Archives

In 1941, a bizarre series of murders occurred in a remote corner of the arctic. In his latest book, Millman explores what spurred the violence and the aftermath. At the same time Millman argues for the preservation of the natural world and asks if our culture’s humanity is being destroyed along with the planet. Bustle hailed the book as “a dark and twisted story of religion, violence, and lasting trauma, this true crime book is chilling in more ways than one.”

In his book In Pursuit of Privilege: A History of New York City’s Upper Class and the Making of a Metropolis, Clifton Hood, AB ’76, describes the growth, influence and colorful lives of New York City’s aristocracy.

What does it mean to be atheist in America? Leigh Eric Schmidt, the Edward C. Mallinckrodt ­Distinguished University Professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, tells the history of American secularism in his book Village Atheists.

Poetry. “A genie of suggestion and evocation, Stephanie Schlaifer handles the half-said and, even more important, the half-unsaid with an acrobatic delicacy. The most daily objects—sugar, fog—are recombined into an unprecedented domesticity in which the foreign, the strange, the uncanny are perfectly at home. Vivid and multiplicitous, it’s a beautiful book that keeps on opening.”—Cole […]

In his book Liking Ike David Haven Blake, PhD ’94, argues that it was Dwight D. Eisenhower, not JFK, who was the first politician to harness the power of advertising and celebrity culture for his political campaigns.

A detective story about a New York ­University ­student who is shot in ­Central Park.

‘Reading in the Dark’ studies horror in children’s literature, an often-neglected genre, with contributions from Rebecca A. Brown, Justine Gieni, Holly Harper, and Emily L. Hiltz.

Alum Andy Mozina, MA ’94, PhD ’98, writes about harpist Matt Grzbc, who is currently floundering in all aspects of his life. But he has his hopes pinned on an upcoming audition for the St. Louis Symphony. Will he rise to the occasion or will his fears of failure pan out?

“To experience [Phillip B. William’s] poetry is to encounter a lucid, unmitigated humanity, a voice for whom language is inadequate, yet necessarily grasped, shaped and consumed. His devout and excruciating attention to the line and its indispensable music fuses his implacable understanding of words with their own shadows.” —Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Boston Review

By all accounts, Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish commodore in the U.S. Navy, was both a principled and pugnacious man. On his way to becoming a flag officer, he was subjected to six courts-martial and engaged in a duel, all in response to antisemitic taunts and harassment from his fellow officers. Yet he never […]