Culture

David Fincher’s Man Without Qualities  David Fincher’s Man Without Qualities 

His grim action movie satire The Killer pokes fun at the blandness of modern life and modern moviemaking.

Books & the Arts / Beatrice Loayza

D.D. Guttenplan on Ending the War in Gaza and John Powers on “Slow Horses” D.D. Guttenplan on Ending the War in Gaza and John Powers on “Slow Horses”

On this episode of Start Making Sense, The Nation’s editor talks about the peace movement, and our critic reviews the British spy show on TV.

Start Making Sense / Jon Wiener

Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens

A photographer excavates personal history through reconstruction of Adams’s World War II photographs of Japanese Americans interned at the Manzanar Relocation Center.

Multimedia / Joseph Maida

Film

Revolution? Hell Yes!  Remembering Amber Hollibaugh Revolution? Hell Yes!  Remembering Amber Hollibaugh

The writer, who died last month, spent a lifetime breaking silences around sex.

JoAnn Wypijewski

The Ghosts of the Worldwide Surveillance Apparatus Show Their Hand The Ghosts of the Worldwide Surveillance Apparatus Show Their Hand

Phantom Parrot, a British documentary now screening in the US, sheds light on the Orwellian technologies being used across borders to repress activists, journalists, and others.

Natasha Hakimi Zapata

The Radical Art of the Depression Years The Radical Art of the Depression Years

By working within the constraints of the WPA, artists like Philip Guston discovered new modes of representation and irony.

Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity

A history of social media from the perspective of the poster, Taylor Lorenz’s Extremely Online examines the roots and rise of our sponsorship-saturated ecosystem.

Books & the Arts / Tarpley Hitt

Television

Israeli left-wing activists hold a demonstration near the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023, calling for a cease-fire amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas.

D.D. Guttenplan on Ending the War in Gaza and John Powers on “Slow Horses” D.D. Guttenplan on Ending the War in Gaza and John Powers on “Slow Horses”

On this episode of Start Making Sense, The Nation’s editor talks about the peace movement, and our critic reviews the British spy show on TV.

Start Making Sense / Jon Wiener

The cast of “Reservation Dogs.”

How “Reservation Dogs” Changed the TV Landscape How “Reservation Dogs” Changed the TV Landscape

The pioneering FX show offered a window into contemporary Native life in all its joys and vicissitudes.

Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi

Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity

Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity

A history of social media from the perspective of the poster, Taylor Lorenz’s Extremely Online examines the roots and rise of our sponsorship-saturated ecosystem.

Books & the Arts / Tarpley Hitt

Architecture

“Untitled (Strike),” Dox Thrash, c. 1940.

The Radical Art of the Depression Years The Radical Art of the Depression Years

By working within the constraints of the WPA, artists like Philip Guston discovered new modes of representation and irony.

Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

A boy searches through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine

Gaza is a site of human tragedy, not a prize of war.

Column / Kate Wagner

A person pushes a barricade floating on a flooded street amid a coastal storm on September 29, 2023, in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y..

What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet? What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet?

We need political solutions to climate emergencies, not design solutions.

Kate Wagner

Music

Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.

Feature / Ethan Iverson

Letters From the October 16/23, 2023, Issue Letters From the October 16/23, 2023, Issue

Island records… The West Wing… Corrections… Class grievances (web only)… 

Letters / Our Readers

Jann Wenner’s Blinkered Rock ’n’ Roll Revolution Jann Wenner’s Blinkered Rock ’n’ Roll Revolution

He built an empire on the foundations laid by Black musicians—but fails entirely to recognize that.

Joan Walsh

Top 10 Labor Day Songs Top 10 Labor Day Songs

In honor of Labor Day, here’s a stab at the impossible task of naming the best songs ever written about working people.

Peter Rothberg

Publishing

Signage outside an Amazon Go store at the company headquarters campus in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, U.S.

The FTC Lawsuit Against Amazon Is the Biggest Antitrust Fight of Our Time The FTC Lawsuit Against Amazon Is the Biggest Antitrust Fight of Our Time

It’s also a test of whether even the federal government has the power, and the political will, to rein in corporate monopoly power.

Ron Knox

David Velasco on April 18, 2018, in Milan, Italy.

Once Upon a Time in “Artforum” Once Upon a Time in “Artforum”

Artists and critics are polarized—and under great pressure from both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Barry Schwabsky

The London offices of Penguin Random House.

The Haunting of the Publishing House The Haunting of the Publishing House

The racism and prejudice of the industry has been the subject of recent novels. In R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface, that plot becomes a horror story.

Books & the Arts / Laura B. McGrath

Latest in Culture

Hannah Arendt, in a black and white photograph, sits in front of a wood paneled wall wearing a white jacket

Tomorrow’s Antisemitism Today Tomorrow’s Antisemitism Today

While real antisemitism is rearing its head, the assurance that “anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic” can feel like gaslighting.

Nov 21, 2023 / Barry Schwabsky

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and the union's executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announce the end of the actors' strike.

The Settled Actors’ Strike Brings Hollywood Back Online The Settled Actors’ Strike Brings Hollywood Back Online

SAG-AFTRA agreement addresses key issues, but future struggles await the entertainment industry. 

Nov 15, 2023 / Ben Schwartz

Donald Trump, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Vince McMhaon at a press conference before Wrestlemania 23, 2007.

The Misunderstood History of American Wrestling The Misunderstood History of American Wrestling

A recent biography of WWE executive Vince McMahon presents him as an entertainment tycoon who changed culture and politics. The real story of his rise is as banal as it is brutal….

Nov 10, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nadine Smith

A scene from “Youth (Spring).”

Wang Bing, the World’s Hardest-Working Director Wang Bing, the World’s Hardest-Working Director

In his new film, Youth (Spring), the prolific director examines how the People’s Republic became the workshop for much of the world.

Nov 9, 2023 / Books & the Arts / J. Hoberman

Pickets march between rows of watchful police during the biggest demonstration yet staged by the Conference of Studio Unions, at Columbia Studios, on October 26, 1946.

The Long, Wild, Bloody History of the Hollywood Strike The Long, Wild, Bloody History of the Hollywood Strike

Today’s strikes are part of a nearly century-long tradition within the entertainment industry.

Nov 8, 2023 / Chris Randle

Coenties Slip in New York, 1850–1900.

How the New York Waterfront Shaped American Modernism How the New York Waterfront Shaped American Modernism

In The Slip, Prudence Peiffer looks at the role an overlooked neighborhood played in the lives and work of an eclectic set of postwar artists.

Nov 6, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Tausif Noor

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