Mark Edmundson teaches at the University of Virginia. His newest book is The Heart of the Humanities: Reading, Writing, Teaching.
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLES

Democracy’s Concrete Court
The ritual of pickup basketball is a pocket of democracy as close as the local park....

Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
This piece appears in the LARB Print Quarterly Journal: No. 19, Romance To receive the LARB Quarterly Journal, become ...

Stone Walls and No Discussions
Ideas wither when they aren’t challenged, and the greatest free speech problem in the United States may be on the left....

On Shit: Profanity as Weltanschauung
The first time you hear your beloved 10-year-old say motherfucker: well, on that day something changes. Why does it disturb us so?...

Football: The Lure of the Game
Violence and grace; freedom and exploitation; glory and ignominy: terrible beauty — football is America now....

Hate the Beatles!
Their first single was released 50 years ago this month. Mark Edmundson was not a fan....
