May 29, 2006 Issue

Cover art by: Cover design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels

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Feature

In the Black(water)

Tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims remain without homes. The environment is devastated. People are disenfranchised. Financial resources, desperate residents are told, are scarce.
Jeremy Scahill
Inequality Counts

The relentless reduction of taxes on the wealthy has created a profound inequality between the very rich and the bottom half of American society, affecting every aspect of daily life.
Leon Friedman
Hawks for Withdrawal

As centrist Democrats slowly but surely unite around a plan for military withdrawal from Iraq that is heavy with hawkish reasoning, what are the implications for the peace movement?
Tom Hayden
Science and the First Amendment

If you can lie about science and get away with it, you can lie about anything. That’s why we must say no to ideological zealots who are waging war against science and against democracy itself.
Patricia Princehouse
Using Soccer to Kick Iran

To World Cup aficionados, soccer is a beautiful game, but to ideologues in the United States and Europe, it’s a convenient political weapon against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Talk about spoilsports.
Dave Zirin and John Cox
Anthems of Outrage

The crankily contrarian Neil Young has a knack for making music that reflects the times. Living With War, his blistering attack on the Bush presidency, marks the turning of a cultural tide.
Kevin McCarthy

Editorial

In Fact…

‘TAINT FUNNY, COLBERT
The Editors
Bolivia Steps on the Gas

Bolivian President Evo Morales is taking a risk in nationalizing his country’s natural gas fields–but it reflects growing discontent across Latin America over unfair deals with banks and private oil companies.
Daphne Eviatar
The New Kerry

After years of vacillation, John Kerry has gone bold, finding his voice on Iraq and national security and thinking hard about running for President. But his future cannot be separated from his past.
Ari Berman
For a Sane Energy Policy

There is no piecemeal solution to the gas price crisis. It’s a systemic sickness that goes to the root of the American way of life: big cars, big oil, big business and sprawl.
The Editors
Spymaster Disaster

The CIA is in need of reinvention and a director who can oversee the transformation. Gen. Michael Hayden is not the right man for the job.
The Editors
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Column

What Bush Got Right

Bush has taken a sensible stance on immigration, but his plummeting credibility will prevent people from embracing his proposals.
Robert Scheer
This Bud’s Not for the World Cup

Soccer fans in Germany struck a blow against US corporate blandness by turning up their noses at the notion that Budweiser is the official beer of the games.
Nicholas von Hoffman
Three Liberal Lives

In praise of three giants of American liberalism: John Kenneth Galbraith, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr.
Eric Alterman
Yumi, Yumi, Yumi

Why is it that We the People are so obsessed with whether singing our national anthem in Spanish is an affront to our union?
Patricia J. Williams
The Great Decider

A doo-wop ditty, performed by the decider-in-chief.
Calvin Trillin

Books & the Arts

Anthems of Outrage

The crankily contrarian Neil Young has a knack for making music that reflects the times. Living With War, his blistering attack on the Bush presidency, marks the turning of a cultural tide.
Kevin McCarthy
Woman Warrior

Iran Awakening is the memoir of Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to hold Iran’s clerical regime accountable for its gross human rights violations.
Reza Aslan
Zones of Disengagement

In Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, Stefan Collini encapsulates the paradoxes that dominate discussion of the English cultural landscape.
Richard Vinen
The Book of Daniels

Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island has at last landed on American shores, along with Pierre Mérot’s Mammals.
Christine Smallwood
Dining With Devils

Wole Soyinka’s You Must Set Forth at Dawn is a captivating memoir of the political and cultural dilemmas the author and activist encountered, and a compelling chronicle of Nigeria’s turbulent past.
Fatin Abbas
The Sheltering Shy

Satirist Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories is a packed suitcase of a book by one of Britain’s finest writers, exploring the ra
David Thomson
High Culture, Low Politics

In The Seduction of Culture in German History, Wolf Lepenies reflects on shifting manifestations of German philosophy and culture and considers the lessons they offer for Europe and the United States.
Andreas Huyssen
The Body Artist

Two biographies of Thomas Eakins reveal the art world’s attitudes about the painter’s bodily obsessions: Was he a curious innocent, a brilliant anatomist or a dirty old man?
Peter Plagens
For Reasons of State

Two new books on the French Revolution examine Robespierre’s role in advocating terror as an instrument of government, raising compelling questions about state-sponsored terror in our own time.
Lynn Hunt
The Composer’s Craft

In Stravinsky, the Second Exile, Stephen Walsh chronicles the composer’s late years, disentangling the realities of his life and work from the published assertions of a self-serving assistant.
Paul Mitchinson
Love in the Ruins

Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française, published fifty-two years after she perished at Auschwitz, offers an unsparing critique of France under the German occupation and raises questions about the compromises she made.
Alice Kaplan
Dead Man

Philip Roth’s Everyman is a contemporary morality play that explores the author’s obsessions with health and virility, ecstasy and betrayal, and the certainty and solitude of death.
William Deresiewicz
Laughter in the Dark

New translations of novels by exiled authors Roberto Bolaño and Ismail Kadare explore the bloody crossroads where literature, politics and self-absorption converge.
John Banville
Yumi, Yumi, Yumi

Why is it that We the People are so obsessed with whether singing our national anthem in Spanish is an affront to our union?
Patricia J. Williams
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May 29, 2006 Issue

Feature

Tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims remain without homes. The environment is devastated. People are disenfranchised. Financial resources, desperate residents are told, are scarce.

The relentless reduction of taxes on the wealthy has created a profound inequality between the very rich and the bottom half of American society, affecting every aspect of daily life.

As centrist Democrats slowly but surely unite around a plan for military withdrawal from Iraq that is heavy with hawkish reasoning, what are the implications for the peace movement?

If you can lie about science and get away with it, you can lie about anything. That’s why we must say no to ideological zealots who are waging war against science and against democracy itself.

To World Cup aficionados, soccer is a beautiful game, but to ideologues in the United States and Europe, it’s a convenient political weapon against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Talk about spoilsports.

The crankily contrarian Neil Young has a knack for making music that reflects the times. Living With War, his blistering attack on the Bush presidency, marks the turning of a cultural tide.

Editorial

‘TAINT FUNNY, COLBERT

Bolivian President Evo Morales is taking a risk in nationalizing his country’s natural gas fields–but it reflects growing discontent across Latin America over unfair deals with banks and private oil companies.

After years of vacillation, John Kerry has gone bold, finding his voice on Iraq and national security and thinking hard about running for President. But his future cannot be separated from his past.

There is no piecemeal solution to the gas price crisis. It’s a systemic sickness that goes to the root of the American way of life: big cars, big oil, big business and sprawl.

The CIA is in need of reinvention and a director who can oversee the transformation. Gen. Michael Hayden is not the right man for the job.

GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Column

Bush has taken a sensible stance on immigration, but his plummeting credibility will prevent people from embracing his proposals.

Soccer fans in Germany struck a blow against US corporate blandness by turning up their noses at the notion that Budweiser is the official beer of the games.

In praise of three giants of American liberalism: John Kenneth Galbraith, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Why is it that We the People are so obsessed with whether singing our national anthem in Spanish is an affront to our union?

A doo-wop ditty, performed by the decider-in-chief.

Books & the Arts

The crankily contrarian Neil Young has a knack for making music that reflects the times. Living With War, his blistering attack on the Bush presidency, marks the turning of a cultural tide.

Iran Awakening is the memoir of Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to hold Iran’s clerical regime accountable for its gross human rights violations.

In Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, Stefan Collini encapsulates the paradoxes that dominate discussion of the English cultural landscape.

Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island has at last landed on American shores, along with Pierre Mérot’s Mammals.

Wole Soyinka’s You Must Set Forth at Dawn is a captivating memoir of the political and cultural dilemmas the author and activist encountered, and a compelling chronicle of Nigeria’s turbulent past.

Satirist Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories is a packed suitcase of a book by one of Britain’s finest writers, exploring the ra

In The Seduction of Culture in German History, Wolf Lepenies reflects on shifting manifestations of German philosophy and culture and considers the lessons they offer for Europe and the United States.

Two biographies of Thomas Eakins reveal the art world’s attitudes about the painter’s bodily obsessions: Was he a curious innocent, a brilliant anatomist or a dirty old man?

Two new books on the French Revolution examine Robespierre’s role in advocating terror as an instrument of government, raising compelling questions about state-sponsored terror in our own time.

In Stravinsky, the Second Exile, Stephen Walsh chronicles the composer’s late years, disentangling the realities of his life and work from the published assertions of a self-serving assistant.

Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française, published fifty-two years after she perished at Auschwitz, offers an unsparing critique of France under the German occupation and raises questions about the compromises she made.

Philip Roth’s Everyman is a contemporary morality play that explores the author’s obsessions with health and virility, ecstasy and betrayal, and the certainty and solitude of death.

New translations of novels by exiled authors Roberto Bolaño and Ismail Kadare explore the bloody crossroads where literature, politics and self-absorption converge.

Why is it that We the People are so obsessed with whether singing our national anthem in Spanish is an affront to our union?

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.