The American Scholar, the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society

Friday, August 11, 2017

Smarty Pants Podcast

Lady Pirates and Oceans of Plastic

One very daring journey and the pirate who puts Blackbeard to shame

Stephanie Bastek

Cover Story

Our Nuclear Future

We may think the bomb is back, but it never really went away

Jeffrey Lewis

Book Reviews

England, My England

The poet whose bucolic lyrics defined a generation

Jan Morris

Editors’ Picks

10 Books to Read—And Not a Drop to Drink

Dry salvages that will make you thirsty—part one of our H₂0 reading series

Our Editors

Detroit: Summer of 2017

Thriving and Striving

Introducing our newest Daily Scholar columnist

Laura Bernstein-Machlay

Article

Dishonorable Behavior

The scourge of military sexual assault and the warrior’s masculine code

Elizabeth D. Samet

Detroit: Summer of 2017 Fridays

The changing face of Motor City

80,000 Squirrels on My Block Alone

And other tales of Detroit wildlife

Laura Bernstein-Machlay

A Little Night Music

Hearing Gurrelieder on a stormy night

Sudip Bose

View from Rue Saint-Georges Wednesdays

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends”

David Lehman

Portrait of the Artist Mondays

Sonali Khatti

Felting the Grand Canyon

Noelani Kirschner

WISE TO THE WORDS

Pause Fillers

Um, like, y’know, sort of, if you catch my drift

Ralph Keyes

Current Issue

Cover Story

Our Nuclear Future

We may think the bomb is back, but it never really went away

Jeffrey Lewis

Dishonorable Behavior

The scourge of military sexual assault and the warrior’s masculine code

Elizabeth D. Samet

Waking From the Dream

Most Americans assume society is more egalitarian than it is

Nancy Isenberg

Reading Thoreau at 200

Why is the seminal work of the great American transcendentalist held in such scorn today?

William Howarth

THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

Now that it’s August, everyone seems to be on vacation. But if you’re still at the office—or someplace you’d rather not be—read Donald Hall’s essay from our Spring 2013 issue to satisfy your wanderlust: a remembrance of the poet’s honeymoon journey from England to Greece, through the backroads of postwar Yugoslavia.