Who’s Accountable for Ferguson’s Crimes? No One, It Seems Who’s Accountable for Ferguson’s Crimes? No One, It Seems
Here’s another reminder that “personal responsibility” is a principle relevant only to the poor and the black.
Mar 23, 2015 / Column / Gary Younge
Reclaiming Socialism Reclaiming Socialism
While honoring the legacy of American communists, a new generation of radicals has chosen to organize under the “socialist” banner.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Bhaskar Sunkara
1905–1915: Henry James’s Obscurities 1905–1915: Henry James’s Obscurities
To get the story you must pay the price.
Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / The Nation
What Science Fiction Teaches Us About Reality What Science Fiction Teaches Us About Reality
Why build rockets at all? For fun? For adventure? Or is this the same process which sends the salmon back upstream year after year to spawn and die—a subliminal urge in manki...
Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Ray Bradbury
Where Reaganism and Astrology Meet Where Reaganism and Astrology Meet
It is scarcely news that the President is in the mainstream of popular American credulity. He has been nurtured in the same rich loam of folk ignorance, historical figment and para...
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Cockburn
Hound Voice Hound Voice
December 10, 1938 Because we love bare hills and stunted trees And were the last to choose the settled ground, Its boredom of the desk or of the spade, because So many years companioned by a hound, Our voices carry; and though slumber bound, Some few half wake and half renew their choice, Give tongue, proclaim their hidden name—“hound voice.” The women that I picked spoke sweet and low And yet gave tongue. “Hound Voices” were they all. We picked each other from afar and knew What hour of terror comes to test the soul, And in that terror’s name obeyed the call, And understood, what none have understood, Those images that waken in the blood. Some day we shall get up before the dawn And find our ancient hounds before the door, And wide awake know that the hunt is on; Stumbling upon the blood-dark track once more, That stumbling to the kill beside the shore; Then cleaning out and bandaging of wounds, And chants of victory amid the encircling hounds. This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) published his first poem in The Nation in 1933; his last appeared three months after his death.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / William Butler Yeats
A Q&A With Marilynne Robinson A Q&A With Marilynne Robinson
The novelist discusses religion, history, language and the importance of moral scrutiny.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts
Puzzle No. 3358 Puzzle No. 3358
And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.
Mar 23, 2015 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto
The Most Important Thing We Can Do to Fight Climate Change Is Try The Most Important Thing We Can Do to Fight Climate Change Is Try
The future will follow an unpredictable route, but we must still follow a compass called hope.
Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Rebecca Solnit
When the Constitution Becomes The Last Resort of Scoundrels When the Constitution Becomes The Last Resort of Scoundrels
We know today the Founders were not Fathers to be proud of.
Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Simeon Strunsky and Richard Kreitner