All From the Editors

President Abraham Lincoln’s answer was that the contradictions inherent in the nation were not fatal but rather the source of its transcendent value.

It felt like searching for a piece of hay in a pile of needles. For every hint of progress, I encountered at least 30 distressing headlines.

Literature creates opportunities for readers to discover commonalities with people who might seem quite different. Here’s how the Monitor selects what to recommend to readers.

Cancel culture can veer from an attempt to rebalance the power dynamic to an attempt to be the new arbiters of virtue.

So much of political discourse happens in oversimplified slogans and labels. Longer, more nuanced discussions bring common ground.

Viewed through the lens of day to day, the past few years of social upheaval are disorienting. Zooming out, our society is rethinking its values.

In publishing our Finding Resilience series, we’re making a statement: Out of turmoil, resilience is essential to progress.

Philippe Sands, the son of a Holocaust survivor, and Horst von Wächter, the son of a Nazi, are both trying to understand their family history.

Angela Merkel's brilliance has roots in a German-style pragmatism. She was always in the middle, but that doesn’t mean she was always a moderate. 

The Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the site of a horrendous lynching in 1906. A new memorial hopes to tell the full story.

One can easily log the number of wells built or mothers trained in nutrition classes. It’s harder to measure the impact of cultural exchange.

I have two distinct memories relating to 9/11 – one from the ensuing fear, the other from emerging afterward, seeing life return to normal. 

The Monitor has long had close ties with Afghanistan – reporters taken with its beauty and the hospitality that so rarely makes global news.

Solutions will take money, yes, but also time, patience, and a willingness to recognize the agency and expertise of the Haitian community.

The voices of those pushing for justice and gender equality in Afghanistan are veritable weapons against the Taliban, whose power relies on silence.

Each time someone turns on the faucet and it fails, the social contract between citizen and government is broken a bit more. How can we move forward?

For people experiencing homelessness, grabbing a meal or attending a job interview can mean leaving valuables unattended. But solutions exist.

Covert, Michigan, wasn't founded as a utopia. Yet from the 1860s onward, Black and white residents farmed, voted, and educated their kids together.

Renewable energy projects – dams, solar panels, even batteries – sometimes harm the environment around them. But holistic approaches offer a way forward.