The human brain did not evolve for thinking. Its main purpose is to regulate our physical resources and ensure our survival.
Bookshelf
What makes an ‘authoritarian’ ruler? Compiling a definitive list poses challenges.
The explorer and naturalist was an inspiration to generations, despite having made no single breakthrough of his own.
Revelatory looks at life—human and animal—in a unique environment.
What Brit Bennett, Douglas Stuart, Rahm Emanuel, Kim Cattrall and others read this year
The Adriatic city never became a lasting center of power, but its artistic legacy is rich.
The photographer’s curiosity gave him an eye for what lay beneath the surface.
Selected by Phillip Lopate, editor of ‘The Glorious American Essay.’
A British neurologist explores his passionate identification with the reckless adventurer Percy Harrison Fawcett.
In a year overwhelmed with political news, these books made an impact that will outlast the headlines.
A tour through the year’s highlights features marvels for readers of nearly any age.
From far-flung worlds to an eerie setting close to home, our columnist picks this year’s stellar reading.
Tom Nolan tracks down the best crime fiction of the year.
The editors of the Journal’s books pages pick the year’s most distinguished fiction and nonfiction.
A professor argues that we should engage with the classics, not only in spite of, but even because of, our moral differences with them.
A gimlet-eyed chronicle of a glamorous and tumultuous life in journalism that spares no one, least of all the author herself.
As workers become fewer in number and global wages rise, we may see less inequality but more inflation and higher interest rates.
To stay on top, says a progressive writer, the U.S. must triple its population. Maybe so. But does he mean it?
Can liberals and conservatives talk to each other anymore? Did they ever?
He gave up an illustrious naval career for a secondary role, all in the name of duty.
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