Russell Shorto

Articles and Media

Quirks of Amsterdam, Revealed During Lunch

The New York Times

April 19, 2013
The Haarlemmerstraat in Amsterdam is a narrow enough thoroughfare that from my office window I can easily see into the shops across the street. There is the olive oil boutique, with its rows of metal… Continue Reading →

The Way Greeks Live Now

The New York Times Magazine

February 13, 2012
In a little brick-walled taverna in Athens, over a lunch of Cretan salad and stuffed grape leaves, a Greek journalist named Aris Hadjigeorgiou was holding forth one day in late November about the cal… Continue Reading →

Marine Le Pen, France’s (Kinder, Gentler) Extremist

The New York Times Magazine

April 29, 2011
Step inside an office building in the town of Nanterre, just west of Paris, and you are confronted by what the nostrils register as an odor of the past, for it’s a rare thing these days to encounter … Continue Reading →

The Nanny and Her Sister

April 27, 2011
[Note: This is an English-language version, slightly revised, of an opinion piece that appeared in Dutch on 4/24/11] Not long ago my son’s Moroccan-born gastouder (daycare provider) asked if I would … Continue Reading →

The Irish Affliction

The New York Times Magazine

February 09, 2011
Andrew Madden is one of a relatively new breed of Irish celebrities who would just as soon be less well known. He was among the first people in Ireland to go public about being sexually abused by Cat… Continue Reading →

The Integrationist

The New York Times Magazine

May 28, 2010
UPDATE, January 2011: This article was written during the very small window of time when Job Cohen–who as mayor of Amsterdam was internationally lauded for keeping a densely multiethnic city together… Continue Reading →

Founding Entrepreneurs

The New York Times, (“Making Haste From Babylon” Book Review)

May 21, 2010
In 2006, Nathaniel Philbrick wrote “Mayflower,” a history of the Pilgrims that attempted to wipe centuries of mythic buildup from the dour features of America’s European primogenitors. Now Nick Bunke… Continue Reading →

How Christian Were the Founders?

The New York Times Magazine (cover story)

February 11, 2010
LAST MONTH, A WEEK before the Senate seat of the liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy fell into Republican hands, his legacy suffered another blow that was perhaps just as damaging, if less noticed. It hap… Continue Reading →

Going Dutch

The New York Times Magazine

April 29, 2009
PICTURE ME, IF YOU WILL, as I settle at my desk to begin my workday, and feel free to use a Vermeer image as your template. The pale-yellow light that gives Dutch paintings their special glow suffuse… Continue Reading →

Breath of Thought

The New York Times, (“The Invention of Air” book review)

January 23, 2009
The Age of Categories is dead. Strangely, it never went by that name, or any name. Also curious is the fact that its boundaries are unclear: it overlapped the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Reason … Continue Reading →