Our January 16 issue is now online, with James Shapiro on the Gen Z Romeo and Juliet, Ursula Lindsey on Syria after Assad, Adam Hochshild on the Scopes trial, Elaine Blair on the literature of consent, David Shulman on Israeli indifference, Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin getting his due, Peter Brooks on Balzac’s ironic passion, Trevor Jackson on capitalism unbound, Caroline Fraser on American evangelicals, Rachel Donadio on Parisian pride, poems by Susan Barba and Pearl Kan, and much more.

Darryl Pinckney
Baldwin’s Spell

In James Baldwin’s writing and public appearances, the social and personal, the spoken and written dissolve into one.

James Shapiro
Rebels Without a Cause

In Sam Gold’s Romeo + Juliet, the lovers’ headlong rush into marriage is in tension throughout with the surprising regression to childhood that characterizes so much of the production.

Elaine Blair
Far from the Seventies

Two memoirs by women remembering their youthful relationships with older men complicate the definition and implications of “consent.”

Ursula Lindsey
Joy and Apprehension in Syria

Christopher Benfey
On Leverett Pond

For decades I have thought back to a moment of terror I felt one Christmas Eve nearly fifty years ago.

Sam Huber
‘The Loudest, Brightest Thing’

The producer and DJ Sophie created a musical language with which to explore feelings too inchoate—too big, too raw—to be spoken.