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.

Slouching Toward Tyranny

The AMERICAN SCHOLAR

LETTERS

Thank you, friends! • THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR thanks the following people for their financial support in 2020.

Wildfires in the Wilderness

WORKS IN PROGRESS

The Baptismal Bowl

Every Letter Is a Love Letter • You take time to write only when you care

Putin’s Potemkin Paradise • THE TROUBLING APPEAL OF RUSSIA’S BLEND OF POLITICAL REPRESSION AND BOURGEOIS COMFORT

The China Model • ITS ECONOMIC SUCCESS AND REJECTION OF DEMOCRATIC VALUES HAVE ENGAGED LEADERS ACROSS THE GLOBE

The Birth of Black Power • STOKELY CARMICHAEL AND THE SPEECH THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Zoom Rooms

Escarpment

Unsentimental Education • MARY WARE DENNETT’S QUEST TO MAKE CONTRACEPTION—AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SEX—AVAILABLE TO ALL

Jacques Barzun and Friend • WHAT DID A DISTINGUISHED HISTORIAN, AND POSSIBLY A GREAT MAN, SEE IN AN UNKEMPT YOUNG WOULD-BE WRITER?

Natural Magic • MODERN MEDICINE’S ROOTS IN ALCHEMY, ASTRONOMY, AND THE APOTHECARY SHOP

Obscura No More • HOW PHOTOGRAPHY ROSE FROM THE MARGINS OF THE ART WORLD TO OCCUPY ITS VITAL CENTER

Binding Agent

The Baddest Man in Town • On the trail of a historical figure immortalized in African-American folklore

Artist of Excess • The man who painted his century’s nightmare

When Ideas Mattered • How “freedom from” became “freedom to”

Swimming the River of Song • How a young scholar demystified the ancient oral tradition

Surviving the Anthropocene • Can we reverse-engineer our way out of catastrophe?

Seconds from Midnight • Busting the myth that skilled diplomacy saved the world

Commonplace Book

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