Our America

Our America: All Life’s Matter

Our America: All Life’s Matter

Ever since the walk that Saturday, the modest but set-with-care-into-the-lawn homemade sign has haunted me, its simple black font on a rectangle of white foam core. I couldn’t believe what I had seen, didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It stood in my neighbors’ yard, the same neighbors who on . . .

Read More
One Hampshire Story

One Hampshire Story

“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”                                      —John . . .

Read More
To Hampshire College Faculty

To Hampshire College Faculty

February 11, 2019 Dear Hampshire Colleagues, We, the undersigned faculty members of Mount Holyoke College, wish to express our concern about recent events at Hampshire College, as well as our support for Hampshire College and its faculty and staff. We are particularly concerned about: (1) the failure of the President and the . . .

Read More
Open Letter from Amherst Faculty to the Hamphire College President

Open Letter from Amherst Faculty to the Hamphire College President

Dear President Nelson, In 1965, an editorial in The Amherst Student stated that the Amherst College community “can justly be proud of the disproportionate contributions of their own college to the initial phases of Hampshire’s development.” Since then, five decades of close partnership with our colleagues at Hampshire College have joined our two faculties . . .

Read More
To Our Five College Colleagues

To Our Five College Colleagues

The Hampshire College Seal and Motto (“to know is not enough”) Hampshire College faculty and staff are very grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from our colleagues in the Five Colleges. This support is enormously important to us and gives us strength to weather this storm. Statements of support from . . .

Read More
Peace, Love, and Understanding

Peace, Love, and Understanding

The Hampshire College Seal and Motto (“to know is not enough”) Frankly, when I read the shocking news from Hampshire College this week, it brought back memories. Shortly after I got anointed or conned into taking the job as MR editor, I received an email from my Dean at UMass, asking me to give her a few . . .

Read More
Beyond Maternal Instinct

Beyond Maternal Instinct

Matthais Grünewald, detail from the Isenheim Altarpiece, Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar During my days at sea with Médicins Sans Frontières, I brought the Aeneid with me to read. As is true of the Odyssey, I was more taken by the maritime crossings than the episodes on land. It’s the unfavorable, not the fair, winds that determine . . .

Read More
Insects

Insects

Photo by Nicole Parson, from Buzzfeed and The Hill. I report here testimony gathered by the French journalist Jean Hatzfeld. Hatzfeld managed to interview in prison numerous perpetrators of the massacres in Rwanda, nearly entirely done with machetes. During the 90s, the Tutsi population was hunted down by Hutus and the killing was everywhere. One . . .

Read More
Archipelago

Archipelago

It’s common for writers to be asked about the books that influenced them, about the authors that inspired them. Usually the answer is none—the writers claim to be entirely original. When I get this question, my answer is All of them. Every book I like has added something to my ideas, my language. . . .

Read More
The Anthem in My Stomach

The Anthem in My Stomach

Jasper Johns, Poster, (Flag) Moratorium, 1969USA lithograph on paper; 52.2 × 72.4 cm (20 9/16 × 28 1/2 in.)Gift of Various Donors; 1981-29-52Cooper Hewitt collection At Soldier Field, Home of the Chicago Bears If I had really good eyes, I might see the threads that join me to the crowd, or even . . .

Read More

Search the Site


Search the Archives

Sign up to stay in touch

Get the latest news and publications from MR delivered to your inbox.