January 15, 2021
The Rest Is History
Whaler art, vaccine rollouts, and a very American mob.
Read MoreRoundtable
Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.
April 27, 2025
January 14, 2021
Most Execrable and Abominable or Irreligious
When Pope Clement VII tested poisons on condemned bodies “for the benefit of the public.”
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January 12, 2021
Who Knows What to Expect When You’re Expecting
The unknown female body in early modern Italy.
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January 11, 2021
Glossary: Democracy
From auctoritas to wasta, the language of the voting public.
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January 08, 2021
The Rest Is History
An excuse to read books from 1925, a young and fragile democracy, and an Emily Dickinson adventure.
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January 01, 2021
The Rest Is History
Getting ready to hibernate, why we write, and a well-preserved snack bar.
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December 28, 2020
2020 in Review on Roundtable
A look back at the essays and excerpts published on the Quarterly’s website this year.
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December 23, 2020
Making a Fool
The evolution of English legal language that deemed people mentally incapacitated.
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December 21, 2020
Troubled Indemnity
A history of the United States shifting the financial burden of emancipation onto enslaved people.
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August 07, 2023
Monumental Mistakes
2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
May 22, 2023
Revolutionary Lovebirds
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.