For the last few days, my ears have been buzzing with a snippet of elevator-style synthesizer music. It’s short and [...]

The story of World War II and the postwar is littered with mythology handed down over decades. Columnist Madeleine Johnson has found both the ways and means to cut through some of it.

While in Italy, columnist Madeleine Johnson picked up a new book on the Fascist era. What it has to say is essential — especially now.

Columnist Madeleine Johnson, pestered by Italians over how she spends her days in America, responds in non-Hollywood style.

In October, I was finally able to return to Milan, where I lived for almost thirty years. I had not [...]

Fall is here. For some, autumn is associated with pumpkin spice and sweaters. For me, it’s the start of Japanese [...]

My memory contains many 50-year old snippets of overheard adult conversations. Misunderstood words and phrases would rise above the tinkling [...]

Doris Lessing stirred a literary tempest in the 1980s with an experiment intended to illustrate just how hard it was [...]

I ­have a friend who can watch any movie, no matter how suspenseful or violent, with complete detachment. She scoffs [...]

There are some words whose definitions you just never forget. One of these is “vapid”, which my mother used to [...]

I started out with World War I. The YouTube lectures and books I consumed while working on a family genealogical [...]