Pathways

Each month we keep track of the different paths modern life is taking and how writers are keeping up. Here are some routes we found in June that opened new vistas on what it means to be modern and how we became that way.

Looking for a genealogy to read this Independence Day? Check out the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln

Looking for a genealogy to listen to? Try the “I Have a Dream” speech. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whether we start with 1776 or 1619, we need to find a way to rethink our relationship with history. Harper’s Magazine

America is losing its religion, but it has lost and recovered it before. National Review

Have any of our recent battles over history made anything clearer about contemporary American life? The New Yorker

For all our trying, the myth of the enlightenment just won’t die. Church Life Journal

Sometimes history is just made up. Here’s a history of historical fabrications. The Tablet

Other times, historians transform what actually happened. One such case is the Filipino Revolution. The Nation

Central Asia, a “laboratory” of colonialism, revolution, and nation building. The Times Literary Supplement

According to the “Lindy Effect,” “the only effective judge of things is time.” The New York Times