John Steinbeck based “The Grapes of Wrath” on Sanora Babb’s notes. But she was writing her own American epic.

Hervey Cleckley wanted to treat the most overlooked psychiatric patients. Instead his work was used to demonize them.

From Switzerland to Qatar to Kazakhstan, the countries clamoring to entice the ultrawealthy with a suite of new privileges.

“Hons and Rebels” might easily be mistaken for a freewheeling memoir of aristocratic life. It’s also a study of intense ideological conflict in a family.

John Andrew Jackson spent a night at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home as he fled north. Why do so few traces of his visit remain?

In Emily Witt’s memoir of hedonism and journalism, dancing is a way of processing political chaos.

A far-from-exhaustive guide to the books that our critics recommend this fall

The rivalry of two men tells the story of how Democrats fumbled with their traditional base—and how they can win again.

To improve conditions and lower prices, tenants should start withholding rent.

The Swedish Academy's decision to award Korean novelist Han Kang is a minor victory in a world of consolidation.

A trip to Israel and Palestine in 2023 made Coates rethink one of his most famous essays.

“Intermezzo” is Rooney’s most somber novel, more attentive to loss and irreversible change.

Where some celebrated the triumph of liberal capitalism in the 1990s, Hobsbawm saw a failed dream.

Richard Beck’s “Homeland” traces the far-reaching aftereffects of the attacks and tries to recover the events of the day, as they happened.

Despite its title, “Mourning a Breast” is not about grief—and, really, not even that much about breasts.

The conservative movement’s total abandonment of even the appearance of principles has been decades in the making.

“Pursuits of Happiness” teaches the art of rereading and reexamining our own thoughts.

J.D. Vance wrote the foreword to “Dawn’s Early Light.” The rest of the book outlines an even more troubling vision.

There’s little evidence slouching is unhealthy. So why do Americans believe so firmly in sitting up straight?