Before Night Falls Before Night Falls
The Chilean coup of 1973 was carried out with a Lone Ranger comic book, a bicycle and several cans of condensed milk.
Jan 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Infinite Jest Infinite Jest
This past March, on the closing day of an international literary conference held in Krakow, Poland, an elderly woman stood up before hundreds of scholars and admirers gathered to...
Jan 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Paloff
And Justice for All And Justice for All
Affirmative action, in theory, is a matter of distributive justice, which is why liberals and progressives tend to look benevolently on it while conservatives and libertarians co...
Jan 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Bérubé
Assigning Responsibility Assigning Responsibility
Defending Rumsfeld, Bush says Rummy's great, That as a planner he has been first rate-- Respected in the White House and the ranks.
Jan 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin
The Hero Within The Hero Within
If many strangers die all at once, as in the tragedy of the tsunami or the Rwanda massacre or a war like the one in Iraq, it is a moral problem, to be dealt with through politics...
Jan 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Earl Shorris
Rapping on Empty Rapping on Empty
Several weeks ago the 32-year-old hip-hop superstar Eminem, America's staunchest and most spectacular amoralist, found himself in an unusual position, suddenly cast as the moral ...
Dec 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jody Rosen
Israel’s Culture of Martyrdom Israel’s Culture of Martyrdom
Nations like to imagine themselves as unique, but one belief they have in common is that it is noble to die in their name. Death and redemption are the themes of almost every for...
Dec 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Baruch Kimmerling
Stanton’s Wisdom Stanton’s Wisdom
One afternoon in January 1892, in a packed convention hall in Washington, DC, the 76-year-old Elizabeth Cady Stanton rose from her seat to address the annual meeting of the Natio...
Dec 22, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
Howard’s End Howard’s End
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator overlays three legends, all of them made of celluloid.
Dec 16, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans