Books & the Arts

Toni Morrison, 1977.

“To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor “To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor

A recent book on her career in publishing makes the case that the great American novelist should also be seen as a pathbreaking editor.

Oct 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire

Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters

Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters

Journey to the Edge of Life, a striking composite of memoir, biography, and criticism, dwells on the connection between art and death.

Sep 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kaya Genç

Ben Shahn, 1965.

How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn? How Should We Remember the Art of Ben Shahn?

Caught between his political and aesthetic commitments, the painter, photographer, and illustrator has suffered the fate of misapprehension.

Sep 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Pujan Karambeigi

Kamala Harris at a campaign rally, 2024.

The Shortest Presidential Campaign The Shortest Presidential Campaign

Kamala Harris’s 107 Days offers a devastating indictment of Joe Biden. It also documents the limits of her own politics.

Sep 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic

One Battle After Another, a sensational adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, captures the manic energies of a country on the brink.

Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / John Semley

A 35mm film photo shows an automobile making its way down an empty dirt road in Badlands National Park, 1940.

On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland

The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.

Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen

A Social Democratic leaflet against capitalism, 1905.

How Capitalism Survives How Capitalism Survives

According to John Cassidy’s century-spanning history Capitalism and Its Critics, the system lives on because of its antagonists.

Sep 24, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Madeleine Baker

The Problem of Green Capitalism

The Problem of Green Capitalism The Problem of Green Capitalism

A conversation with Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction and the hidden cost and obscured history of the capitalist push to monetize the energy transition.

Sep 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

A lithograph illustrating the discovery of iguanodon fossils in Bernissart, Belgium, 1878 (c. 1880).

The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils The Fight Over the Meaning of Fossils

When the remains of prehistoric creatures were discovered in Europe and the United States, it opened up a vociferous debate on the nature of time and the purpose of science.

Sep 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein

Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a talk session with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at an event titled “Transforming Business through AI” in Tokyo, Japan, 2025.

The True Threat of OpenAI The True Threat of OpenAI

Karen Hao’s recent book on the company argues that its ambitions are not merely about scale or the market but the creation of a global force that rivals a colonial power of old.

Sep 17, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Deck

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