Novelists ought to keep "a private address," in Eudora Welty's famous construction, but one critic believes too many writers are ignoring the advice.

Some Americans want to reconsider "birthright" citizenship, even though it's protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Bai Gano, the fictional satiric character who has become a legend in Bulgarian literature, was invented at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

The history of rebuilding cities after major disasters does not bode well for New Orleans.

Some of the greatest artists of the 20th century share one curious trait: misaligned eyes.

"America's expansiveness, intrusiveness, and tendency toward political, economic, and strategic dominance are not some aberration from our true nature," writes Robert Kagan. "That is our nature."

The New York Times account of Kitty Genovese's murder--and the 38 citizens who supposedly watched and did nothing--shocked the world. Much of the story, it turns out, was untrue.

Why can't experts figure out the reason for the educational gap between African Americans and whites?

One thing has remained fixed about the U.S. Census: It has never included a question about religion. According to one scholar, that's not likely to change.

Keeping business in the family may not be such a good idea.

Turns out economists do agree on some things.

All but lost amid the protest to Pope Benedict XVI's speech in September 2006 was the complex point he was trying to make.

A look at Haiti's brisk trade in discarded--and re-tailored--American clothing.

Raising taxes on cigarettes has not curtailed smoking, but rather made smokers consume each butt more intensively.

The era of optimism for democracy in the Middle East has ended, says one foreign relations specialist.

The English are descended from the Angles and the Saxons, right? Only if you ignore the DNA record, which shows that most share a heritage with the Basques.

Disability payments have reached an annual cost that is nearly three and a half times the budget of the Department of Homeland Security.

Anti-Americanism is nothing new, but it seems there are different categories of dislike.

Why does Latin America, economically, continue to be the sick man of the West?

Women number fewer than men among bloggers, despite a few prominent voices on the Web. The explanation may be found in the Internet's history and culture.

Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, in the view of one critic, has succeeded because "his sense of responsibility extends to pleasure itself."

The Equal Rights Amendment may not have passed, but many of its principles seem embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Iran's system of compensating organ donors is being watched closely by transplant advocates and medical ethicists alike.

Despite man's best efforts--or, more precisely, because of them--a Hawaiian raven is all but extinct in the wild.

Philip Gold on America's all-volunteer force

Mark Kingwell on Heidegger's hut

Martin Walker on the world's first artists

Robert E. Wright on America's fights over money

Andrew Starner on Yukio Mishima

John McGowan on the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur

Haleh Esfandiari on women in the Middle East

Tim Morris on our evolving palates

Grant Alden looks at the early days of the Nashville recording industry

Amanda Kolson Hurley on classical history

Susan D. Moeller on illustrators of the Great War

Michele Hilmes on ham radio culture

Aaron Dalton on the body's largest, and perhaps most mysterious, organ

Elizabeth MacBride on the culture of stock and commodities exchanges

WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Past and PresentBy Nikkie R. Keddie. Princeton Univ.Press.389 pp. $24.95