At The New Republic, I have a piece about one of my favorite places in the world: the Old City of Damascus.
Categories
Category: Magazines
I debated an Egyptian cleric on Salafi TV: a report for The Atlantic.
Categories
Fawzia Koofi
I profiled Fawzia Koofi for The Atlantic‘s “Brave Thinkers” package.
Categories
Atomic Holiday
I’ve always wanted to visit Mercury, Nevada, site of numerous huge holes in the ground from when the US government blew up nuclear weapons there. Here I report from the proving grounds for The Atlantic.
I review two books about compulsive aviators, for The Atlantic.
Categories
Preacher, Tailor, Salafi, Spy
A report for The New Republic.
Categories
Wrestlemaniac
I profiled Abdullah the Butcher for The Atlantic.
Categories
Artful lies
Solar Dance: Van Gogh, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty, By Modris Eksteins, Harvard University Press, 341 pp., $27.95
“People who buy pictures on the basis of authentication alone deserve to be cheated.” Julius Meier-Graefe delivered this expert opinion—a high-culture take on “never give a sucker an even break”—on the witness stand in 1932 Berlin. He was one of Germany’s best and most respected art critics—and, it turned out, a bit of a sucker himself, having fallen victim, along with other pillars of the art establishment, to a young German forger named Otto Wacker. A dancer and art dealer, Wacker had offered for sale 30 paintings attributed to Vincent Van Gogh, some of which Meier-Graefe had authenticated. His verdict had carried a great deal of weight, and the paintings sold rapidly until their poor quality began to raise doubts. Wacker was convicted at the trial and sent to prison, and Meier-Graefe’s reputation fell. But even as late as the 1980s, some people doubted what we now know for certain: Wacker was a fraud.
Graeme Wood 