Books and Ideas

Reaping what they sowed: Biden and Harris at Trump’s inauguration.

The Biden Scandal Goes Well Beyond the Aging Cover-Up The Biden Scandal Goes Well Beyond the Aging Cover-Up

The former president’s stubbornness and narcissism led to disastrous Trump victory.

May 16, 2025 / Jeet Heer

David Horowitz spoke on the CU Boulder campus on February 14, 2005, about what's wrong with academic thought in US universities today.

I Thought David Horowitz Was a Joke—but He Foreshadowed the Trump Coalition I Thought David Horowitz Was a Joke—but He Foreshadowed the Trump Coalition

As an undergrad, I mocked the radical leftist turned reactionary. But with his cruel, vindictive politics taking over the government, he had the last laugh.

May 15, 2025 / David Klion

Katie Kitamura’s Divided Selves

Katie Kitamura’s Divided Selves Katie Kitamura’s Divided Selves

Her fiction are studies of fragmentation and ambivalence.

May 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

Is Criticism Really in Crisis?

Is Criticism Really in Crisis? Is Criticism Really in Crisis?

Andrea Long Chu and the politics of critical life.

May 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kevin Lozano

Contestants log roll the Paul Bunyan Lumber Jack Show from Nova Scotia at the Marshfield Fair on August 23, 2019, in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Nostalgia for the American Logger? Nostalgia for the American Logger?

Reflections on Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack.

May 13, 2025 / Erik Loomis

Nation Poetry

The Beginning The Beginning

May 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / John Skoyles

Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025.

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

May 13, 2025 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Nation Poetry

For the Last American Century For the Last American Century

May 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Robert Wood Lynn

Christopher Hill’s Revolutions

Christopher Hill’s Revolutions Christopher Hill’s Revolutions

The radical life and work of the historian.

May 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker

The Invention of Close Reading

The Invention of Close Reading The Invention of Close Reading

By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to turn postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?

May 12, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Dan Sinykin

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