Readings

Zócalo Cracks the Mystery of Your Summer Reading List

From Montezuma to Proust to House Flies, These 10 Nonfiction Books Will Expand Your Seasonal Horizons

This summer, we finally may solve major mysteries: Can Keanu Reeves credibly play a scientist seeking to bring his dead family back to life? Can England win the World Cup for the first time since before the Beatles broke up? And will American kids ever stop dancing “the floss”? But other dilemmas—like what books you should read during your short and precious summer—are harder to think through. The good news is that at Zócalo Public Square, we don’t shut down our brains for the summer. Instead, to resolve your reading …

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When the U.S. Government Asked American Families to Turn in Their Gold

American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle Over Gold

By Sebastian Edwards |

At $20 trillion, the national debt of the United States is slightly bigger than the annual output of the American economy. Government shutdowns and brinksmanship about extending the country’s debt …

The Best Zócalo Essays of 2017

From Treason to Gandhi to Empathetic Robots, Our Contributors Make Sense of a World in Flux

In 2017, Zócalo’s far-flung contributors took us inside the Swedish worldview, recounted Cervantes’ battles with literary pirates, reported on the dangers of being a journalist covering Mexico’s drug wars, and …

Ten Illuminating Books for Confusing Times

From Ghosts to Darwinism to the Spanish Flu, Zócalo's Favorite Nonfiction of 2017

If 2017 was the year the world stopped making sense to you, Zócalo’s 10 favorite nonfiction books of this new era are exactly what you need. They all, in some …

Quench Your Curiosity with Zócalo’s Summer Book List

From the Mississippi Delta to the Yale School of “Trauma,” Ten Nonfiction Books That Will Keep You Cool

Summertime was invented for catching up on great books, whether lolling on a Gulf Coast beach on July 4, sheltering under a tent in the Adirondacks, or slouched in a …

The Ghetto’s Complex and Troubled Legacy

Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea

By Mitchell Duneier |

In 2017, we often hear the word “ghetto” come up in music lyrics and casual conversation, out of the mouths of politicians and activists. We know what it means; it …


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