Why not read Moby-Dick? - The Rumpus

Historian Nathaniel Philbrick lays out a convincing, if scholarly, case for why Moby-Dick is relevant to modern audiences. Nathaniel Philbrick opens this

Related

Other articles with overlapping topics.

National Geographic

How a trip to New Orleans radicalized young Abraham Lincoln

Best-selling author David M. Rubenstein and historian Douglas Brinkley discuss America's tumultuous 19th century and why Lincoln was its defining figure.

11 min read

T

The Paris Review

The Summer of Lion Meat

In the medieval period it was common for translators to insert commentary on their theories and methods directly into the text.

Tere Dávila and Rebecca Hanssens-Reed·Jun 8, 2026

T

The Conversation

How the invention of glassblowing changed everyday life in ancient Rome

Ancient furnace workers experimented with heating the ends of glass tubes to rework them. One day, someone blew into that tube and changed history.

Thomas J. Derrick, Gale Research Fellow in Ancient Glass and Material Culture, Macquarie University·Jun 8, 2026

T

The Conversation

Great mysteries of archaeology: an ancient Amazonian world revealed from the sky

Archaeologists thought ancient Amazonia was only home to wandering people, but new technology has uncovered complex societies living in forest cities.

José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology, University of Exeter·Jun 8, 2026

L

Literary Hub

How We Paint Dogs Says More About Us Than It Does Them

Dogs have long occupied a position at the boundary where the human animal meets the rest of creation. The great Victorian critic John Ruskin thought that the artists of Renaissance Venice—Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto—painted dogs “to give the fullest contrast to

Thomas W. Laqueur·Jun 10, 2026

L

Literary Hub

Grief, Rage, and Restraint: Zinzi Clemmons on Telling Her Own Story

Being invited to interview a writer that one admires is so rewarding, and I’m thrilled that I got the chance to speak with Zinzi Clemmons about her new book Freedom: Essays. We need Clemmons’s voice. We need her critique. It

Myriam Gurba·Jun 9, 2026