NPR Staff

One hundred years ago, European statesmen — emperors, prime ministers, diplomats, generals — were in the process of stumbling, or as Christopher Clark would say, "sleepwalking," into a gigantic war. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is Clark's history of Europe in the years leading up to ...

Following the Republican Party's losses in the 2012 elections, there has been a lot of hand-wringing about what the party should do to improve its electoral fortunes.

Some argue that the GOP should moderate its positions on social issues, as well as policies that affect income inequality and social mobility, ...

Last spring, what NBC fondly refers to as "America's First Family" went through a very public divorce. Ann Curry, who spent more than a decade as a news anchor on the Today show and less than a year as a host, was unexpectedly axed. "For all of you who saw ...

Robert Redford's new movie, The Company You Keep, draws on a turbulent time in recent history: Forty years ago, there was a violent faction of SDS, the Students for a Democratic Society, that was known as the Weather Underground. It turned from organizing marches and sit-ins against the war in ...

Imagine a world with machines that wash, press and dress you on the way to work and vacations via hologram visits to exotic beaches. In his new book, The New Digital Age, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt does just that — but it's no gee-whiz Jetsons fantasy.

Schmidt partners up ...

Over the next few weeks we'll be asking NPR women about their careers — and inviting you to join the conversation. The first question goes to Susan Stamberg, one of NPR's "founding mothers."

Question: What kind of advice would you give your younger self?

Susan Stamberg: I'm 74 1/2. I ...

Coffee is woven into the fabric of our lives. It's a morning ritual, social stimulant, a solitary pleasure, an intellectual catalyst. All this week, along with our friends at Morning Edition, we're bringing you the stories behind the coffee in your cup – from the farms of Guatemala to the ...

Around the turn of the 19th century, before he became Britain's revered prime minister, a young Winston Churchill found himself in South Africa. He was serving in the Army and as a war correspondent covering the Boer War.

One day, he put a blue pencil to army-issued notepaper and conveyed ...

Before Amy Speace embarked on a career in music, the stage called her name. That's a good fact to keep in mind when listening to the actor-turned-folk singer's latest album, How to Sleep in a Stormy Boat.

It's beneficial to have a physical copy of the album in your hands ...

In Jean Thompson's latest novel, The Humanity Project, humanity isn't doing so well and could use some help. Sean is a wayward carpenter whose bad luck with women turns into even worse luck: He's addicted to painkillers, and he and his teenage son Conner are facing eviction. Linnea is the ...

As Lindsay Ess watched the events in Boston unfold last week, she wondered if she could help the victims of the Marathon bombing. When she found out that many had lost limbs in the explosion, she knew she could.

Ess is a quadruple amputee. In 2006, she was diagnosed with ...

April is National Poetry Month, and NPR is celebrating by asking young poets what poetry means to them. This week, Weekend Edition speaks with Nate Klug, whose poems have appeared in Poetry, Threepenny Review and other journals. Klug is also a master of divinity candidate at the Yale Divinity School ...

After more than 40 years away, Bette Midler is returning to Broadway. She's playing legendary Hollywood agent Sue Mengers in a riotous solo show titled I'll Eat You Last.

Midler, who was a casual acquaintance of the real-life Hollywood superagent, has had a lengthy career in show business, but she's ...

In his systematic scrutiny of the modern American food chain, Michael Pollan has explored everything from the evolution of edible plants to the industrial agricultural complex. In his newest book, he charts territory closer to home — or rather, at home, in his kitchen.

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation ...

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison knows what it means to be a pioneering female figure in her home state. In 1993, she became the first woman elected to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Now, the former senator has written a book about the women who came before her, Unflinching Courage: ...

For a French band making its first big splash in the U.S., Phoenix had a great 2009: Its fourth full-length, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, spawned two big singles and picked up a Grammy for best alternative album.

The band also earned a dubious reputation for being slow to record ...

How do you write something like Partita for 8 Voices, the a cappella vocal piece that is this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music?

"Very late at night," says the composer, Caroline Shaw, speaking with NPR's Scott Simon. "Sometimes it comes from having a sound in your head ...

In 1987, Jack Richmond was driving a forklift at work when the vehicle overturned onto him, crushing his leg below the knee. His daughter, Reagan, was just 2 months old at the time.

"Initially when they told me I would lose my leg, I was in denial and disbelief and ...

A new cookbook by the Lee brothers just might inspire daydreams of a food-centric vacation to South Carolina. It's called The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen, and in it, Matt and Ted Lee feature recipes and stories from the Southern port city they grew up in. The brothers joined NPR's Melissa ...