A Fire Started in Waco. Thirty Years Later, It’s Still Burning Behind the Oklahoma City bombing and even the January 6th attack was a military-style assault in Texas that galvanized the far right. May 1, 2023 The Forgotten Drug Trips of the Nineteenth Century Long before the hippies, a group of thinkers used substances like cocaine, hashish, and nitrous oxide to uncover the secrets of the mind. April 17, 2023 A Dennis Lehane Novel Investigates Boston’s White Race Riots When a working mother goes in search of her daughter, amid the busing protests in 1974, she discovers a toxic brew of clan loyalties and racism, including her own. April 17, 2023 Briefly Noted “In Memoriam,” “Rombo,” “Benjamin Banneker and Us,” and “Tenacious Beasts.” April 17, 2023 The Origins of Creativity The concept was devised in postwar America, in response to the cultural and commercial demands of the era. Now we’re stuck with it. April 17, 2023 What Happens When You Kill Your King After the English Revolution—and an island’s experiment with republicanism—a genuine restoration was never in the cards. April 17, 2023 The Oddballs and Odysseys of Charles Portis In “True Grit,” and other novels, Portis displayed a genius that went beyond character in the strictly literary sense. April 10, 2023 Briefly Noted “The Diary Keepers,” “The Dean of Shandong,” “The Laughter,” and “Pineapple Street.” April 10, 2023 The Exhausting History of Fatigue Having too much to do can be tiring; having nothing to do may be worse. April 10, 2023 Briefly Noted “Picasso the Foreigner,” “Spoken Word,” “The Great Reclamation,” and “A Spell of Good Things.” April 3, 2023