On the new triangle trade, and the surprising connection between modern slavery and ecological disaster.
Search results
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes
We Keep Testing, and Nothing Changes
It is worth noting that American students have never received high scores on international tests. On the first such test, a test of mathematics in 1964, senior year students in the US scored last of twelve nations, and eighth-grade students scored next to last. But in the following fifty years, the US outperformed the other […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, featuring, The New Yorker, Die Zeit, Jezebel, The New York Times, and Slate.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
A Brief History of Solitary Confinement
Dickens, Tocqueville, and the U.N. all agree about this American invention: It’s torture.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Is ‘Garden City’ Urbanism the Answer?
Could garden cities help fix these problems? Advocates think so. They argue that garden cities can deliver the humane, sustainable, equitable communities that people want and the planet needs, by slashing emissions, preserving green space, and encouraging neighborly interaction. Today, garden-city projects are popping up from England to India to Cambodia. In particular, China, where […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside a Chinese Test-Prep Factory
Larmer visits Maotanchang High School in eastern China’s Anhui province, a “cram school” where 20,000 students train round the clock for the gaokao, the country’s college-entrance exam.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
Glamorous Crossing: How Pan Am Airways Dominated International Travel in the 1930s
Starting with just a mail route, Juan Terry Trippe helped create a uniquely American luxury experience.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Myth of Chinese Super Schools
Diane Ravitch on the politics of education reform and testing in America, and a review of Yong Zhao’s book on China’s history of testing: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
A Brief History of Solitary Confinement
Dickens, Tocqueville, and the U.N. all agree about this American invention: It’s torture.
Posted inNonfiction
Queen Victoria’s Cramps and the History of Medicinal Marijuana in Europe
Social clubs in Europe are part of a centuries-long tradition of treating maladies with cannabis.
