Slavery Abolition

What might world history have looked like if there had never been a United States, or if it ceased to exist before the 20th-century? Is America an exceptional nation, an idea even, that stands as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world? Is America largely i…

by Howard Schultz, with Joanne Gordon Random House, 352 pp., $28.00 Howard Schultz; drawing by Mark Alan Stamaty Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg, Howard Schultz: all three of these billionaire-politicians began their careers in that semicivilized field of …

A pro-life marcher holds a sign outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., March 2, 2016. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) One of their aims is to provoke thinking about the moral dimension of extinguishing a being with a visibly beating heart.While constitution…

While constitutional lawyers, ethicists, and theologians in descending order of importance in the abortion debate have been arguing in the 46 years since the Supreme Court attempted to settle the debate, some technologists have been making a consequential con…

Editors note: The past is prologue. The stories we tell about ourselves and our forebears inform the sort of country we think we are and help determine public policy. As our current president promises to make America great again, this moment is an appropriate…

Caitrin Keiper There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea. —Peter Matthiessen, The Tree Where Ma…

While constitutional lawyers, ethicists and theologians in descending order of importance in the abortion debate have been arguing in the 46 years since the Supreme Court attempted to settle the debate, some technologists have been making a consequential cont…

Philly Tech Week continues through Saturday with dozens of tech, science, media and data events around the city. That includes a seminar about designing accessible digital experiences (Monday); the 5th Annual Women in Tech Soiree (Tuesday); a day-long confere…

Was Abraham Lincoln gay? The question, not a new one, is delicately and touchingly presented in Courting Mr. Lincoln, a work of historical fiction in which the husband-hunting Mary Todd courts him, as does his male friend Joshua Speed, with whom he shared lod…

Isaac Burns Murphy cased the track like Muhammad Ali did the ring, read thoroughbreds like Hank Aaron read pitchers and dominated Churchill Downs like Tiger Woods dominated Augusta National. Which is to say that, when it comes to the sport of horse racing, he…