The dean of Middle Eastern studies recounts how he came to write-and rewrite-The Arabs in History.

The age of Jackson is an oft-neglected chapter in American History, but three new books take up the challenge.

Edmund Wilson was a man of immense erudition, and many quirks. Few biographers can hope to do him justice; his most recent one hasn't.

Leo Marx's strikingly original account of how 19th-century Americans tried to refashion the pastoral ideal still resonates.

A French-born observer examines two new books on immigration and the challenges of American civic nationalism.

The Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt authored a political philosophy that retains appeal in some surprising places.

Hollywood is having box office troubles; a review of some recent and prospective films shows why.

Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has turned one hundred years old. An eminent economic historian provides a slice-of-life illustration of Weber's wisdom.

Robert Wuthnow worries that America's traditional "live and let live" approach to religious diversity isn't good enough. He seeks a more engaged pluralism, but his own analysis suggests he's not likely to get it.

A guide to the hundreds of books that have been written in the past four years about Islamist terrorism and the 9/11 attacks.