reading About Reading

Read up on the history of books.
Display of banned books in a bookstore.
partner

Today’s Book Bans Echo a Panic Against Comic Books in the 1950s

When a climate of fear exists, people don’t scrutinize the evidence behind claims about children’s reading material.
by Jeremy C. Young via Made By History on October 17, 2022
Graphic showing black cursive handwriting on a red background, with a white question mark in the corner

Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive

How will they interpret the past?
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on September 16, 2022
Illustration of fantasy elements including a maze and a crystal ball from a "choose-your-own-adventure" scene from a book.

The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books

How a best-selling series gave young readers a new sense of agency.
by Leslie Jamison via The New Yorker on September 12, 2022
Illustration of screens, electronics, and sound waves.

The Hidden History of Screen Readers

For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
by Sheon Han via The Verge on July 14, 2022
Drawing of a group of young boys around a table, entitled "Mischievous Matt," from a story paper.
partner

Dime Novels and Story Papers for Kids

The rise of popular literature for children put a story, a role model, and a set of values in a young boy’s pocket.
by Michael Denning, Betsy Golden Kellem, Sara Lindey, Margaret Cassidy via JSTOR Daily on June 23, 2022
Portrait of William Small, by Tilly Kettle, c. 1765.
partner

The Revolution Whisperer

The overlooked first mentor of Thomas Jefferson.
by Greg Shaw via HNN on February 20, 2022
Handwritten magazine index

‘Index, A History of the’ Review: List-O-Mania

At the back of the book, the index provides a space for reference—and sometimes revenge.
by Ben Yagoda via The Wall Street Journal on February 11, 2022
Painting of a Puritan family sitting around a table with books.

Read More Puritan Poetry

Coming to love Puritan poetry is an odd aesthetic journey. It's the sort of thing you expect people partial to bowties and gin gimlets to get involved with.
by Ed Simon via The Millions on February 4, 2022
Actor Jim Boyd, dressed as a grumpy clown, looks in a mirror.

50 Years Ago, 'The Electric Company' Used Comedy to Boost Kids' Reading Skills

In October 1971, The Electric Company flipped a switch and hit the public TV airwaves, aiming to use sketch comedy and animated shorts to teach kids to read.
by Elizabeth Blair via NPR on October 25, 2021
A selection of newspaper covers from the Reveal Digital American Prison Newspapers collection
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Introducing American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.
by Kate McQueen via JSTOR Daily on September 22, 2021

9/11 was a Test. The Books of the Last Two Decades Show How America Failed.

The books of the last two decades show how overreacting to the attacks unmade America’s values.
by Carlos Lozada via Washington Post on September 3, 2021
shovels stuck in black scribbles representing dirt

Eating Dirt, Searching Archives

There are many black afterlives that are yet to be unearthed.
by Endia Hayes via Southern Cultures on July 16, 2021
Gen. Milley at White House
partner

Racism Has Long Undermined Military Cohesion, Just as Gen. Milley Testified

Late 1960s conflicts within the armed forces produced efforts to educate service members on racism.
by Natalie Shibley via Made By History on June 29, 2021
Black children learning in a classroom

What’s Missing From the Discourse About Anti-Racist Teaching

Black educators have always known that their students are living in an anti-Black world and that their teaching must be set against the order of that world.
by Jarvis R. Givens via The Atlantic on May 21, 2021
black and white photos of children

The Magazine That Helped 1920s Kids Navigate Racism

Mainstream culture denied Black children their humanity—so W. E. B. Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book to assert it.
by Anna E. Holmes via The Atlantic on February 12, 2021
Cartoon of Philip Roth at a typewriter, with the typescript turning into himself looking back at him

The Possessed

Joshua Cohen imagines how Philip Roth would review his own biographer.
by Joshua Cohen via Harper’s on February 9, 2021
Two women sitting on a rocking chair in a nineteenth century photograph

Postures of Transport: Sex, God, and Rocking Chairs

What if chairs could shift our state of consciousness, transporting the imagination into distant landscapes and ecstatic experiences, both religious and erotic?
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on February 3, 2021
F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Why Do We Keep Reading the Great Gatsby?

Ninety-six years after the book's publication, the characters of "The Great Gatsby" continue to mesmerize readers.
by Wesley Morris via The Paris Review on January 11, 2021
Illustration of a 1920s party in a martini glass

On Imagining Gatsby Before Gatsby

How a personal connection to Nick Carraway inspired the author to write the novel "Nick."
by Michael Farris Smith via Literary Hub on January 11, 2021
William Faulkner writes at a typewriter in front of a messy bookshelf, not looking at the camera.

What to Do About William Faulkner

A white man of the Jim Crow South, he couldn’t escape the burden of race, yet derived creative force from it.
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on August 8, 2020
A printed advertisement for "The Bookman" depicting a fish reacting to "The Bookman" on a hook.

The Power of Flawed Lists

How "The Bookman" invented the best seller.
by Elizabeth Della Zazzera via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 27, 2020
Illustration taken from The Great Gatsby, The Graphic Novel

Greil Marcus Takes a Deep Dive Into "the Stubborn Myth of The Great Gatsby"

An insightful exploration of the ways America has read ‘the Great American Novel.’
by Allen Barra via The National Book Review on July 17, 2020

All the World’s a Page

Paper was never simply a writing surface, but a complicated substance that folded itself into the fabric of culture and consciousness.
by Gill Partington via Public Books on July 16, 2020

On the Uses of History for Staying Alive

Reflections on reading Nietzsche in Alaska in the early days of Covid-19.
by Bathsheba Demuth via The Point on July 12, 2020
A white hand holding white flowers.

100 Years of Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence"

Where does Edith Wharton's idea of innocence fall into our own world?
by Rachel Vorona Cote via Jezebel on June 24, 2020
A portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with white hair and a full beard.

A Beautiful Ending

On dying and heaven in the time of Longfellow.
by Nicholas A. Basbanes via Humanities on June 15, 2020
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