Curing American sclerosis
by Charles Murray
A lecture delivered by Charles Murray after he received the third Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society.
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Features
A sufferable snob
by Bruce Bawer
A new collection of Henry James’s letters reveals the early development of the writer.
Harper Lee’s loving-kindness
by Anthony Daniels
A few reflections on To Kill a Mockingbird in anticipation of Harper Lee’s new book releases.
Hard not to see
by James Panero
On the new Whitney Museum, designed by Renzo Piano.
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Poems
Signs
by Bill Coyle
Sadie
by Bill Coyle
Letters from the World
A “normal” Narva
by Andrew Stuttaford
Over a third of its population are Russian citizens and it is located at the edge of the isthmus where Russia merges into Estonia; Narva has an interesting position as Putin’s ambitions grow.
A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORS
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Washington Journal
Too cool in the capital
by Bruce Cole
On “Recent Acquisitions” and “Elaine de Kooning: Portraits” at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and an update on plans for an Eisenhower Memorial in the capital.
Reconsiderations
The heaven-taught ploughman
by Neilson MacKay
On the mixed critical reception of Robert Burns.
Dance
Cathedral of ice
by Laura Jacobs
A look back on Balanchine and Le Baiser de la Fée.
Theater
Unholy spirits
by Kyle Smith
On Ghosts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Clinton the Musical at New World Stages, Wolf Hall Parts One and Two at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Art
Jacob Lawrence at MOMA
by Karen Wilkin
On “One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North” at MOMA and “Struggle . . . From The History of the American People” at the Phillips Collection.
Exhibition note
by Mario Naves
On “Trenton Doyle Hancock: Skin and Bones, 20 Years of Drawing” at the Studio Museum, Harlem.
Love bites
by Christie Davies
On “Love Bites: Caricatures by James Gillray” at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Music
New York chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On the American Symphony Orchestra’s “Music U,” the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Zankel Hall, the New York Philharmonic’s Senza sangue, and more.
The media
Cuddlers & cutthroats
by James Bowman
On the results of the recent election in England.
Verse chronicle
Doing as the Romans do
by William Logan
On Heaven, by Rowan Ricardo Phillips; Rome, by Dorothea Lasky; Breezeway, John Ashbery; A Woman Without a Country, by Eavan Boland; The Other Mountain, by Rowan Williams; and Nothing to Declare, by Henri Cole.
Notes & Comments
Freedom at a crossroads
by the Editors
On the reaction to PEN’s Freedom of Expression Courage Award announcement.
A note of thanks
by the Editors
A special message to our supporters.
A birthday tribute
by the Editors
First Things turns twenty-five.