Why did “A Brief History of Time” make its author the most famous scientist in the world?

On the role of criticism in the end times

The immense power of Jeff Bezos’s empire reveals a country that has been falling apart for quite some time.

Books by politicians sell badly and are quickly forgotten, yet the publishing industry spends shovelfuls of cash on them.

Heavy industry once drove Pittsburgh’s economy. Now health care does—but without the same hard-won benefits.

At the peak of her fame, she exuded total control on screen. According to her new memoir, a different story played out behind the scenes.

Jonathan Cohn’s new book shows how narrowly health care reform passed—and how far we are from universal coverage.

In her poems and “The Cancer Journals,” Lorde fought to name her experience.

How thought leaders resurrected the myth of a carefree prehistoric lifestyle

Megan Nolan’s novel is a compulsive story of desire, subservience, and self-annihiliation.

The novelist wanted his biography to settle scores. It has badly backfired.

Recent works inspired by his fiction struggle to reckon with his racist fantasies.

Soul City in North Carolina was designed to build Black wealth and address racial injustice. Then its opponents lined up.

The line between legal pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs has less to do with science than with race, class, and gender.

Two new books shed light on the different ways we view the business of existing.

Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi appear in this history of revolutionary struggles. But the main characters are lesser-known figures.

Has any other novelist lived a life so steeped in political intrigue?

How we came to rely on the courts, instead of the democratic process, for justice

A new book explores the impact tourism has had on our politics, our planet, and our selves.

Rampant capitalism and a search for identity collide in “My Year Abroad.”