The Rise of CliffsNotes Cinema
Oversimplified literary remakes miss the point of the works they are adapting.
Culture
Why Justin Bieber Played YouTube Onstage for Thousands of People
The pop star transformed the normal act of browsing your laptop into something interesting—and unsettling.
The New Age of Performance Anxiety
With the rise of screen culture, all the world has stage fright.
Where Did ‘Let Them’ Come From?
Years before Mel Robbins published her best-selling self-help book, a struggling writer posted a poem with a similar message.
By the Horns
Miriam Cabas is one of Spain’s few female bullfighters. What does her success mean for bullfighting, and for Spain?
The Father of Rhythm Guitarists
The late Steve Cropper laid a template for generations of rock-and-roll guitarists.
What if Our Ancestors Didn’t Feel Anything Like We Do?
The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow
The Slow Death of the Prestige Thriller
The genre’s overreliance on pulpy paperbacks is turning into a problem.
The Atlantic 10
The books that made us think the most this year
The Underrated Part of Jane Birkin’s Legacy
Stylish face? Secret visionary? A new book argues for a different approach to the late actor.
Tom Stoppard Made a Spectacle of History
In a career of magnificent plays, The Coast of Utopia stands out for its humor, its characters, and its warnings about ideological fervor.
What History’s Fallen Societies Have in Common
A new book argues that civilizations built on centralized wealth and power contain the seeds of their own destruction.
The Eloquence
A poem
The Germans Who Stood Up to Hitler
And the Germans who didn’t