Abraham Lincoln’s widow has been lampooned as a narcissistic nut job, but her life of pain and loss was far more nuanced.
Sara Bhatia
Sara Bhatia is a historian and an independent museum consultant. A frequent book reviewer for the Washington Monthly, she also writes about museums, history, and culture, and is working on a history of tourism in Washington, D.C.
Posted inBooks
Mary Todd Lincoln Reconsidered
Abraham Lincoln’s widow has been lampooned as a narcissistic nut job, but her life of pain and loss was far more nuanced.
Posted inBooks
Are You There, Judy?
Even as she showed deep empathy for young girls, Judy Blume remained a mystery to herself.
Posted inNovember/December 2025
Hitting His Stride
Nick Thompson was an above-average runner who suddenly, in middle age, started breaking world records—a mysterious success inspired by a complicated relationship with his father.
Posted inBooks
Hitting His Stride
Nick Thompson was an above-average runner who suddenly, in middle age, started breaking world records—a mysterious success inspired by a complicated relationship with his father.
Posted inBooks
Clever the Twain Shall Meet
An epic new biography of Samuel Clemens confirms the Missourian’s literary mastery but contends that the most important character he ever created was his own.
Posted inBooks
Hillbilly Legacy
In December 1763, the “Paxton Boys,” a vigilante group of white settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier, killed and scalped six Conestoga Indians living under the colonial government’s protection on a contested tract of land. Two weeks later, the vigilantes rode into neighboring Lancaster and shot, scalped, and dismembered 14 more Conestoga—three elderly men, three women, […]
Posted inNovember/December 2024
The Regressive Era
A new biography of Woodrow Wilson puts the 28th president’s racism and sexism at the center of its narrative—and his world-historic domestic and international achievements on the periphery.
Posted inBooks
A New Look at the Feminist Earthquake
Clara Bingham’s masterful “The Movement” shows how women’s liberation transformed America and why our understanding of 1963-1973 needs to include more voices.
Posted inMagazine
The Tastemaker
The literary editor Judith Jones made the celebration of food part of America’s multicultural identity. A new biography restores her place in publishing history.