In his spectacular book, The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson gives a delightful historical account of the World’s Columbian Exposition, more popularly known as the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The fair’s original purpose was to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America, but it
Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that precipitated the current Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. was reportedly brokering a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Some experts on the Middle East have suggested that the Hamas attack was partly a response to that peace initiative. Those regional observers
Many member countries of the UN seem not to notice that one of the Security Council’s permanent members that is leading calls for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza is unfit to do so. Or perhaps it has become acceptable for any country, even one that is currently actively
In my numerous conversations with fellow immigrants in America over the years, I have found that the one thing that endlessly fascinates us is the egalitarian nature of American society. Most of us spent our formative years in hierarchical societies. In many of those places, although all kinds of laws
In April this year, during an interview about my book, The Boy from Boadua, the host asked me how I define hope. I didn’t have a ready-made answer so I quickly concocted one that, in hindsight, can be charitably described as less-than-coherent. In another interview a week later, I was