Soldiers of Misfortune
A report on the veterans of Vietnam—and on the often disgraceful treatment they have received from their countrymen.
March 1978 IssueArchive
Your resource for research. Explore the ideas and stories that shaped American history, from 1857 to today.
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Life Up Close
Travel the world to see microbes, plants, and animals in oceans, grasslands, forests, deserts, the icy poles—and wherever else they may be.
The Case for Reparations
Atlantic writers reckon with America's history of racial plunder.
KING
Fifty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a commemoration of his life and work—and a reflection on the reality of today's America.
Planet
A guide to life on a warming planet, featuring the biggest ideas and most vital information to understand Earth’s changing climate, climate policy, and more.
Votes for Women
The signing of the 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote, but the complex fight for suffrage didn’t end there.
On Teaching
From 2018 through the first year of the pandemic, the most experienced teachers in America’s education system reflected on their careers, their schools, and the history they’ve witnessed.
Artificial Intelligence
Making sense of the dawn of a new machine age.
2024 Elections
Coverage from the latest election cycle, including campaigns, primaries, and conventions.
Special Project
The Atlantic Writers Project
Contemporary Atlantic writers reflect on 25 voices from the archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
Editor’s Picks
Where Will It End?
In its second issue, The Atlantic urged Northerners to take a stand against slavery.
December 1857 IssueThe Election in November
The Atlantic’s editor endorsed Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in the 1860 election, predicting that it would prove to be “a turning-point in our history.”
October 1860 IssueThe New Talking Machines
A noted architect and writer commends Thomas Edison for his progress in developing the phonograph and predicts great things for its future.
February 1889 IssueWas Democracy Just a Moment?
The global triumph of democracy was to be the glorious climax of the American Century. But democracy may not be the system that will best serve the world—or even the one that will prevail in places that now consider themselves bastions of freedom.
December 1997 IssueThe Curious Case of Jesus’s Wife
Lab tests have suggested that a papyrus scrap mentioning Jesus’s wife is authentic. Why do most scholars believe it’s fake?
December 2014 Issue
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Notable Writers
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates, the author of Between the World and Me, wrote “The Case for Reparations” as a national correspondent for The Atlantic.
Virginia Woolf
Woolf was a novelist and a pioneer of literary modernism.
Rachel L. Carson
Before writing Silent Spring, Carson made her mark as an environmental journalist with the Atlantic essay “Undersea.”
E. B. White
White was an essayist, a novelist, and a grammarian. His Atlantic essay “Death of a Pig” was a nonfiction prototype for Charlotte’s Web.
Rebecca West
West’s reporting on her travels through the Balkans, published in The Atlantic in 1941, was compiled in the book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.
Charles Dickens
One of the most popular writers of his time, Dickens was the author of works including A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities.
Anna Deavere Smith
Smith is an Atlantic contributing writer, a playwright, and an actor.
W. H. Auden
Auden published his first poem for The Atlantic in 1939, the year he emigrated from England to the United States.
Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut was the author of 14 novels, as well as numerous short-story collections, plays, and works of nonfiction.
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