It is this backward glance, careful and sustained, at who we used to be, that will give us back the image of who we are now and what possibilities the future might hold.

Kirsten Hall considers the appeal of the 18th century and “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Varnhagen’s letters are increasingly gaining recognition, not just as records of a brilliant mind and the struggles of a Jewish woman of the time, but as works of literature and philosophy.

Anna Ezekiel explores the possibility of an epistolary philosophy in Rahel Varnhagen

Toeing the line between sincere homage and raucous parody, The Rake’s Progress is a complex opera, one that evinces sincere ambivalence toward its source material, but above all, delight.

Jacob Martin reviews a transhistorical operatic masterpiece

Karoline von Günderrode’s contributions to the history of ideas have been occluded and forgotten. When she wrote, women’s intellectual efforts went unacknowledged, meaning that we may never know the extent of her influence on the people around her.

Anna Ezekial recovers the philosophical insights of Günderrode

By reaching back to Venerable Bede’s description of righteous conquest, Mather casts American origins as something deeply rooted in time and tradition—an inheritance that cannot be revoked.

M. Breann Leake on continuity from Venerable Bede to Cotton Mather

Three recent action films—Kingsman: Secret Service, Avengers: Infinity War, and Tenet—face down climate change by pointing to a supposedly new threat: a new crop of Malthusians, out to exterminate parts of the human race for the greater good.

Brice Ezell on the persistence of a bad idea.

The rediscovery of neglected texts has made it increasingly clear that women have always done philosophy, even where this work has been obstructed, lost, forgotten, or misattributed.

Anna Ezekiel on the excision of women from philosophical memory

The term ‘folk opera’ draws attention to Hadestown’s connection with other Orphean music dramas, placing it in a genealogy with earlier operas that take the myth of Orpheus as their subject.

Jacob Martin follows Orpheus’s song through the ages

Using these recipes privileges cultural memory and tradition over efficiency and precision. Thus, we participate in the ritual of cooking not as a means of scientific inquiry or perfection, but to strengthen the community ties that bring us together at the table.

Alexandrea Pérez Allison on cookbooks and modernity.

The pandemic has made many acutely aware of the absence or presence of solitude in one’s life—in crowded households, its paucity, and in bachelor pads, its excess.

Suzannah Cady reviews A History of Solitude

Coronavirus limitations actually present American orchestras with an excellent opportunity to explore music that American audiences rarely hear and to experiment with both old and new ways to perform classical music.

Jacob Martin looks for new paths for orchestral music.

We may still take the best of what calling cards have to offer: a more robust etiquette for managing our digital, social lives on a more humane timescale.

Kirsten Hall loses her phone and looks to the 18th Century for guidance.

Kirsten Hall reviews the newest version of Emma and questions different ways of using humor.

Kirsten Hall revisits literary history and compares our current COVID-19 pandemic to pandemics of the past.

Kirsten Hall explores the components of modern romance from Samuel Johnson to Noah Baumbach.

Kirsten Hall responds to David Brooks and the decline of the nuclear family.

Kirsten Hall addresses problems with pedagogy in today’s classrooms and creates a genealogical syllabus.

Kirsten Hall looks at the popular Netflix show and our historical fixation with the “rake”

Kirsten Hall traces discourses about the secular and religious In Joseph Addison’s tragedy, Cato

Kirsten Hall analyzes Jonathan Swift’s satires and the tensions between certainty and doubt in the Enlightenment.