We each live one life, formed by paths taken and untaken. Choosing a job, getting married, deciding on a place to live or whether to have children – every decision precludes another. But what if you'd gone the other way? It can be a seductive thought...

Does temperament in childhood predict adult personality? What role do parents play in shaping how a child matures? Is daycare bad – or good – for children? Does adolescent delinquency forecast a life of crime? Do genes influence success in life? Is h...

We avoid boredom at all costs. It makes us feel restless and agitated. Desperate for something to do, we play games on our phones, retie our shoes, or even count ceiling tiles. And if we escape it this time, eventually it will strike again. But what...

"On Morals or Concerning Education" is an exhortation on the importance of education by the prolific late-Byzantine author and statesman Theodore Metochites (1270-1332), who rose to the aristocracy from a middle-class background but fell from favor l...

This book plumbs the virtues of the Homeric poems as scripts for solo performance. Despite academic focus on orality and on composition in performance, we have yet to fully appreciate the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" as the sophisticated scripts that they a...

The Chinese government has increased digital censorship under Xi Jinping. Why? Because online activism works; it is perceived as a threat in halls of power. In "The Other Digital China", Jing Wang, a scholar at MIT and an activist in China, shatters...

In this groundbreaking interdisciplinary study, Maram Epstein identifies filial piety as the dominant expression of love in Qing dynasty texts. At a time when Manchu regulations made chastity the primary metaphor for obedience and social duty, filial...

"Old English Lives of Saints", a series composed in the 990s by the Benedictine monk Aelfric in his distinctive alliterative prose, portrays an array of saints – including virgin martyrs, married virgins, aristocrats, kings, soldiers, and bishops – f...

"Old English Lives of Saints", a series composed in the 990s by the Benedictine monk Aelfric in his distinctive alliterative prose, portrays an array of saints – including virgin martyrs, married virgins, aristocrats, kings, soldiers, and bishops – f...

"Old English Lives of Saints", a series composed in the 990s by the Benedictine monk Aelfric in his distinctive alliterative prose, portrays an array of saints – including virgin martyrs, married virgins, aristocrats, kings, soldiers, and bishops – f...