As the Civil War loomed, weapons — like the recently invented bowie knife and rifles that were shipped to Kansas hidden in crates labeled as bibles — became complex political symbols.
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Series Exhumes Out-of-Print Books by Black Authors
“The Blackist,” a column for Catapult’s magazine, introduces audiences to out-of-print novels written by black authors.
‘Archive, Archive, Archive’: Valeria Luiselli on Reading In Order To Write
To write “Lost Children Archive,” Valeria Luiselli studied the refugee crisis “obliquely,” reading about other historical moments of children’s mass displacement, amassing a reader’s archive of loss.
Notes from a Baby-Names Obsessive
Names channel our identity — or at least our parents’ idea of our future identity — in ways both big (class, ethnicity) and small (subcultural affiliations, self-awareness). When the mother’s American and the father’s French, things get complicated, fast.
Can Kevin Young Make Poetry Matter Again?
For Esquire, Robert P. Baird talks to Kevin Young, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the recently appointed poetry editor at the New Yorker about the future of poetry.
Hillary Clinton Looks Back in Anger
David Remnick’s ranging profile of Hillary Clinton, who has borne many titles: First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, Democratic Presidential candidate — the first woman to win a major party’s nomination — and author. Remnick interviews Clinton — and other players, both off-the-record and on — on the occasion of the publication of What Happened, […]
The Anarchists Who Took the Commuter Train
The Stelton colony, initially associated with the likes of Emma Goldman and Eugene O’Neill, was a radical suburb whose anarchist residents took the commuter train to New York.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Jane Mayer, David Zax, Christopher Glazek, Farah Stockman, and Alex Mar.
Living to Create: Talking Music and Writing With Drummer Emily Rose Epstein
Musician Emily Rose Epstein talks about her dual life as a rock drummer and writer.
A Woman Becomes a Nightingale
Carolita Johnson reviews the ugly history of rape being weaponized — and politicized — as a means of silencing women.

