Why You Can’t Stop Me From Speaking Ill of Thomas Jefferson

Kurt Vonnegut

The Town That Turned Poverty Into a Prison Sentence

Most states shut down their debtors’ prisons more than 100 years ago; in 2005, Harpersville, Alabama, opened one back up.

Hannah Rappleye and Lisa Riordan Seville

Letters

Our Readers

What’s Really Behind the Koch Attacks on Democrats

Hint: it’s not about healthcare.

the Editors

Why ‘Harris v. Quinn’ Has Labor Very, Very Nervous

The fate of public sector unionism lies with a single Supreme Court justice—and not the one you’d want.

Joel Rogers

Q&A With Edmund White

Jon Wiener

Just Hours

What happens when a computer sets your schedule?

Michelle Chen

Snapshot

Lunar New Year

LA City Council Tells Big Oil To Frack Off

As residents complain of nosebleeds and headaches, the country’s biggest oil-producing city moves to ban hydraulic fracturing.

Simon Davis-Cohen

Comix Nation

R.O. Blechman

How Bill de Blasio Is Being Framed

The NYC mayor as fumbling amateur: this story writes itself, no facts required.

Eric Alterman

Case Closed

Calvin Trillin

Truman’s Folly?

John Judis’s provocative history of US foreign policy toward Israel

Bernard Avishai

From Visionary to the Fringe

Immanuel Velikovsky’s strange quest for a scientific theory of everything

Paula Findlen

Shelf Life: On Molly Antopol

The short stories in The UnAmericans are studies of effusive remoteness and meandering revolution.

Hannah K. Gold

Puzzle No. 3319

Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto