Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning

Jacques Barzun. University of Chicago Press, $21 (229pp) ISBN 978-0-226-03847-6

In these 15 essays and articles, eminent cultural historian Barzun gives a straightforward message: mechanization and gimmicks are no substitute for the hard work of learning and the art of teaching. Trenchant and challenging, this primer holds valuable lessons for educators. (May)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Daniel Saldaña París

Novelist París (Ramifications) reflects in these striking essays on the complicated relationship between place and identity. Traversing the cities “that have marked my life,” Continue reading »

John Gilbert McCurdy

The 1774 trial of British army chaplain Robert Newburgh (1742–1825) for “vicious and immoral behavior” sheds valuable light on contemporaneous ideas about homosexuality, Continue reading »

Dean Jobb

Jobb follows up The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream with a top-shelf work of true crime focused on lovestruck “gentleman thief” Arthur Barry (1896–1981). A con artist since his Continue reading »

Corinne Fowler

“Colonialism... affected the remotest corners” of Britain’s landscape, demonstrates historian and curator Fowler (Green Unpleasant Land) in this revelatory Continue reading »