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Things Worth Remembering
The Free Press presents great literary treasures—from William Shakespeare to David Foster Wallace and beyond—that we should commit to heart.
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Plato’s Cave and the Rise of the Highly Educated Radical
Professors have taught generations of students to reduce individuals to the flat abstractions of identity groups, politics to zero-sum relations of…
Jacob Howland
How ‘City on a Hill’ Became ‘America First’
The U.S.’s founding ideal emphasized mercy, humility, and mutual obligation. Its modern counterpart does much the opposite.
Lydia Dugdale
The Past Wasn’t Inherently Better. So Why Does It Feel That Way?
A 12th-century Japanese poem captures the paradox of nostalgia: We don’t miss the past as it was—we miss it as we remember it.
Spencer Klavan
Motherhood Wasn’t the Interruption I Expected It to Be
Every day, I kiss my daughter’s curls and thank my lucky stars that I had the privilege to take an early detour.
Solveig Lucia Gold
Why We Still Choose to Go to the Moon
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said that we choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard. More than 60 years later…
Joe Nocera
‘Hannah Montana’ Understood the Internet Before We Did
My generation grew up watching Miley Cyrus defend her private life from her public identity. Then social media made that very dilemma our own.
Sascha Seinfeld
Things Worth Remembering: If You Will It, It Is No Dream
It is said that in 1897, Theodor Herzl went to the First Zionist Congress with ‘Daniel Deronda’ under his arm—a novel capturing the idealistic roots of…
Howard Jacobson
Things Worth Remembering: Our Founding Mother
Printer Mary Katharine Goddard risked British retaliation in 1777 when she produced the first widely distributed copy of the Declaration of Independence…
Norah O'Donnell
Things Worth Remembering: The Iranian Movie to Watch This Weekend
If you want some sense of what life’s been like in Tehran—watch the dark and captivating Iranian vampire film, ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.’
Kat Rosenfield
Things Worth Remembering: To Sit at the Same Table
A stanza from ‘The House by the Side of the Road’ became my family’s reminder that no argument can float too far from the deeper connection of love…
Keaton Swett
Things Worth Remembering: The Day Jesse Jackson Asked for Forgiveness
In 1984, after alienating American Jews and losing his bid for the presidency, the late Jesse Jackson delivered a concession speech that remains a…
Eli Lake
Things Worth Remembering: James Van Der Beek Was the Best of Us
The ‘Dawson’s Creek’ star, who died Wednesday at 48, sought to teach his kids “how easy it can be to laugh, to love, to cry, to learn . . .and to find…
Mary Katharine Ham
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