Books and Ideas

An interior view of a model condominium at the sales center for the Platinum luxury condominiums in New York City, 2008.

Rumaan Alam’s Haves and Have-Nots Rumaan Alam’s Haves and Have-Nots

With his latest novel, Entitlement, he asks: Can wealth inequality make you lose your mind?

Mar 5, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

How Do We Combat the Racist History of Public Education?

How Do We Combat the Racist History of Public Education? How Do We Combat the Racist History of Public Education?

A conversation with Eve L. Ewing about the schoolhouse’s role in enforcing racial hierarchy and her book Original Sins.

Mar 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Naomi Elias

Art Spiegelman, “Self-Portrait With Maus Mask,” 1989.

Art Spiegelman and the Inescapable Shadow of Fascism Art Spiegelman and the Inescapable Shadow of Fascism

The creator of Maus has learned that the past is always present.

Mar 3, 2025 / Jeet Heer

Nation Poetry

Death in Captivity, a Surrender Death in Captivity, a Surrender

Feb 28, 2025 / Poems / Mai Der Vang

A backcountry road is covered in recent snow, February 2, 2024, in the Catskills Mountain region of New York.

February Storms in a Country That Still Works—for Now February Storms in a Country That Still Works—for Now

The reliable knot that pulls together the threads of basic human life in America is beginning to unravel, and there suddenly arises the possibility that the center will not hold.

Feb 26, 2025 / Susan Brind Morrow

Ronald Johnson

Ronald Johnson’s American Romanticism Ronald Johnson’s American Romanticism

Even those of us who enjoy Ralph Waldo Emerson will apologize for his poetry. His essays—most of which began as lectures—are erudite but predominantly concerned with honesty and co…

Feb 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David B. Hobbs

Djuna Barnes, 1922.

Djuna Barnes’s Playthings Djuna Barnes’s Playthings

Her short fiction provides an odd glimpse at a writer whose interests move beyond the human and into something more inchoate.

Feb 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams

History Repeats Itself

History Repeats Itself History Repeats Itself

And democracy fades.

Feb 24, 2025 / OppArt / Jesse Duquette

Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s “The Lord of the Castle Spying on His Daughter” (circa 1900).

Can We Still Recover the Right to Be Left Alone? Can We Still Recover the Right to Be Left Alone?

The political theorist Lowry Pressly thinks we’ve abandoned a more creative and humanist definition of the concept.

Feb 24, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Cora Currier

Worms

Worms Worms

Free at last.

Feb 21, 2025 / OppArt / Steve Brodner

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