Houdini, the famous escape artist, died on Halloween a century ago. His legend is a complicated but strikingly All-American one.
History
Posted inExplainer
Why are Catholics divided over the Prayer to St. Michael?
The Prayer to St. Michael has been in Catholic news for a while now. What is its history and why is its recitation after Mass a point of dispute?
Posted inCatholic Book Club
The ‘horrors and sorrows’ of an American genius: Edgar Allan Poe
While Edgar Allan Poe never enjoyed much commercial success during his short and troubled life, his reputation as an American original has only increased in the 175 years since.
Posted inBooks
Review: a Jesuit’s call not to grow complacent about the crisis in Palestine
In ‘Conquest or Leaven: Reflections of a Catholic Priest in Palestine/Israel,’ Father David Neuhaus parses the realities of life in the Holy Land and asserts a strong call for justice for the oppressed.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
A century of ‘The Sun Also Rises’: Hemingway’s ‘Lost Generation’ turns 100
Ernest Hemingway’s breakthrough novel was published 100 years ago this week. ‘America’ didn’t have much to say about Hemingway then, but in the years since, he’s been a favorite topic.
Posted inTelevision
Can Florence Pugh redeem Steinbeck’s cruelest villain in Netflix’s ‘East of Eden’?
A new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” offers a hint of redemption for some of the novel’s villains while also engaging with Steinbeck’s primary themes.
Posted inTheater
Eugene O’Neill’s inhumane America is still with us today
In a powerful new production of ‘Hairy Ape,’ it becomes painfully evident that the dehumanizing class system O’Neill criticized still persists in America.
Posted inNews
Swiss Guard to mark 500th anniversary of the Sack of Rome
Col. Christoph Graf, commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, describes the 1527 Sack of Rome as “one of the most defining events” in the history of the military force.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
‘Catcher in the Rye’ at 75: America magazine’s critiques (and defenses) of the classic novel
America more or less atoned over the years for its initial dismissal of Catcher in the Rye.
Posted inNews
What 1,000 years of golden roses tell us about popes’ authority and influence, from Leo IX to Leo XIV
The history of the golden rose reveals the shift of papal priorities from political alliance-building to devotional symbolism.