Virginia's Newsletter

From the Archives: Gothic Revival Architecture Is Like Dreadlocks

You can try embedding ideology into a style but if people like the look, the meaning will get diluted over time.

Nov 20 • Virginia Postrel

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Why the Anti-Promethean Backlash?

Jason Crawford asked me a tough question. Could this chart hold an answer?

Nov 20 • Virginia Postrel

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October 2025

From the Archives: Joel Mokyr on the Industrial Enlightenment

The great economic historian Joel Mokyr has won the Nobel Prize. Here I reprint a column on his book The Gifts of Athena.

Oct 13 • Virginia Postrel

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From the Archives: How Job-Killing Technologies Liberated Women

Progress is more than space adventures.

Oct 3 • Virginia Postrel

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September 2025

What Brings You to DC?

Varieties of abundance, reading Middlemarch, too many mosquitoes

Sep 9 • Virginia Postrel

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AI Slop and Human Play

Computers can win at chess and Go, but how about a rap battle?

Sep 8 • Virginia Postrel

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August 2025

From the Archives: The Faux Populism of Trumpified Architecture

What looks “civic” depends on experience, not architectural theory. In Los Angeles, where I live, traditional civic buildings are not classical.

Aug 29 • Virginia Postrel

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July 2025

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Reading good books and an occasional lousy one. Plus lots of podcasts.

Jul 7 • Virginia Postrel

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April 2025

Wanted: Manly Jobs for Manly Men

Or at least for manly men who don't have their acts together.

Apr 26 • Virginia Postrel

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Reposting: Waiting for Trump Fever to Break

With hopes for progress and abundance after Trump.

Apr 8 • Virginia Postrel

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Waiting for the Fever to Break

With hopes for progress and abundance after Trump.

Apr 8 • Virginia Postrel

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March 2025