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.

Encounters

LETTERS

Under the Passaic Falls

The Traveler in a Shrinking World

The Times They Are a-Changin’

Into the Quaking Mirror

The Song Spectrum

Talking It Out

One April Day • A death, a book, an art show, and a promise of magnolia blossoms

In the Labyrinth of #MeToo • ADDRESSING SEXUAL AGGRESSION AND POWER IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY ALSO MEANS QUESTIONING WHAT THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT HAS REALLY BEEN ABOUT

Working for Bobby • FIFTY YEARS AGO, I CAMPAIGNED FOR RFK FOR PRESIDENT, AND WAS NEARBY WHEN THE DREAM DIED WITH HIM

The End of Liberalism • WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PUBLIC OPINION IS DIMINISHED AND POPULAR SENTIMENT IS AROUSED

Starbursts

Spirits

The Priest at the Pool Party

A McDonald’s in Middle America

Joy

Land’s End

Drink

Diamonds • THE STONES, SHIMMERING AND PRECIOUS, CONNECT A WRITER TO HER GENEROUS, ENIGMATIC MOTHER

In Search of Lost Travels • HOW REMEMBRANCES FROM FAR AWAY STEEL THE SOUL

Home, Home On the Road • HIS FATHER’S LONG-TIME OBSESSION WITH RECREATIONAL VEHICLES LEADS A WRITER TO HIT THE HIGHWAY

We Can’t Make You Whole Again

Normal Life

The Island

Concerto in Beans and Rice • Jazz maestro Paquito D’Rivera turns 70 this year, with a major collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma in the works

A Century at the Muny • The open-air St. Louis theater, set to undergo a renovation this fall, is a beloved summertime institution

Force of Nature • The racing tides beneath Peter Matthiessen’s literary achievement

Robben Island Days • A South African leader’s jailhouse correspondence during apartheid

Monstrous Achievement • Two hundred years on, a writer’s cautionary tale still captivates

A Life’s Work Gone to Seed • The lost cultivations of an often overlooked colonial scientist

Everything Was Radiant • A Soviet reactor’s meltdown and its far-reaching consequences

“I Figured What the Hell” • A pugnacious reporter looks back on his legendary career

Split Decisions • A renowned neuroscientist examines human experience

Commonplace Book

AMERICAN PLACES