In Filipino Politics, What Is Fact and What Is Fiction? In Filipino Politics, What Is Fact and What Is Fiction?
A novel by Miguel Syjuco, I Was the President’s Mistress!!, deconstructs the spectacle of celebrity, corruption, and polyphony that defines the nation’s political contests.
Aug 29, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Bryony Lau
Searching for Local Identity in “The Bear” and “Chicago Party Aunt” Searching for Local Identity in “The Bear” and “Chicago Party Aunt”
The FX drama and Netflix animation both attempt to embody the city of Chicago. That’s an increasingly difficult task when the city itself is a jumbled simulacrum of its own past.
Aug 25, 2022 / Ryan Zickgraf
Howard Zinn at 100: Remembering “The People’s Historian” Howard Zinn at 100: Remembering “The People’s Historian”
Zinn made no pretense of neutrality. He believed that “in a world of conflict,” it was the historian’s job to advocate for the oppressed.
Aug 24, 2022 / Robert Cohen and Sonia Murrow
Can Cuba’s Past Help Us Understand Its Future? Can Cuba’s Past Help Us Understand Its Future?
Ada Ferrer’s Cuba offers a capacious and wide-ranging history of the country’s centuries-old struggle to liberate itself from empire and economic upheaval.
Aug 24, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ed Morales
Youthfulness Youthfulness
There’s talk of Biden’s age, but not of Trump’s. So how’s The Donald’s youthfulness conveyed? When he begins to bully or he whines, He sounds as if he’s still in second grade.
Aug 23, 2022 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Balkan Dispatch: Bulgaria’s Crisis of Confidence Balkan Dispatch: Bulgaria’s Crisis of Confidence
Caught between a Russian past and a NATO future, the poorest country in the EU faces a political crisis—and a struggle over competing visions of national pride.
Aug 22, 2022 / Jeet Heer
Will Neoliberalism Ever End? Will Neoliberalism Ever End?
A new history shows how neoliberalism took power during a period of crisis, which leaves open the question of whether it can be forced out as a result of one.
Aug 22, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Steven Hahn
Salman Rushdie Joins Indian Writers on 75 Years of Independence Salman Rushdie Joins Indian Writers on 75 Years of Independence
Shortly before he was attacked, Rushdie joined with dozens of Indian literary artists to lament the rise of Hindu nationalism and the fragile state of the country's democracy.
Aug 18, 2022 / Pranay Somayajula
How Eco-Fiction Became Realer Than Realism How Eco-Fiction Became Realer Than Realism
Encompassing everything from the ecosystems novel to sci-fi, a growing body of literature is imagining and interrogating the past, present, and future of the planet's climate.
Aug 18, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Lynne Feeley
The Left Has a Responsibility to Side With Salman Rushdie The Left Has a Responsibility to Side With Salman Rushdie
Religious extremism is always dangerous, no matter the source.
Aug 17, 2022 / Katha Pollitt