Archive
Your resource for research. Explore the ideas and stories that shaped American history, from 1857 to today.
Or, select a topic below to start your search.
Browse By Collection
Melanie Lambrick 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.
Carlos Javier Ortiz The Case for Reparations
Atlantic writers reckon with America's history of racial plunder.
The Atlantic 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.
Aubrey Trinnaman 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.
The Atlantic 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.
Olivia Locher 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.
Illustration by The Atlantic Artificial Intelligence
Making sense of the dawn of a new machine age.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty 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
Ullstein Bild / Getty The Prevention of Literature
“To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.”
March 1947 Issue
Library of Congress The Yosemite National Park
“All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains.”
August 1899 Issue
Guy Le Querrec / Magnum 
Associated Press As We May Think
“Consider a future device ... in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”
July 1945 Issue
SSPL / Getty 
Philip Toledano Why Women Still Can’t Have It All
It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change.
July/August 2012 Issue
Library of Congress The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The lyrics to Julia Ward Howe’s patriotic classic premiered in the February 1862 issue ofThe Atlantic.
February 1862 Issue
Browse by Issue
Notable Writers
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates, the author ofBetween the World and Me, wrote “The Case for Reparations” as a national correspondent forThe Atlantic.
Virginia Woolf
Woolf was a novelist and a pioneer of literary modernism.
Rachel L. Carson
Before writingSilent Spring, Carson made her mark as an environmental journalist with theAtlantic essay “Undersea.”
E. B. White
White was an essayist, a novelist, and a grammarian. HisAtlantic essay “Death of a Pig” was a nonfiction prototype forCharlotte’s Web.
Rebecca West
West’s reporting on her travels through the Balkans, published inThe Atlantic in 1941, was compiled in the bookBlack Lamb and Grey Falcon.
Charles Dickens
One of the most popular writers of his time, Dickens was the author of works includingA Christmas Carol andA Tale of Two Cities.
Anna Deavere Smith
Smith is anAtlantic contributing writer, a playwright, and an actor.
W. H. Auden
Auden published hisfirst poem forThe 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.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.
The Atlantic Daily
Get our guide to the day’s biggest news and ideas, delivered to your inbox every weekday and Sunday mornings.See more newsletters
Your newsletter subscriptions are subject toThe Atlantic's Privacy Policy andTerms and Conditions.
