What Happens to the Right of Public Assembly in the Absence of Public Space? What Happens to the Right of Public Assembly in the Absence of Public Space?
The mentality of traffic engineering cripples mass transit, and free speech, in New York City.
Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Michael Sorkin
Rocky Without Reaganism Rocky Without Reaganism
Creed offers a surprisingly daring depiction of the Rocky universe as seen from the other side of the tracks.
Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
To Tell of Bodies Changed To Tell of Bodies Changed
Having desired little more than the arrival of the little more that arrives, outside our window a cypress of model proportions. Its patience seems to widen the nights we sleep in R…
Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl
Voting Rights and the Second Redemption Voting Rights and the Second Redemption
Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot argues that democratic rights can never be taken for granted.
Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
Is Serious Landscape Painting Still Possible? Is Serious Landscape Painting Still Possible?
Maureen Gallace’s fresh and enigmatic work indicates that it is.
Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Conductor of the Anonymous Conductor of the Anonymous
In her oral histories, Svetlana Alexievich orchestrates the voices of Russians trying to reconcile the irreconciliable.
Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Sophie Benech
Real, Realist, Realistic, and False Real, Realist, Realistic, and False
Linda Rosenkrantz’s 1968 quasi-novel Talk reminds us that wry self-awareness and anxious fragility are hardly millennial inventions.
Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld
Through the Slaughter Through the Slaughter
and Bialik Sky—have mercy. When flechettes fly forth from a shell, shot by a tank taking Ezekiel’s chariot’s name— When their thin fins invisibly whiz, whiflling the air…
Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Peter Cole
Happiness and the Hidden Wealth of Nations Happiness and the Hidden Wealth of Nations
Two recent books show how challenging the fight against pernicious inequality remains.
Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Timothy Shenk
The Idea of Houses The Idea of Houses
I sold my earrings at the gold store to buy a silver ring in the market. I swapped that for old ink and a black notebook. This was before I forgot my pages on the seat of a train t…
Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal