“Historian Jon Peterson traces the route from Prussian military headquarters to Gary Gygax’s basement.”
History
Posted inEditor's Pick
The First Tomato to Know Everything
“On gray literature and Webster’s Timeline History books.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Warehouse, in Plain Sight
“That concrete box off the freeway wasn’t designed for storage so much as capture—of markets, workers, and, now, people detained by immigration agents. It’s a disappearing machine. We need to see it clearly.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: the jaws of history; war and piece(s); the last day of camp; stay a while; picture me rollin’.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt
“Historians and nonfiction authors often glide over lived experience. They prefer actions, citations, details, dates. But I had just gone through something primal—something beyond my control and beyond the boundaries of modern life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Curiosity Is No Solo Act
“It gains its real power when embedded in webs of relationship and shared meaning-making.”
Posted inQuestionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Ibram X. Kendi
The Stamped and How to Be an Antiracist author on the superpower he’d like to have, the outlets he likes to read, and his latest work, Chain of Ideas.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Docteur Is In
“The Congolese rumba pioneer Docteur Nico helped define the sound of African decolonization—and became one of the great visionaries of the electric guitar.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Beneath the Long White Cloud
“The search for the eighth wonder of the world.”