By Elise Knutsen 10/27/11 12:01pm

A Good Deal

Arthur Shlesinger (Photo from Boston.com)

Who Needs Floor-to-Ceiling Windows When You Have Floor-to-Ceiling Books? Not Arthur Schlesinger!

People have been known to fall in love at weddings, but how often do they wind up buying a home because of one?

“The apartment was owned by Alexandra Schlesinger and she was the widow of Arthur Schlesinger. Alexandra was first married to my father before she married Arthur Schlesinger,” Catherine Allan told The Observer over the phone earlier this week. As we were trying to map a mental family tree, the voice continued. “We had gone, in fact, to a family wedding and that’s when we became aware of the apartment.” Read More

By Matt Haber 10/02/08 7:22pm

What the Veep Do We Know?

Surely one of the pleasures of having a magazine with a 150-year archive is the ability to pull stories from the past and make them a part of the news cycle. On the day of vice presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin, The Atlantic has done just that, presenting "Is Read More

By Ted Widmer 10/02/07 4:27pm

An Intellectual’s Ruminative Romps: Schlesinger’s Journals

JOURNALS: 1952-2000
By Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Penguin Press, 894 pages, $40

During the heady days of the Kennedy administration, there was a brief White House vogue for the journals of the Duc de Saint-Simon, the 18th-century courtier whose gemlike observations captured small, highly entertaining moments at Versailles that otherwise would have been Read More

By Charles Kaiser 4/24/07 10:37pm

The Age of Schlesinger, Convened and Recalled

He was a man who loved American history, tall women, small children, dry martinis, big steaks, epic movies and every kind of Kennedy. On Monday morning, the old guard of liberal New York turned out to celebrate all of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s passions in the Great Hall of Cooper Union—a location chosen because it was Read More

By Michael Janeway 5/29/06 12:00am

A Narrow Slice of F.D.R., Energetically Revisited

Lincoln and Jefferson, not to mention Jesus Christ, are still ahead of Franklin D. Roosevelt as compelling, complex figures fated to endure never-ending revisionist biographical inquiry—historical fact vying with gospel. But F.D.R. is closing the gap, edged forward by powerful images and tropes: a paralyzed man saving a paralyzed nation, a traitor to his class. Read More

By Thomas Mallon 11/13/00 12:00am

Nostalgia, Gentle Complaint on the Way to the Vital Center

A Life in the 20th Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Houghton Mifflin, 557 pages, $28.95.

In this lively, rather tender account of his first 33 years, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. presents a happy, steady progress from heir to arriviste . After growing into his father’s profession and politically moderate temperament, the Read More