This Week in History

November 11-17

The best New Yorker articles published during this week across 100 years of the magazine.

100 articles from this week

Featured Pick

“The Modern Circus of the Hall-Mills Murder Trial”

Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · November 20, 1926

Morris Markey on the scene at the courthouse, in Somerville, New Jersey, where the prosecuting attorney Alexander Simpson is having the time of his life.

Also Notable

“Bar and Grill”

Joseph Mitchell · A Reporter at Large · November 21, 1936

Joseph Mitchell on Dick’s Bar and Grill—a saloon with a twitchy neon sign, a cranky, sad-eyed proprietor, and a bar that sags, possibly from being moved in and out of speakeasies during Prohibition.

“Counting Our Blessings”

Wolcott Gibbs · Comment · November 20, 1943

Wolcott Gibbs writes about the New Yorker office during wartime, a week before Thanksgiving, in 1943. “There is, in fact, so much to be thankful for.”

“John F. Kennedy’s Ambiguous Victory”

Richard H. Rovere · Letter from Washington · November 19, 1960

Richard H. Rovere on Senator John F. Kennedy’s slim-margin victory, over Vice-President Richard Nixon, in the 1960 Presidential election.

“The Making of Boerum Hill”

Jervis Anderson · A Reporter at Large · November 14, 1977

Jervis Anderson on the transformation of the neighborhood as the white liberal tenants—the “brownstoners”—moved in.

“A Win for Bill Clinton, the Candidate of Change”

Elizabeth Drew · Letter from Washington · November 16, 1992

Elizabeth Drew on how the “nothing to lose” candidate from Arkansas beat George Bush and Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential election, in his first campaign.