Books and Ideas

Men imprisoned at the Mafanta Prison peer out at the world. In 2016, Sierra Leone’s Human Rights Commission decried the squalor and lack of rehabilitative programs as “inhumane.”

The Legacy of the British Legal System Continues to Inflict Misery in Sierra Leone The Legacy of the British Legal System Continues to Inflict Misery in Sierra Leone

Decades after independence, colonial-era laws have created a mass-incarceration crisis in Sierra Leone as poor citizens are thrown into prison for the smallest offenses.

Dec 19, 2024 / Feature / Mara Kardas-Nelson

Auctioning Off Judaism’s Past

Auctioning Off Judaism’s Past Auctioning Off Judaism’s Past

As the collections of Sir Moses Montefiore and David Solomon Sassoon go under the hammer today, what's the future for rare books and historic artifacts in the age of generative AI...

Dec 18, 2024 / David Brodsky

The Brutalist and the Hidden Work of Architecture

The Brutalist and the Hidden Work of Architecture "The Brutalist" and the Hidden Work of Architecture

A film about survival, creativity, the hypocrisies of high art, The Brutalist tells a story about an architect who does not exploit and manipulate others to achieve his grand visi...

Dec 18, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wagner

David Montgomery in a picket line during a 1955 UE strike.

David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History

From his first book to his landmark account of the politics of the pre-WWI labor movement, Montgomery explored how people’s experiences of work shaped their political horizons.

Dec 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein

Nation Poetry

from “Mojave Ghost” from “Mojave Ghost”

Dec 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Forrest Gander

Ethan Herisse as Elwood and Brandon Wilson as Turner in “Nickel Boys.”

The Illusory Beauty of “Nickel Boys” The Illusory Beauty of “Nickel Boys”

An avant-garde adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel careens between questions of style and substance.

Dec 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Isabella Hammad and the Politics of Recognition

Isabella Hammad and the Politics of Recognition Isabella Hammad and the Politics of Recognition

In her capacious book of criticism, Recognizing the Stranger, Isabella Hammad asks: “How large is the gulf between us?”

Dec 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Abdelrahman ElGendy

Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

What Happened to the Democratic Party? What Happened to the Democratic Party?

The squalid state of our present political institutions points to a failure of not just individuals but the system as a whole.

Dec 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann

The pure products of America: Roy Cohn and Donald Trump at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC, on March 20, 1983.

Donald Trump Is the Authentic American Berserk Donald Trump Is the Authentic American Berserk

Far from being an alien interloper, the incoming president draws from homegrown authoritarianism.

Dec 13, 2024 / Jeet Heer

US congressman, writer, and scientist Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831–1901), circa 1863. He was the member of the US House of Representatives from Minnesota’s Second Congressional District. An engraving by G.E. Perine.

The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly

The Minnesota politician presents a riddle for historians. He was a beloved populist but also a crackpot conspiracist. Were his politics tainted by his strange beliefs?

Dec 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein

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