For the Last American Century For the Last American Century
May 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Robert Wood Lynn
Christopher Hill’s Revolutions Christopher Hill’s Revolutions
The radical life and work of the historian.
May 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker
The Invention of Close Reading The Invention of Close Reading
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to turn postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
May 12, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Dan Sinykin
The Fight for the Soul of Video Games The Fight for the Soul of Video Games
Marijam Did’s Everything to Play For makes a case for rebuilding the culture of gaming, which has become infected with rotten politics.
May 7, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Lewis Gordon
Can Spotify Be Stopped? Can Spotify Be Stopped?
The streaming service has completely changed what it means to make and listen to music. What can be done to reverse its enormous influence?
May 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Mitch Therieau
The Wandering Souls of Caspar David Friedrich The Wandering Souls of Caspar David Friedrich
The German artist’s landscape paintings tried to capture the sublimity of a world that has vanished.
May 5, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Quinn Moreland
Tender, Compassionate, Crushing: The Fiction of Shulamith Firestone Tender, Compassionate, Crushing: The Fiction of Shulamith Firestone
In Airless Spaces, the feminist theorist dramatizes what happens when capitalist alienation makes everybody miserable.
May 1, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Zoe Dubno
The Bloody Blues of “Sinners” The Bloody Blues of “Sinners”
Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster horror period piece sets out to reinvent the creature feature—for better and for worse.
Apr 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse
Weike Wang’s Meticulous Satires of Identity Politics Weike Wang’s Meticulous Satires of Identity Politics
Rental House, a novel of marriage and manners, tries to make sense of how a blended family negotiates conflicts of race and class.
Apr 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Camille Bromley
Why the Right Fantasizes About Death and Destruction Why the Right Fantasizes About Death and Destruction
In Richard Seymour’s Disaster Nationalism, he attempts to diagnose the apocalyptic nature of conservatism around the world.
Apr 28, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Nathan Taylor Pemberton