Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book Between the World and Me is a short one—really a collection of three essays, designed as a letter to his fifteen-year-old son that takes the form of a poetic autobiographical account... Read More

There are few scientists alive today who have had as far-reaching an impact as Edward O. Wilson. With a career spanning more than half a century, he is the author of thirty books in which... Read More

In 1952, with the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president, a small, chariot-driving clan of Christian evangelicals stormed the national stage, bent on foisting their religious claims into American law, custom, and ceremony. The... Read More

Hector A. Garcia’s new book, Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression, successfully draws parallels between violence in human evolution and in dominant religions. He effectively illustrates the salience of the connection with... Read More

The New York Times reviewed Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire by immediately reminding readers that Crane, “America’s first rock-star writer,” appears on the album cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.... Read More

Jerry A. Coyne is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. As a scientist, his day job involves performing genetic analyses on fruit flies in order to better... Read More

Whether someone becomes addicted to drugs has much more to do with their childhood and their quality of life than with the drug they use or with anything in their genes. This is one of... Read More