Is ‘Veep’ Still Funny? Is ‘Veep’ Still Funny?
The show’s vicious political satire defined a decade of comedy, but its last season lacked the same punch.
Jul 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz
The Class Politics of the Civil War The Class Politics of the Civil War
By naming a common enemy—the privileged class of slaveholders—the Republican Party and Union Army were able to build and then steer a coalition of Americans toward the systematic d...
Jul 15, 2019 / Books & the Arts / James Oakes
The Worlds of Kathleen Collins The Worlds of Kathleen Collins
The quiet brilliance of her films and fiction was found in her ability to to place the interior and subjective in the context of the social and political.
Jul 15, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Farah Jasmine Griffin
The Long and Grim Road to ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’ The Long and Grim Road to ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’
Steven Luxenberg’s new book offers a vivid account of the events that led to the ruling.
Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / David Cole
Namwali Serpell’s Postcolonial Epic Namwali Serpell’s Postcolonial Epic
The Old Drift tells the multigenerational story of Zambia coming into being.
Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Nawal Arjini
After All After All
Even when the garlic crop is good, something else is always dying— the peas withering in the afternoon we hoped for rain instead of watering, the tomatoes over-shaded. It should te…
Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Anna V.Q. Ross
felo-de-se—Melissa felo-de-se—Melissa
physicists say we change an object simply by turning our attention to it—really I am a grandson only when we are eating at Panera—one of us is lying always about her particular hu…
Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / TC Tolbert
The Use and Abuse of International Law in the Occupied Territories The Use and Abuse of International Law in the Occupied Territories
Noura Erakat’s new book examines the legal arguments used to justify Israel's occupation—and the legal arguments that might have been used to counter it.
Jul 1, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Raja Shehadeh
Week 12: Lime Week 12: Lime
the face looks unquestionably human, the update tells you, eyes have moved from sides to front of the head, ears right where they should be and you wander your fingers along their…
Jun 18, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Julia Kochinsky Dasbach
Vasily Grossman in War and Peace Vasily Grossman in War and Peace
In both his life and his writing, the novelist and journalist captured the complications and contradictions of the Soviet century.
Jun 12, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Sheila Fitzpatrick