The American Scholar

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous speech, The American Scholar is the quarterly magazine of public affairs, literature, science, history, and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society since 1932.

At 90

The American Scholar

LETTERS

Community in Concrete

The Power of the Past • David Schalliol is an associate professor of sociology at St. Olaf College, the author of Isolated Building Studies, and coauthor of The City Creative with Michael H. Carriere. His photography has been internationally featured and exhibited; this photo comes from an ongoing residency with BPS22, the art museum of Belgium’s Hainaut Province.

Taming the Wild Web

A Death in Karachi

On Kindness • Almost everybody wants to be thought of as kind, if only as a strategy

The Art of Losing • THE END OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN SHOWS THE DANGER OF OUR COMMITMENT TO PERPETUAL OPTIMISM

Lessons From an Unwritten Autobiography • FROM DOUBT AND DESPAIR TO FAITH AND LOVE

Why So Many Kids Struggle to Learn • TEACHERS CONTINUE TO BE TRAINED IN WAYS THAT IGNORE THE FINDINGS OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Lifelines

Cul-de-Sac

Portrait of a Marriage in Six Homes • THE PLACES THAT SHELTERED MY LIFE WITH SHIRLEY

Never Take Hope From the Patient • SOMETIMES THE BEST TREATMENT INCLUDES A HEALTHY DOSE OF OPTIMISM, EVEN WHEN IT’S NOT WARRANTED

From Murderpan to Mattapan • A WRITER’S TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES LEAD HIM TO TRAVEL IN TIME TO THE PLACES WHERE HE WAS HURT

The Submerged

Sex and Secrets • Rare is the Hitchcock film that celebrates desire without disaster

Mightier Than the Sword • A celebrated cartoonist looks back on his singular life and career

The Burden of Guilt • A plea for grace and forgiveness after a terrible crime

Hoping for Recovery • The long struggle to explain and treat drug dependency

New York Was Very Heaven • The midcentury newcomers who reshaped the art world

Tales of Mercy and Sacrifice • An Italian scholar’s exploration of the Hebrew Bible

A World Weird and Wondrous • A classical music star offers a peek behind the curtain

Commonplace Book

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS • If you’re dead or fictional, we’re the dating service for you!