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It's commonly thought that the Catholic Church fought heroically against the fascists in Italy. But in The Pope and Mussolini, historian David Kertzer says the church actually lent organizational strength and moral legitimacy to Mussolini's regime.

English professor Natasha Trethewey has been named the 19th U.S. poet laureate. Poetry, she says, is something people can turn to for celebrating joys and mourning losses.

Download new music from EDM star Pretty Lights, Bon Iver side project The Shouting Matches, hip-hop recluse Quasimoto, teenage sensation Lorde and many more.

Many jazz standards are themselves about making lists. Here are five of them, including Louis Armstrong's take on "Let's Do It," Johnny Hartman's version of "These Foolish Things" and a classic reading of Jobim's "Waters of March."

Over the last 20 years, the number of sheep in the U.S. has been cut in half. Today, the domestic sheep herd is one-tenth the size it was during World War II. Consumers are eating less lamb and wearing less wool these days. Those trends have left ranchers to wonder: When are we going to hit bottom?

Maggie Shipstead mocks the pretensions of New England WASPs, while Jessica Lott executes unexpected riffs on the student-professor relationship plot. Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two stellar fiction newcomers.

Writer and comedian Andy Borowitz read through more than 1,000 different authors before picking the top 50 for his new book, The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to the Onion.

A program that backed lots of mortgages during the housing bust may soon need taxpayer money to make good on its promises.

A program that backed lots of mortgages during the housing bust may soon need taxpayer money to make good on its promises.

A federal calculator that companies use to certify whether their health insurance complies with the Affordable Care Act appears to bless plans without hospital coverage.

Author Jesse Walker argues that believing in shadowy cabals and ominous secrets isn't just for people on the margins — it's as American as apple pie. He says that our nation's paranoia stretches back to the colonial era, and that some conspiracy theories are believed by a majority of Americans.

How the purple-tinted cassette version of Raekwon's classic 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... became a classic hip-hop artifact, and why its deluxe reissue actually makes sense.