Lapham’s Quarterly goes into the past to help us make sense of the present. It dives into history, finding the roots of education, science, literary, political, and economic thinking. 

Lapham's Quarterly

How midlife crises — and menopause — came to be defined by the experience of men.

"Like menstrual disorders, menopause indicated nonreproductivity, but so did regular menstruation. When older ideas about menstruation’s purgative, purifying benefits were revised in the later nineteenth century and menstrual flow was connected to the cyclical production of the ovum and thus directly linked to conception, many physicians depicted menstruation as an unfortunate failure in bodily processes designed to build up a fetus. The menopausal discourse mirrored the menstrual one: 'What applies to menstruation once a month applies to menopause once in every lifetime.'" Author Susanne Schmidt reflects in Lapham’s Quarterly.

This article was originally published in Lapham’s Quarterly in March 2020.

Andi Arndt

Significant life event

Revisit 19th century Paris, when the city attempted to design out rebellion, but ended up encouraging it.

Paris — where millions of euros were donated following the fire at 'Notre-Dame' — is a city renowned for its architecture. But behind its idyllic boulevards and parks lies a story with a political legacy. Jess McHugh tells the story in Lapham's Quarterly.

Ashley Klanac

'Old Paris is no more'

Analysing the differences between 'presentisim' and 'eternalism'.

The former contemplates "the notion that everything that exists is only what can and does exist right now," while the latter "the idea that time is not a process but a dimension, and in that dimension all reference points have equal validity, and thus all time, past, present, and future, exists at once, extending (like space) in all directions." Author John Crowley reflects in Lapham's Quarterly on the philosophical belief that it’s possible to live in more than one time, more than one history of the world, without feeling a pressing need to reconcile them.

Ron Butler

Time after time

Can bridging the divide between animals and humans bring about lasting happiness?

From childhood onward, humans have had a "poignant desire to communicate with animals," and gathering a better understanding of this need to speak with other creatures could, in turn, show us the path to a more fulfilling way of living life. Jay Griffiths reflects on these desires in Lapham's Quarterly magazine.

Michael Satow

The loneliest of species

Being a witch was expensive in the medieval age, in more ways than one.

Laurent Merceron, from Lapham's Quarterly, describes the incredible, fascinating and certainly spooky big business of witch hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries.

David Riley

Gold and silver coined from human blood 

What happens when private grief becomes common experience?

Anne Michaels, from Lapham's Quarterly Magazine, looks into the depersonalization of history and argues for a fight against it.

Imani Jade Powers

Mortal soul, moral soul

H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds feels more relevant and unsettling now than ever.

In the acclaimed novel, an all-conquering civilization had no defence against a humble microbe. Coincidently, Wells' book also offers a glimpse into what a world stopped in its tracks could look like, something that in pandemic times as today's can be all too eerily familiar. In Lapham's Quarterly, Mike Jay contemplates nature's influence in our futuristic depictions of society, through the lense of Wells' fascinating work.

The virus and the Martians

Understanding the volcanic eruption that set an ominous stage for the death throes of the Roman Republic.

Ancient civilisations were staunch believers of omens, with none so well known as the volcanic eruption and extreme cold spells prefacing Julius Caesar's assassination. In Lapham's Quarterly magazine, Kyle Harper explores how modern scientists have turned to nature for less prophetic explanations of the unstable environment of these eras.

In the shadow of Caesar

Commonplace books and the illusions of memory.

"The first passages in my commonplace doc are plucked from the few books I’ve brought from home or ones borrowed from the United States Information Service, an institution whose purpose I cannot decipher. Exile limits choices, makes for chance affinities that become stronger than they might otherwise be at home." Ed Park reflects in Lapham's Quarterly magazine.

Pale ink

Drone technology spans a century's worth of science fiction and military research.

