George Saunders’s Lincoln George Saunders’s Lincoln
The novel ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ examines the Civil War as the root of America’s violent past—and as a possible source of empathy that might release us from it.
May 3, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Jon Baskin
The Fight Over Sexual Freedom The Fight Over Sexual Freedom
Geoffrey Stone’s book is a powerful reminder that the history of sexual equality is one of backlash as well as progress.
May 3, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Anna North
What We Can Learn from Our ‘Radical’ Past What We Can Learn from Our ‘Radical’ Past
The clashes of the past teach us that we must stay committed to a cause bigger than any one person and be willing to fight for years to come.
May 2, 2017 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
7 Things Donald Trump Gets Absolutely Wrong About Andrew Jackson 7 Things Donald Trump Gets Absolutely Wrong About Andrew Jackson
Trump imagines Jackson, a slaveholder, as a “big hearted” statesman who could have averted the Civil War.
May 1, 2017 / John Nichols
The Corporatization of the Web Has Thinned Out Our Culture and Undermined American Democracy The Corporatization of the Web Has Thinned Out Our Culture and Undermined American Democracy
In his new book Move Fast and Break Things, Jonathan Taplin argues that, among its many downsides, the digital revolution has diminished our very humanity.
Apr 27, 2017 / David Dayen
Marxism With Soul Marxism With Soul
Marshall Berman was committed not only to the radical promise of socialism and modernism, but to those masterpieces and revolutions that seemed to erupt out of our everyday lives.
Apr 26, 2017 / David Marcus
Can the Pain of Others Be Transmuted Into Art? Can the Pain of Others Be Transmuted Into Art?
While Dana Schutz’s Open Casket has received the lion’s share of attention, much of the Whitney Biennial seems to seek out controversy.
Apr 25, 2017 / Barry Schwabsky
How the Government Works Under Trump How the Government Works Under Trump
Sad!
Apr 25, 2017 / Tom Tomorrow
Obama From the Rearview Mirror Obama From the Rearview Mirror
The former president didn’t lose the argument with the right; he chose not to wage it.
Apr 20, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Robert L. Borosage
Inside the Birth of a Trump-Inspired Intellectual Magazine Inside the Birth of a Trump-Inspired Intellectual Magazine
Reading through American Affairs, one gets the sense that avoiding policy questions is as much a strategy as a politics.
Apr 19, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Gideon Lewis-Kraus