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Cultural Criticism and AnalysisMay 5, 2020
The Long Shadow of Cultural Anthropology
Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, and their circle sought to show the fallacy of biological and physical difference, but they also created new forms of categorization that reinforced their underlying biases.
Jennifer Wilson
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FictionJanuary 20, 2020
Lauren Wilkinson’s Novel of Race, Empire, and Espionage
American Spy examines the intersections between spycraft and living in America as a black person.
Jennifer Wilson
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Books and IdeasOctober 14, 2019
Next Year the Nobel Committee for Literature Needs to Look Beyond Europe’s Borders
Despite the differences between Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke, they both reflect a divided Europe as viewed only from within its borders.
Jennifer Wilson
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Non-fictionSeptember 10, 2019
What Inspired ‘Lolita’?
Sarah Weinman’s new book traces the true crime that influenced Nabokov and the writing of his novel.
Jennifer Wilson
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Social JusticeJuly 9, 2019
Black People Don’t Need Murals To Remember Injustice
Critics of a San Francisco school’s decision to paint over art forget that people of color have a bright future, not just a tragic past.
Jennifer Wilson
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Non-fictionMarch 6, 2019
Susan Orlean’s Tale of Arson and Unfulfilled Dreams
The Library Book is more than a work of true crime; it is a study of Los Angeles and the burning ambition of the people who flock to it.
Jennifer Wilson
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March 22, 2018
The World of ‘Crime and Punishment’
A new translation captures the painful backdrop of Dostoyevsky’s classic: the poverty, crime, and violence that shaped much of everyday life in 19th-century St. Petersburg.
Jennifer Wilson