Why did so many descendants of Ellis Island immigrants vote for a president whose speech echoes 1920s eugenicists? A new book traces the rise of ‘scientific’ racism.
Baseball is suffering a decline in popularity in the United States. But if there are fans abroad who are passionate about the game, why not bring it to them?
Making real progress toward racial justice requires the input of all Americans, including the so-called ‘privileged’ side. We need alliances, not recriminations.
My brother Robert, always in and out of treatment, was a gift. He taught me to accept my own frustrations, and to curb the envy of others I sometimes felt.
In the debates about democratic socialism, we need a new idea of utopia. The life and work of nineteenth-century socialist William Morris is a good place to start.
Abel Ferrara’s new biopic about Pier Paolo Pasolini evinces a highly personal, anti-institutional strain of Catholicism—where grace abounds in squalor and scandal.
I agree with the values of sacrifice and care, and I often find Briallen Hopper’s writing tenacious and lovely. So why did her book leave me not quite satisfied?
Most of the films in competition at Cannes were quieter, more richly textured meditations on love, loss, and identity. But the specter of Trump loomed large.
In the second season of ‘Fleabag,’ the titular character begins a sexual relationship with a priest. What follows is a heady tale of guilt, loneliness, and pain.
African influence is resurgent in world fashion, music, visual arts, and, increasingly, literature. Two new novels demonstrate the continent’s cultural vitality.
Tibetan art can be a challenge for non-initiates to decipher. But once you pierce its iconography, you find a moving testimony of faith lived against oppression.
Jacopo Tintoretto has been considered by many, including John Ruskin and Henry James, to be the greatest artist of the Italian Renaissance. His work astounds.
In his work, the late historian John Lukacs embodied a Christian humanism, one that ideologues on both the left and right did their best to bury. He will be missed.
The first Kenyan film ever officially screened at Cannes, ‘Rafiki’ was banned in Kenya for “legitimizing homosexuality” against the country’s dominant beliefs.
A lot of people fancy themselves history buffs, obsessing over names, dates, and numbers. But facts aren’t narratives. And history can’t be learned from a phone.
To understand the contradictions of the Trump era, look no further than West Virginia. Once solidly pro-union and democratic, the state risks forgetting its past.
Despite his full, long life, the death of Jean Vanier is still sad. And as Christians, we must not skip grief nor automatically reach for a happy narrative.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood are an unlikely group of Amazon shareholders, but they’re forcing a vote on the company’s facial recognition software.
Throughout the history of European thought, humor has always had an unruly, utopian impulse: one that transcended class and threatened to upend the social order.
Slow-paced and built on wildly imaginative premises, Karen Russell’s short stories teach us to approach life’s vicissitudes with curiosity, compassion, and delight.
A classic of Chicanx cinema gives us the true story of Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican man hunted down by Texas Rangers and imprisoned for crimes he didn’t commit.
Poet Ilya Kaminsky’s second collection attends to the barbarism of war, but also speaks of the love—romantic, familial, and communal—that resists such violence.
There’s the natural urge to pronounce on the fire’s deeper meaning. But for now, it might be more fitting to look upon Notre-Dame once again in gratitude and awe.
Poet, editor, translator, and human-rights activist Carolyn Forché speaks about Óscar Romero, Liberation Theology, and the Catholic Church in El Salvador.
“Hi, Carlos? This is Msgr. Farrell calling from the bishop’s office with some exciting news. His excellency has decided to elevate you to the clerical state.”
The sport of hurling speaks volumes about Ireland. The country’s glories and perversities are both scrutinized and celebrated in Edna O’Brien’s novels.
The history of the Children's Crusade deepens my understanding of the present: yes, the “little ones” suffer, but they retain a sense of dignity, even hope.
