Adam Kirsch
Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times
The philosopher was a champion of political and intellectual freedom, but he had no interest in being a martyr. Instead, he shows us how prudence and boldness can go hand in hand.
The Forgotten Giant of Yiddish Fiction
Though his younger brother Isaac Bashevis Singer eventually eclipsed him, Israel Joshua Singer excelled at showing characters buffeted by the tides of history.
John Donne’s Proto-Modernism
His startlingly intimate love poems fell from favor for centuries, but his drive to see every subject anew makes him seem more contemporary than ever.
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
Philosophy in the Shadow of Nazism
After the First World War, the members of the Vienna Circle tried to put European thought on a rigorously logical footing. Then the times caught up with them.
Søren Kierkegaard’s Struggle with Himself
For the philosopher, unhappiness became not a condition but a vocation.
Aharon Appelfeld’s Legends of Home
Because the late Israeli novelist could not remember his own past, he was forced to imagine it.
The Desperate Plight Behind “Darkness at Noon”
Arthur Koestler’s novel of the Moscow Trials laid bare the gulf between Communist ideals and the reality they produced.
Modernity, Faith, and Martin Buber
The theologian’s attempts to arrive at a new conception of Judaism made him influential to thinkers of other faiths.
Hermann Hesse’s Arrested Development
The stories Hesse tells appeal to young people because they keep faith with the powerful emotions of adolescence, which most adults forget or outgrow.
Why Jewish History Is So Hard to Write
New books by Simon Schama and Martin Goodman present very different approaches to their subject.
Czeslaw Milosz’s Battle for Truth
Having experienced both Nazi and Communist rule, Poland’s great exile poet arrived at a unique blend of skepticism and sincerity.
Israel’s Founding Novelist
S. Y. Agnon’s exquisite ironic fiction examined traditional Jewish life through a twentieth-century lens.
Are We Really So Modern?
For all our technological breakthroughs, we’re still wrestling with the same basic questions as the Enlightenment philosophers.
Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times
The philosopher was a champion of political and intellectual freedom, but he had no interest in being a martyr. Instead, he shows us how prudence and boldness can go hand in hand.
The Forgotten Giant of Yiddish Fiction
Though his younger brother Isaac Bashevis Singer eventually eclipsed him, Israel Joshua Singer excelled at showing characters buffeted by the tides of history.
John Donne’s Proto-Modernism
His startlingly intimate love poems fell from favor for centuries, but his drive to see every subject anew makes him seem more contemporary than ever.
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
Philosophy in the Shadow of Nazism
After the First World War, the members of the Vienna Circle tried to put European thought on a rigorously logical footing. Then the times caught up with them.
Søren Kierkegaard’s Struggle with Himself
For the philosopher, unhappiness became not a condition but a vocation.
Aharon Appelfeld’s Legends of Home
Because the late Israeli novelist could not remember his own past, he was forced to imagine it.
The Desperate Plight Behind “Darkness at Noon”
Arthur Koestler’s novel of the Moscow Trials laid bare the gulf between Communist ideals and the reality they produced.
Modernity, Faith, and Martin Buber
The theologian’s attempts to arrive at a new conception of Judaism made him influential to thinkers of other faiths.
Hermann Hesse’s Arrested Development
The stories Hesse tells appeal to young people because they keep faith with the powerful emotions of adolescence, which most adults forget or outgrow.
Why Jewish History Is So Hard to Write
New books by Simon Schama and Martin Goodman present very different approaches to their subject.
Czeslaw Milosz’s Battle for Truth
Having experienced both Nazi and Communist rule, Poland’s great exile poet arrived at a unique blend of skepticism and sincerity.
Israel’s Founding Novelist
S. Y. Agnon’s exquisite ironic fiction examined traditional Jewish life through a twentieth-century lens.
Are We Really So Modern?
For all our technological breakthroughs, we’re still wrestling with the same basic questions as the Enlightenment philosophers.