On the new triangle trade, and the surprising connection between modern slavery and ecological disaster.
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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, Reading List
Why the World Is Betting on a Better Battery: A Reading List
Nick Leiber | Longreads | March 2015 The first battery, a pile of copper and zinc discs, was invented more than 200 years ago, ushering in the electric age. Subsequent versions led to portable electronics, mobile computing, and our current love affair with smartphones (1,000 of which are shipped every 22 seconds). Now batteries are […]
Posted inQuotes
On The Benefits of “Leaning Out”
Soon, the rewards of leaning in doubled. Then they quadrupled. Then they began to increase exponentially. I leaned in some more. I ate protein bars and made important telephone calls during my morning commute. I stopped reading novels so I could write more articles and memos and make more handicrafts to contribute to the school […]
Posted inNonfiction
Looking for Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Tracing Raymond Chandler’s early days in L.A.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2015: Under-Recognized Stories
Stories that deserved more attention in 2015.
About Us
Longreads, founded in 2009 by Mark Armstrong, is dedicated to finding and sharing the best longform nonfiction storytelling on the web. We publish personal and reported essays, criticism, reading lists, and occasional book excerpts, interviews, and more in-depth features. Longreads has been nominated for four National Magazine Awards (and won a 2020 ASME for Best Digital […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Breaking the Silence
Zimbabwean activists are fighting against the violence and oppression their country has felt under president Robert Mugabe, who was named Foreign Policy’s “second worst dictator in the world,” after North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong Il: “Mazvarira was abducted in 2000 from her home in Chivhu, a small town south of Harare, and raped by […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Will Israel Attack Iran?
Inside Israel’s attempts to slow Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and whether it may ultimately take military action: “Matthew Kroenig is the Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and worked as a special adviser in the Pentagon from July 2010 to July 2011. One of his tasks was defense policy and strategy on […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Playboy Bunnies. $2 Million Bugattis. Meet the World’s Richest Minister of Agriculture
Teodorin’s 68-year-old father, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, seized power of Equatorial Guinea in a 1979 coup and has made apparent his intent to hand over power to a chosen successor. Obiang has sired an unknown number of children with multiple women, but 41-year-old Teodorin is his clear favorite and is being groomed to […]
