Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror
A certain scientist had a cage, and took a magpie, and put the magpie in the cage. And the magpie’s head and neck were black, and black were its beak and eyes, but the breast and b…
Oct 12, 2021 / Poems / Monica Youn
Virginie Despentes’s Philosophy of Rage Virginie Despentes’s Philosophy of Rage
Her manifesto King Kong Theory presents a seductive yet contradictory vision of feminism.
Oct 12, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Dilara O’Neil
Someone Else’s Discomfort: On Gregg Bordowitz Someone Else’s Discomfort: On Gregg Bordowitz
How the writer, artist, and activist exposes what is fraught in masculinity.
Oct 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hua Hsu
Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation? Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?
In his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.
Oct 6, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner
Eric Williams and the Tangled History of Capitalism and Slavery Eric Williams and the Tangled History of Capitalism and Slavery
The historian and politician helped transform how several generations understood 18th- and 19th-century history.
Oct 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Horne
Anthony Veasna So’s Portraits of Diaspora Anthony Veasna So’s Portraits of Diaspora
His posthumous collection Afterparties is part of a new wave of writing on the cultural memory and historical traumas of Southeast Asian immigrants.
Oct 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Larissa Pham
Do We Need to Work? Do We Need to Work?
In Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots, anthropologist James Suzman asks whether we might learn to live like our ancestors did—that is, to value free time...
Oct 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Benanav
Sally Rooney’s Fiction for End Times Sally Rooney’s Fiction for End Times
In her third novel, Rooney does more than just respond to critics; she surveys the wreckage of modern life.
Oct 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Tony Tulathimutte
Was Jimmy Carter an Outlier? Was Jimmy Carter an Outlier?
Politicians say things to get elected and then, once in office, do otherwise; that’s politics. But Carter demanded that we grade him on a curve.
Oct 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rick Perlstein
Grace Cho’s Memoir of Food and Empire Grace Cho’s Memoir of Food and Empire
Intertwining a personal story of Korean food ways and a family history caught in the midst of violence, Tastes Like War tests the limits, and shows the power, of memoir.
Oct 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / E. Tammy Kim