Books & the Arts

Weapons of the Weak Weapons of the Weak

African-American history, broadly defined, continues to be the most innovative and exciting field in American historical studies.

Dec 11, 2003 / Books & the Arts / George M. Fredrickson

The Abstract Impressionist The Abstract Impressionist

I have always marveled at the way in which Abstract Expressionism was able to transform a disparate group of painters, none of whom had shown any particular promise of artistic g...

Dec 11, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Occupational Hazards Occupational Hazards

One of the greatest paradoxes of the modern era is the relationship between science and rationalism.

Dec 4, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Omer Bartov

A Poet of Multitudes A Poet of Multitudes

Pablo Neruda is often compared to Walt Whitman. In fact, the Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner outdid Whitman in some respects.

Dec 4, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Jay Parini

Gray’s Anatomy Gray’s Anatomy

We live, it has been said, in a postideological age. Ideologically confused might be more like it.

Dec 4, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Danny Postel

Letter From South Carolina Letter From South Carolina

Shortly after Strom Thurmond died, the flags at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia were lowered to half-staff. Every flag except one, that is.

Dec 4, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Paul Wachter

American Apocalypse American Apocalypse

How "superpower syndrome" is ravaging the world.

Dec 4, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Robert Jay Lifton

In Our Orbit In Our Orbit

One of the nation's finest historians, Studs Terkel has told the story of twentieth-century America through the voices of ordinary people.

Nov 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / The Nation

Second Comings Second Comings

To the fleet of symbolic vehicles currently cruising the screen--their number includes the "Pussy Wagon" that Uma Thurman (in Kill Bill) coldly claims as her own--we may now add ...

Nov 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Not Beloved Not Beloved

Toni Morrison's slim new novel, Love, may seem, at first glance, to fit within a group of books one could crudely call Morrison Lite, not requiring any heavy lifting from the rea...

Nov 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Thulani Davis

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