Wolfgang Koeppen—“Poet of Failure” Wolfgang Koeppen—“Poet of Failure”
The German writer’s postwar works were ruthless in their condemnation of a country that, in its inability to reckon with historical atrocity, was beyond reform.
Apr 22, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Pankaj Mishra
The Conflicted Origins of Sociology The Conflicted Origins of Sociology
Kwame Appiah Anthony’s Captive Gods examines how the founders of the discipline responded to a widespread decline in Christianity in the late 19th century.
Apr 20, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Alec Gewirtz
Drowning Out the Noise Drowning Out the Noise
How music became the cathartic refuge for my political frustration.
Apr 18, 2026 / Andrew Marzoni
Larry McMurtry’s Tall Tales Larry McMurtry’s Tall Tales
By questioning the myth of the cowboy, he offered a different kind of legend, one more suited to this country and its contradictions.
Apr 16, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Gus O’Connor
The Strange Afterlife of Confederate Monuments The Strange Afterlife of Confederate Monuments
“Monuments” an exhibition in Los Angeles, interrogates the changing meanings of Civil War-era statues and their ability to shape historical narrative.
Apr 15, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Pujan Karambeigi
The Enduring Lessons of the Jewish Bund The Enduring Lessons of the Jewish Bund
A conversation with Molly Crabapple about “Here Where We Live Is Our Country,” her history of Bundism, and what we can learn from their socialist and anti-Zionist example.
Apr 10, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Ishan Desai-Geller
Selma Still Matters Selma Still Matters
What was born there was a new definition of who gets to be an American. And that legacy is under threat.
Apr 9, 2026 / Keith Ellison and Yusef D. Jackson
The Worlds of Jamaica Kincaid The Worlds of Jamaica Kincaid
Memory pervades a new collection of nonfiction, and so do the ghosts of empire.
Apr 8, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Edna Bonhomme
What Happened to Tucker Carlson? What Happened to Tucker Carlson?
The transformation of a once promising, if conservative, magazine journalist into a conspiracy-minded talking head.
Apr 7, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann