Books & the Arts

A Dialectical Humanism A Dialectical Humanism

To my distress and perhaps to my delight, I order things in accordance with my passions.... I put in my pictures everything I like.

Nov 4, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Andy Merrifield

A Son’s Own Story A Son’s Own Story

If you are looking for a piece of new evidence that will finally vindicate or convict Alger Hiss with certainty, you won't find it in Tony Hiss's poignant father-son memoir, A Vi...

Nov 4, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Jack Gelber

Mr. Debs, My Darling Mr. Debs, My Darling

In offhand, birdsong passing, Marguerite Young observes: "As for the nineteenth century, it may be said that it was probably the leakiest century there ever was and so would rema...

Oct 28, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard

Slouching to the Ouija Board Slouching to the Ouija Board

"Does the imagination dwell the most/Upon a woman won or woman lost?" Yeats asked. For most of his readers and biographers, the answer has been clear: a woman lost.

Oct 28, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Kunkel

Night of the Living Dead Night of the Living Dead

Sooner or later, there would have to be fireworks in Bringing Out the Dead.

Oct 28, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Our Monumental Mistakes Our Monumental Mistakes

To the surprise of historians themselves, history--or at least its public presentation--has become big business.

Oct 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

Rough and Tumble Rough and Tumble

Begin with a cluster of molecules in the void. The camera zooms away from them, sucking you back through some dim anatomical corridor.

Oct 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

More Nixon Tapes Released More Nixon Tapes Released

Among his more peculiar views,
He thought all Communists were Jews.
Historians must ponder how
He managed to account for Mao.

Oct 14, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin

Uneasy Riders Uneasy Riders

What was it like in the sixties, wonders a dewy young woman in The Limey, speaking to Peter Fonda. Who better to ask?

Oct 14, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Catholic Bashing? Catholic Bashing?

My father disapproved of the "Sensation" show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He thought it was bad for the Jews.

Oct 14, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt

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