Books & the Arts

Quentin Skinner and the Contested History of Freedom

Quentin Skinner and the Contested History of Freedom Quentin Skinner and the Contested History of Freedom

Over a long career, Skinner has sought to reclaim the idea of republican liberty for the modern age. But his work also raises the question: free for what?

Jun 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn

A Generation of Injustice at Tyson Foods

A Generation of Injustice at Tyson Foods A Generation of Injustice at Tyson Foods

Alice Driver’s Life and Death of the American Worker, an intimate look at a processing plant in Arkansas, exposes the inhumanity of a workplace and how workers fought back.

Jun 5, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Caroline Tracey

Antigone Kefala and the Art of Exile

Antigone Kefala and the Art of Exile Antigone Kefala and the Art of Exile

The Australian writer’s 1984 novel, The Island, is a hypnotic work of fiction about the border between life and art.

Jun 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Madeleine Watts

Nathan Fielder in “The Rehearsal”

Who Does Nathan Fielder Think He Is? Who Does Nathan Fielder Think He Is?

The second season of his HBO series The Rehearsal—which tackles the crisis facing the aviation industry—is better understood as an extreme form of reality TV.

Jun 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 2018.

Reclaiming Language: A Conversation With Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Reclaiming Language: A Conversation With Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Shortly before his death, The Nation spoke with the Kenyan writer about his most recent essay collection Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas.

Jun 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Rhoda Feng

“Paris Expatriate” by Franklin McMahon

What Was “Expat Lit”? What Was “Expat Lit”?

American writers have long made European misadventures the stuff of fiction, but what does it mean to be an expatriate today? Andrew Lipstein’s Something Rotten is one answer.

Jun 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Oscar Dorr

John Adams in Barcelona, Spain, 2023.

Listening Closely to John Adams Listening Closely to John Adams

The composer is an undeniable part of the classical music canon. Does that change the meaning of his radical early work?

May 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Chris Cohen

The Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg, 2017.

The Place Where Millennials Go to Die The Place Where Millennials Go to Die

Vincenzo Latronico’s novel Perfection, a cutting portrait of bourgeois expats in Berlin, examines a generation's fixations and degradation in the German capital.

May 28, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Hanson O’Haver 

Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp speaks at the US Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium in Washington, DC, 2025.

Palantir’s Idea of Peace Palantir’s Idea of Peace

Alex Karp uses his company and his platform to advocate for a world in which big tech is the defense industry's most willing collaborator.

May 27, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Michael Eby

How Should We Remember  Attica?

How Should We Remember Attica? How Should We Remember Attica?

Orisanmi Burton’s Tip of the Spear uncovers the obscured and radical demands of the inmates who staged the 1971 prison uprising—a world without prisons.

May 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Charlotte Rosen

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