What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?
Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare I have been on something of a Shakespeare comedy jag over the past months; I laughed all the way from Columbus, Ohio, to New York...
May 6, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
In Our Orbit In Our Orbit
The Past Ahead of Us "History," wrote James Baldwin, "does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / The Editors
Listing Left, Listing Right Listing Left, Listing Right
Devotees of "balanced," "objective," "fair" and "evenhanded" nonfiction--well, they be hurtin' in these early days of the twenty-first century. Enough, perhaps, to demand that sel...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Carlin Romano
Oprah Learns Her Lesson Oprah Learns Her Lesson
Is this it? The end of the Oprah Book Club as we know it? It's Thursday, April 4, at approximately 3:45 pm. In less than twenty-four hours, virtually everyone in America will ...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Kathy Rooney
Melville at Sea Melville at Sea
In 1851, when the 32-year-old Herman Melville published his masterpiece Moby-Dick, he was already known as a man who'd consorted with cannibals. His first book, Typee: A Peep at P...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple
The Wonder Years The Wonder Years
Since this is going to be a story about sex and children, let's start with a bit of groping in the priests' chamber. I must have been 12. My confederates and I, all suited out ...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / JoAnn Wypijewski
Gayness Becomes You Gayness Becomes You
Nearly fifty years ago, in Eros and Civilization, Herbert Marcuse suggested that homosexuals (then the current term) might someday--because of their "rebellion against the subjuga...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Martin Duberman
Militants on the Steppes Militants on the Steppes
It was an early November morning when I met Gairam Muminov on the steps of a courthouse on the outskirts of Tashkent, the sprawling capital of Uzbekistan. He was leaning against a...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Raffi Khatchadourian
The Great Societizer The Great Societizer
Reading Robert Caro to learn about Lyndon Johnson is like going to an elaborate buffet in order to get the four basic food groups; they both give you what you need along with much...
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Philip A. Klinkner
The New Old Glory The New Old Glory
Lynne Cheney sees the world in black and white. Or, rather, in red, white and blue.
May 2, 2002 / Books & the Arts / James W. Loewen