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

Library of Congress Put Your Husband in the Kitchen
“I am tempted to think that the perplexed businessman might discover a possible solution of his troubles if he would just spend a few days in his wife’s kitchen.”
August 1932 Issue
Associated Press The Open Mind
Four years after directing the construction of the world’s first atomic bomb, Oppenheimer offers advice on advancing peace in the nuclear age.
February 1949 Issue
Miki Lowe 
Max Guther Raised by YouTube
The platform’s entertainment for children is weirder—and more globalized—than adults could have expected.
November 2018 Issue
Library of Congress The Awakening of the Negro
“It is through the dairy farm, the truck garden, the trades, and commercial life, largely, that the negro is to find his way to the enjoyment of all his rights.”
September 1896 Issue
Associated Press Life on Mars
Space scientists won’t say so, but the results of three brilliantly conceived experiments lead inevitably to one startling conclusion: Life, in some form, exists on Mars.
June 1977 Issue
Associated Press Dynamite
The tragedy of our exploding ghettos has historical roots in the false expectations of the Reconstruction era, and in the refusal of American citizens to sense the frustration and violence gathering in the slums.
October 1967 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.













