Essays
Dates With Destiny
Why does one area — Qassim — dominate the export trade in Saudi Arabia’s world-famous khalas dates? The answer lies in a historic merchant culture whose influence still shapes the Saudi economy today.
A Daughter’s Vengeance
When her family was brutally murdered, a young woman in Tang-era China exacted bloody revenge. The legend of Xie Xiao-e is still remembered 1,200 years later.
The Sacred Convictions That Preserve the Profane Red Lines of Partition
On the 79th anniversary of Partition, a veteran journalist argues that the tragedy is not just that India and Pakistan’s borders were drawn badly, but that they were defended well.
The Tumultuous History Behind Chicago’s Transformation Into a Quantum Metropolis
Chicago’s transformation from a frontier outpost to a modern metropolis was shaped by dramatic human and environmental ruptures. Three books retelling different aspects of the city’s history can help us grapple with its tense present, and its future in the emerging “quantum” economy.
How Nam Cao’s Short Stories Captured a Revolution
While little known in the West, Nam Cao’s short stories remain widely read in Vietnam. They dissect a society and people undergoing dramatic upheaval, and are inseparable from the political consciousness that led him, via the Communist Party and the fight for independence, to his death in 1951.
Parapsychology Is Coming in From the Cold
From experiments with psychedelics to Nobel Prize winners interested in fitting consciousness into physical theories, research into the inexplicable is gaining ground in the academy.
The Sumerian Roots of Zaha Hadid’s Architecture
Zaha Hadid’s architecture is known for being cutting-edge and hypermodernist. But she drew inspiration from as far back in time as the Sumerian civilization of her native Iraq.