Interiors: First-class smoking room of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, about 1898.
This beautiful room says a lot about the insecurity of Germany in the years before World War I.
The Verge
Behind the Scenes: Star Trek and the Vietnam War (Part II).
My new video traces two simultaneous interrelated stories throughout the tumultous period 1968-69.
Killing books: The sack of the University of Louvain library and its modern echoes.
In 1914, the Germans torched one of the great libraries of Europe. AI companies are doing something similar today.
A landmark 632 years in the making: the odyssey of Cologne Cathedral.
Why did it take Germany more than six centuries to finish what was once the world's tallest building?
Historic Painting: “Giant Steamboats at New Orleans” by Hippolyte Sebron, 1853.
A French painter turns his eyes and brush toward the romantic riverboat era that flourished before the Civil War.
Still no winter: My novel “Life Without Giamotti,” still in print, turned 20 this week!
I still have a soft spot in my heart for my quirky science fiction epic, which has a (very small) cult following.
Interiors: Lobby of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles.
Where do humans fit in this massive concrete and glass cathedral of commerce?