Culture

1875-1885: Custer’s Last Stand and the Power of Tammany Hall

1875-1885: Custer’s Last Stand and the Power of Tammany Hall 1875-1885: Custer’s Last Stand and the Power of Tammany Hall

Just as soon as one "boss" is evicted, another rises to take his place.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / The Nation

The Reporter Who Warned Us Not to Invade Vietnam 10 Years Before the Gulf of Tonkin

The Reporter Who Warned Us Not to Invade Vietnam 10 Years Before the Gulf of Tonkin The Reporter Who Warned Us Not to Invade Vietnam 10 Years Before the Gulf of Tonkin

A farsighted policy might do more to stem the Communist tide than sending a few more plane-loads of napalm.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Bernard Fall and Frances FitzGerald

When Respectability Was No Longer Respectable, and Virtue Required Acting Out, Not Leaning In

When Respectability Was No Longer Respectable, and Virtue Required Acting Out, Not Leaning In When Respectability Was No Longer Respectable, and Virtue Required Acting Out, Not Leaning In

Spelman College girls are still “nice,” but not enough to keep them from walking up and down, carrying picket signs, in front of supermarkets in the heart of Atlanta.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Howard Zinn and Paula J. Giddings

What Does ‘The Communist Manifesto’ Have to Offer 150 Years After Its Publication?

What Does ‘The Communist Manifesto’ Have to Offer 150 Years After Its Publication? What Does ‘The Communist Manifesto’ Have to Offer 150 Years After Its Publication?

At the dawn of the twentieth century, there were workers who were ready to die with The Communist Manifesto. At the dawn of the twenty-first, there may be even more who are ready t...

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Marshall Berman

And We Love Life And We Love Life

And we love life if we find a way to it. We dance in between martyrs and raise a minaret for violet or palm trees. We love life if we find a way to it. And we steal from the silkworm a thread to build a sky and fence in this departure. We open the garden gate for the jasmine to step out on the streets as a beautiful day. We love life if we find a way to it. And we plant, where we settle, some fast growing plants, and harvest the dead. We play the flute like the color of the faraway, sketch over the dirt corridor a neigh. We write our names one stone at a time, O lightning brighten the night. We love life if we find a way to it… (translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah) This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. Born in a Galilee village later destroyed by the Israeli army, Mahmoud Darwish lived for years in exile in Beirut and Paris before returning to Palestine in 1996. The most widely translated modern Arab poet, Darwish died in 2008. 

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Mahmoud Darwish

1895–1905: When the American Empire Was Born

1895–1905: When the American Empire Was Born 1895–1905: When the American Empire Was Born

Whenever a small force of Americans undertakes an expedition, the woods and hills become alive with enemies.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / The Nation

1945–1955: We Face a Choice Between One World or None

1945–1955: We Face a Choice Between One World or None 1945–1955: We Face a Choice Between One World or None

The atomic bomb represents a revolution in science. It calls for a comparable revolution in our thinking.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / The Nation

The Indignant Generation

The Indignant Generation The Indignant Generation

The current crop of students has gone far to shake the label of apathy and conformity that had stuck through the 1950s.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jessica Mitford

How Saving the Environment Could Fix the Economy

How Saving the Environment Could Fix the Economy How Saving the Environment Could Fix the Economy

Why not revive New Deal policies but apply them in a green and global fashion?

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Mark Hertsgaard

Can Men and Women Be Friends?

Can Men and Women Be Friends? Can Men and Women Be Friends?

Feminism has opened up far more space than could have been imagined in the 1920s.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Floyd Dell and Michelle Goldberg

x