"Despite the futuristic concept of robotic air warfare, drone technology goes back a hundred years. The technological groundwork was first established by genius inventor Nikola Tesla, who introduced radio-control technology at Madison Square Garden in 1898. Tesla immediately realized his invention's military potential, noting that the technology would allow man to build devastating remote weapons that would be a deterrent so inhuman and destructive that, in his imagination, they would 'lead to permanent peace between the nations.'" Rudolph Herzog delves in Lapham's Quarterly into the history of drones.

Michael Bott

Rise of the drones

Saudi oil has been attacked but how did this natural resource become an essential commodity?

“Trade has only ever been truly free for those whose economies were large enough and powerful enough,” Laleh Khalili explores in Lapham's Quarterly magazine.

Rena-Marie Villano

A world built on sand and oil

The last judicial duel in France hinged on whether a woman could be believed — this is her story.

In this remarkable Lapham's Quarterly article from Eric Jager, he tells the story of Marguerite de Carrouges, the person behind the last trial by combat Paris ever saw, drawing interesting parallels between society's response to sexual abuse then and today. After almost 650 years, have they changed much?

Karl Miller

The woman in black

The French philosopher outsmarts the lottery.

We all know Voltaire as the Enlightenment philosopher and writer. But author and professor of French at Oxford, Roger Pearson, shares in Lapham’s Quarterly magazine how Voltaire outsmarted the lottery and earned himself a fortune that would allow him to pursue his life as a writer later and become one of the heroes of the Enlightenment.

Jonathan Booth

Voltaire's luck

Spiting Orwell, inspiring Graham Greene and being awarded an OBE — who really was Hans-Peter Smolka?

"It took a decade — and the mining of the KGB files after the Soviet collapse in the early 1990s — for the lurid story of his treachery to emerge..." His godson, Peter Foges, tells in Lapham's Quarterly the fascinating tale of war-time publishing, radicalism and espionage.

My spy: the story of H.P. Smolka, Soviet spy and inspiration for 'The Third Man'

“Through these portals pass the most beautiful uniforms in the world.”

It would be unthinkable today, but during the Second World War leading Hollywood stars both fought alongside and partied in style with their countrymen. Anne Helen Petersen looks in Lapham's Quarterly at the history of The Hollywood Canteen where for one night soldiers could live like A-list celebrities. 

Diana Holguin

The Hollywood canteen: where soldiers could be movie stars for one night

Palmyra has graced the world’s news screens for all the wrong reasons. 

Its destruction has been the symbol of barbarity. French Archaeologist and Historian Paul Veyne writing in Lapham’s Quarterly tells us of the ancient city’s rich and remarkable history. 

The Oasis of Palmyra: unearthing the history of the ancient city-state

Sometimes reading about cities can be as exciting and vivid as visiting the place itself.

Tyler Malone, writing in Lapham's Quarterly, shares how through the power of words, James Joyce took him to Dublin, Alfred Döblin to Berlin, and John Dos Passos to New York City.

City as character: getting lost in the text-cities of Joyce, Döblin, and Dos Passos

Brent Cunningham writing in Lapham’s Quarterly provides us a fascinating insight into the tradition of the last meal that is offered to a condemned prisoner before his execution. And while doing so, he provides us with a little nugget of information about the Japanese system of execution.

Last Meals: why mark the end of a life with the stuff that fuels it?

Eating other people is not the first thing that comes to mind when you fall ill. 

Though cannibalism is a shocking and taboo concept to most people, it has a rich and curious medical history, especially in Europe. Bess Lovejoy, writing in Lapham’s Quarterly, traces some of the more surprising ways that people have tried to treat their ailments. ​

Molly Ward

A brief history of medical cannibalism

Jimmy Carter said the “view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief” so where did these ideas stem from? Asks Francine Prose, writing in Lapham’s Quaterly, and why, then, is misogyny so pervasive and enduring in our society?

Betsy Foldes Meiman

The original sin: where misogyny comes from and why it endures

How power in America has turned the rule of law into a mere myth.

The law is far, the fist is near. How reliable is the law in bringing justice? And when, if ever, is it alright to take matters into our own hands? Ralph Nader writing in Lapham’s Quarterly examines the various zones of lawlessness in the U.S., and how they can be diminished.