Culture

The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly

The Minnesota politician presents a riddle for historians. He was a beloved populist but also a crackpot conspiracist. Were his politics tainted by his strange beliefs?

Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein

The Agony of Aaron Rodgers The Agony of Aaron Rodgers

Is he the world’s most interesting athlete or is he just a washed-up crackpot?

Books & the Arts / John Semley

Can You Understand Ireland Through One Family’s Terrible Secret? Can You Understand Ireland Through One Family’s Terrible Secret?

In Missing Persons, Clair Wills’s intimate story of institutionalized Irish women and children, shows how a family’s history and a nation’s history run in parallel.

Books & the Arts / Emily McBride

Books

Dubai Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In the Zone of the Rich In the Zone of the Rich

In The Hidden Globe, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian examines what globalization has come to look like for the wealthy.

Books & the Arts / Vanessa Ogle

Storming the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917.

The Impossible Story of Communism The Impossible Story of Communism

How do you tell the history of a global movement in all its hope and contradiction?

Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

What happened to the French novelist?

Books & the Arts / Cole Stangler

Film

Warning From the Past Warning From the Past

In a new film, journalists confront a dictator.

Elizabeth Becker

“Anora,” an American Fantasia “Anora,” an American Fantasia

In Sean Baker’s tragicomic film of a sex worker’s brush with wealth, he evokes auteurs of yore, who focused on the social realities of the country’s outcasts.

Books & the Arts / Beatrice Loayza

“No Other Land” and the Brutal Truth of Israel’s Occupation “No Other Land” and the Brutal Truth of Israel’s Occupation

The unsparing documentary—one of the year’s most powerful films—has still not found a distributor in the US.

Books & the Arts / Ahmed Moor

I’m an Environmentalist. That’s Why I Can’t Vote Green. I’m an Environmentalist. That’s Why I Can’t Vote Green.

Award-winning filmmaker and director of Gasland Josh Fox on why he will never vote for Jill Stein.

Josh Fox

Television

President-elect Donald Trump appears onstage with US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the J.S. Dorton Arena on November 4, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Will Be Chaos First, Not America First Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Will Be Chaos First, Not America First

His team of cronies includes establishment hawks and cranky outsiders who are more likely to deliver global anarchy than world peace.

Jeet Heer

A voter casts a ballot during early voting in the Bronx Borough of New York City on November 1, 2024.

In New York, Progressive Values Have a Line on the Ballot In New York, Progressive Values Have a Line on the Ballot

I can’t support the Democratic Party position on Gaza, yet I recognize that Trump would be even worse. That’s why I’m voting for Harris on the Working Families P…

Cynthia Nixon

Former president Donald Trump speaks at the Concerned Women for America Summit held at the Capitol Hilton on September 15, 2023, in Washington, DC.

Donald Trump Makes American Women an Offer They Can’t Refuse Donald Trump Makes American Women an Offer They Can’t Refuse

The former president wants to turn gender relations into a protection racket.

Jeet Heer

Architecture

Dubai Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In the Zone of the Rich In the Zone of the Rich

In The Hidden Globe, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian examines what globalization has come to look like for the wealthy.

Books & the Arts / Vanessa Ogle

Everyone Needs to Disavow Neom

Everyone Needs to Disavow Neom Everyone Needs to Disavow Neom

Now that they know about the staggering number of deaths the Saudi megaproject has caused, architects have absolutely no more excuses.

Column / Kate Wagner

Want to Build Worker Power? Ask an Architect.

Want to Build Worker Power? Ask an Architect. Want to Build Worker Power? Ask an Architect.

You don’t have to wield a T-square to benefit from the field’s first collective bargaining agreement in decades.

Column / Kate Wagner

Music

How Kris Kristofferson Beat the Devil How Kris Kristofferson Beat the Devil

The country singer and actor has died at 88. His hard-won political commitments were fundamental to his closely observed, heartfelt writing.

Obituary / Chris Lehmann

Macklemore Is a Seattle Sports Superfan. Now, He Is Also a Target. Macklemore Is a Seattle Sports Superfan. Now, He Is Also a Target.

The Seattle sports establishment loved the Grammy Award–winning rapper until he dared criticize the United States for funding Israeli war crimes.

Dave Zirin

The Rise and Fall of New York Clubbing The Rise and Fall of New York Clubbing

Emily Witt’s memoir of Brooklyn’s rave scene accomplishes something that even the cynical among us cannot deny: It will make you want to go dancing.

Books & the Arts / Kevin Lozano

Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop

An elegiac retelling of rap’s origins, Hip-Hop Is History also ends with a sense of hope.

Books & the Arts / Bijan Stephen

Publishing

Storming the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917.

The Impossible Story of Communism The Impossible Story of Communism

How do you tell the history of a global movement in all its hope and contradiction?

Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

What happened to the French novelist?

Books & the Arts / Cole Stangler

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Having gnawed away at literary and political conventions from within their hallowed forms, Senna has now set her eyes on Hollywood.

Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

Latest in Culture

Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle

Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle

His art criticism fixated on the narcissism of the entire enterprise. But over six decades, his work proved that a critic could be an artist too.

Dec 9, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Zachary Fine

Takes one to know one: Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, former underboss of the Gambino crime family, who confessed to 19 murders when he testified against his boss, John Gotti, is a fan of President-elect Trump.

Donald Trump’s Government of Gangsters Donald Trump’s Government of Gangsters

Who is being naïve now?

Dec 2, 2024 / Jeet Heer

Benin Bronzes at the British Museum.

The Long History of the “Elsewhere Museum” The Long History of the “Elsewhere Museum”

Can the ethnographic museum be reinvented?

Dec 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Farah Abdessamad

Rain and Mountains

Rain and Mountains Rain and Mountains

Pages from a novelist’s notebook.

Nov 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Orhan Pamuk

Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play?

Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play? Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play?

The Robert Downey Jr.–starring McNeal, which was possibly cowritten with the help of AI, is a showcase for the new technology’s mediocrity.

Nov 14, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Rhoda Feng

Looking at Art Will Never Be the Same Again

Looking at Art Will Never Be the Same Again Looking at Art Will Never Be the Same Again

A conversation with the art historian Claire Bishop about technology’s influence on museums and galleries, and her recent book Disordered Attention.

Nov 6, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Francesca Billington

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