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.

The American Scholar

Good Vibrations • One eccentric’s desert landmark allows visitors to bathe in sound

I So Wish That You Remembered • The gift of song from a daughter to her elderly mother

Bubble Girl • The kidnapping that once riveted the nation

Downstream of Fukushima • The Japanese seafood industry has rebounded, but is anyone worried about irradiated water?

Lunching With Rabi • An afternoon spent in the company of an illustrious physicist

Sins of the Fathers and Mothers • On war, settlement, and collective responsibility

Tales From an Attic • Suitcases once belonging to residents of a New York State mental hospital tell the stories of long-forgotten lives

The Dragon Amid the Tigers • Ever since a weeks-long war in 1962, the influence of Chinese culture on the lives of many Indians hasn’t always been so evident

Strength and Conditioning • Whether teaching history in the segregated South or winning Super Bowls as an NFL coach, Johnny Parker has encouraged his charges to strive for a certain kind of greatness

The Redoubtable Bull Shark • Reflecting on one of nature’s most dangerous predators

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free • SHADES OF GRIEF IN THE VERSE OF CATHERINE BARNETT

Five Poems

My Name Is Emily • What we call ourselves—and what others call us—can be both a burden and a gift

Tramping With Virginia • A seminal essay about walking the streets of London can present challenges in the classrooms of today

Red Tide Warning • Living on Florida’s Gulf Coast means having to coexist with pervasive and toxic algal blooms—and neighbors who don’t always believe what they see

The Widower's Lament • After the death of the poet Wendy Barker, her grieving husband turns to the literature of loss

Sifting

CHAIN GANG • The personalities behind one of Rome’s greatest treasures

THE JAZZ SINGER • A new biography of an American legend

THOUGHT EXPERIMENTER • Will AI really make our world better?

WE'VE GONE MAINSTREAM • Latinos are invisible no more

INVISIBLE INK • Giving center page to an era’s forgotten writers

OUR PETS, OUR PLATES • In defense of the furred and the hoofed

ACTING OUT • One tortuous journey from stage to screen

THE CHOICE IS OURS • Survival of the most meaningful

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