Begin Again
Timeless stories from our 175-year archive handpicked to add context to the news of the day.
About Time for a New Year
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Who will own the measure of our days?
Read “Clash of the Time Lords” by Michelle Stacey
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The science of the perfect second.
Read “In Search of Lost Time” by Tom Vanderbilt
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“The present is by common definition the instant between the not yet and the already, a moment as narrow and treacherous as a tightrope.”
Read “Now and Then” by Rebecca Solnit
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“Linear time is a summary of actual time, of All Time, of the forever that has always been happening.…It comforts me that endings are thus formally unappealing to me—that more than beginning or ending, I enjoy continuing.”
Read “Keeping Time” by Sarah Manguso
Terror in New Orleans
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From the testimony of survivors of the Bataclan theater terrorist attack.
Read “An Oral History of Violence” by Emmanuel Carrère
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“This catastrophic event changes the way we think and act, moment to moment, week to week, for unknown weeks and months to come, and steely years. Our world, parts of our world, have crumbled into theirs, which means we are living in a place of danger and rage.”
Read “In the Ruins of the Future” by Don DeLillo
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“Each time I come back to New Orleans, I become more aware of the responsibilities of memory work.”
Read “Book of the Living” by Marina Magloire
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Memories of a shrinking city.
Read “Deep in the Bowl” by Darryl Pinckney
Aviation Tragedies
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An interview with Juliane Koepcke about the 1971 plane crash of which she was the sole survivor.
Read “After the Fall” by by Tom Littlewood, Translated by Barbara Dabrowska
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On the Vincennes incident, in which an American naval ship shot down an Iranian passenger plane.
Read “Why Was Flight 655 Shot Down?” by David R. Carlson
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Fears of flying.
Read “Nightmares at 20,000 Feet” by Lisa Wells
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Safety considerations from earlier eras of aviation.
Read “How Safe is Flying?” by Charles J. V. Murphy
Jimmy Carter Dies at 100
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Lewis H. Lapham on Carter’s curious campaign.
Read “The Wizard of Oz” by Lewis H. Lapham
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Lapham on how Carter’s presidency did not conform to the era’s “market in kings.”
Read “Pomp and Circumstance” by Lewis H. Lapham
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Carter’s thoughts on foreign policy in the Middle East.
Read “Carter: A Mideast Prescription” by Erik R. Peterson