The Free Press
Listen to the Latest Episode of School of War
ForumNewslettersSign InSubscribe
Things Worth Remembering
The Return of the God That Failed
A forgotten Cold War masterpiece reveals why intelligent people once embraced a murderous ideology—and why its appeal has not disappeared.
Gary Saul Morson
The Book That Changed How We Think About Thinking
I first read Douglas Hofstadter’s 777-page ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach’ in 1983. It remains a masterpiece. But its message has become far more complicated.
Peter Coy
‘Little House on the Prairie’ Brought My Family Back Together
After years of estrangement from my family—and the collapse of my public life—I found an unexpected path toward forgiveness in the quiet moral world of…
Joseph Massey
How One Forgotten Novel Helped Me Return to Judaism
When I was growing up, we practiced Judaism only barely. ‘Remember Me to God,’ by Myron S. Kaufmann, helped me understand why—and led me to choose…
Nicholas Lemann
Juneteenth and the Long Arc of American Freedom
Sixty-three years after Martin Luther King Jr. declared that ‘the goal of America is freedom,’ his nephew reflects on the holiday that embodies that…
Isaac Newton Farris Jr.
Niall Ferguson: The World Cup Looks Like a Fiesta of Nationalism. Don’t Be Fooled.
When U.S. sports fans go to a ball game, they are pursuing happiness. But, as Nick Hornby explained in ‘Fever Pitch,’ soccer is entertainment as pain.
Niall Ferguson
The Ghost of ‘Dreyfus’ Hits the Stage in New York
Bernard-Henri Lévy reflects on Jean-Claude Grumberg’s haunting play about antisemitism, memory, and political hysteria—and why its warnings now feel…
Bernard-Henri Lévy
War, Memory, and the Sons We Lose
As Memorial Day arrives, Herman Wouk’s ‘War and Remembrance’ remains a powerful reminder that history survives only when we can still imagine the people…
Aaron MacLean
What Christopher Nolan Has to Get Right About the ‘Odyssey’
The hardest thing to capture about the poem is also the key to its enduring greatness.
Spencer Klavan
Back When the Pulitzer Meant Something
In the years before winning the Pulitzer became an exercise in ideological performance, writers like Jimmy Breslin captured the nation’s soul.
Liel Leibovitz
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
For Free People.
LatestSearchAboutCareersForumShopPodcastsVideoEvents
©2026 The Free Press. All Rights Reserved.Powered by Substack.
Privacy∙Terms∙Collection notice