Every Generation Gets Its Own ‘Little Women’ Every Generation Gets Its Own ‘Little Women’
Greta Gerwig’s adaptation faces two challenges: to be a good film and to mark how we can imagine women—as sisters, as antagonists, as wives, as workers—in our own time.
Dec 18, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Deep Roots of Liberal Democracy’s Crisis The Deep Roots of Liberal Democracy’s Crisis
A new history of North Atlantic democracies argues that they were already undergoing a serious crisis more than four decades ago.
Dec 17, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Richard J. Evans
Toni Morrison’s Revolution in American Literature Toni Morrison’s Revolution in American Literature
As with Pilate, the fierce outsider and moral conscience of Song of Solomon, Morrison never asked for the proverbial seat at the table. Instead, she pulled the entire table over to...
Dec 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Jesse McCarthy
The Radical Life and Times of Crystal Eastman The Radical Life and Times of Crystal Eastman
A new biography reveals how the feminist, pacifist, labor activist, and socialist fused the best strains of American leftism into one.
Dec 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
A Queer Love Story That Does Away With the Male Gaze A Queer Love Story That Does Away With the Male Gaze
Set in 18th-century France, Céline Sciamma’s new film Portrait of a Lady on Fire finds a new way to chronicle a queer romance.
Dec 5, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
From ‘Diary’ From ‘Diary’
I hate this sweater but I’m too cold not to wear it as a metaphor for my career. My therapist says yes corporations take advantage of human beings’ ambitious nature. …
Dec 3, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Marisa Crawford
FKA Twigs, High Priestess of Pop Music’s Avant-Garde FKA Twigs, High Priestess of Pop Music’s Avant-Garde
Mixing sacred imagery and snatches of memoir, the British artist’s new album is Magdalene a beautiful and eerie statement.
Dec 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Julyssa Lopez
Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom
Charting the ironies of freedom won and lost during and after the Civil War, the American historian has also helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were alm...
Dec 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin
From ‘outside voices, please’ From ‘outside voices, please’
I grew drunk on the dragonflies’ ultra Three times I asked our misogynistic uncle, the family patriarch, for money for books for the girls to which he then scoffed drunkenly throwi…
Nov 19, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Valerie Hsiung
Ted Chiang’s Sci-Fi Goes Beyond the Promise of Technology Ted Chiang’s Sci-Fi Goes Beyond the Promise of Technology
In his short story collection Exhalation, he builds social worlds where every character and object is deeply intertwined in history and in future possibility.
Nov 19, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse