A Sudden and Awful Manner
In early New England, anyone who stood near an open door or window faced mortal danger. A conversation with a woman who hunts for gravestones with epitaphs describing death by lightning strike.
tragedy
A collection of 24 issues
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed
To wed or not to wed? There’s the rub. Revisiting Tom Stoppard’s classic in the era of gay marriage.
When the Town Stops Burning
For 50 years, a fire has been raging in mining tunnels beneath Centralia, Pa. With the town mostly evacuated long ago, what’s left? Mostly journalists and other outsiders looking in.
Inferno
As Texas burns, prayers are answered in the form of a feathered-haired governor. It’s a good thing he already knows how to beat down the devil.
Rising Up at Ground Zero
Construction continues at the new World Trade Center—as does criticism of the approved designs. But a look deep inside the new structure shows the progress so far has proven to be in exactly the right direction.
Going Postal Goes Abroad
From 2011, knowing the history of the phrase “going postal” helps us understand how America exports killing sprees to angry young men worldwide.
Caught Telling Fiction
The gap between literary and historical fiction is mostly a marketing ploy--at least until a novelist meets a survivor of her story's plot.
Beyond Gadougadou
Six months after an earthquake shook Haiti to its core, our woman in Haiti seeks out what lies beneath the rubble and finds a history of violence and striking beauty.
Remember the General Slocum
The morning of June 15, 1904, promised a day of fun for more than a thousand residents of the Lower East Side. In an instant, it turned deadly.
Careful, the Doors Are Closing
Last month's suicide attacks in Moscow shocked anyone who studied Dzhanet Abdullayeva's photo. But it wasn't her baby face or cold blood that impressed our writer. It was her choice of metro stations.
God Hearts Haiti
Gauging the invasion of the well-intentioned a week after the devastation of Port-au-Prince and wondering what it really means for Haiti's future.
Not Just Jazz by the Bay
Two months since the Mumbai attacks, the city is numb and rumors breed wildly. Our reporter in India's financial capital reports on house parties, police lines, and the threatened market for roti rolls.
The Spine of Port-au-Prince
Following last Friday's heartbreaking 93 deaths, another Haitian school collapsed yesterday, injuring nine. Our woman in Haiti shows what street-level looks like in Petionville.
A View Across the Bay
The Sept. 11 attacks bonded Staten Island, the city’s most ambivalent borough, more closely than ever before to the rest of New York. A look at the ripple effects.
Blacksburg and Biography
It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident traces his connections to the tragedy.
Comeuppance
An adolescent tragedy forever changed Laura Bush; but instead of appreciating the sanctity of life—publicly at least—she promotes the reality of death.
Biloxi Blues
Katrina's destruction of the Mississippi coast left many residents homeless, unemployed, and vowing recovery. One year later, our writer revisits the coast, but finds little sign of progress.
New Order
Rebuilding New Orleans isn’t just a job for locals—the Gulf is full of post-Katrina immigrants who see a chance amidst the crisis to restart their lives, and possibly remake the face of the Big Easy.
Wrong Way Home
To rebuild the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast, Mississippi's governor picked a panel of vaunted New Urbanists to submit plans. But is their nostalgia for small-town America appropriate, nevermind prepared for the task?
From the Ground Up
Even in the face of disaster, life finds a way. But how long can we afford to flout forces beyond our control and live on unsteady ground? And what are we willing to pay? Our writer sends a dispatch from New Orleans.
Notes From the Storm
After a week of decisions, heartbreak, and travel, the lives of many exiled New Orleans families have been altered forever. A firsthand account of one family’s seven days of evacuation.
Accidental Cairns, Mount Savage
Natural disasters have a senseless mode of destruction--earthquakes and floods don't care about what they wreck. But what if nature seems to be deliberately trying to erase your history?
Remembering Chernobyl
Eighteen years ago today, disaster struck Chernobyl and the world turned to the news—similarly as it has for North Korea’s recent train crash, with just as much misinformation.
Investigating Tragedy
In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the responses they have instigated, we tried to read and learn as much as possible about the events that occurred and what they caused: herein are links to the information we found helpful.