Books and Ideas

Automatic Pundit Readjustment After Each Primary Vote Automatic Pundit Readjustment After Each Primary Vote

They’ll picture what we can expect, With certainty in their depictions. But first they’ll erase from their minds Their previous certain predictions.

Jan 4, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Anxious and Paralyzed: On Spahr, Gordon, Moschovakis and Ossip

Anxious and Paralyzed: On Spahr, Gordon, Moschovakis and Ossip Anxious and Paralyzed: On Spahr, Gordon, Moschovakis and Ossip

Books by four poets about big modern systems whose results and failures seem inescapable.

Jan 4, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Burt

Remembering Hitchens

Remembering Hitchens Remembering Hitchens

“Christopher had a twenty-five-year adventure with The Nation that I hope was as rewarding for him as it was for us, despite the political collisions.”

Dec 22, 2011 / Editorial / Victor Navasky

Russia Flag

Is the World Really Safer Without the Soviet Union? Is the World Really Safer Without the Soviet Union?

Instead of a new era of democracy, disarmament and interdependence, we have had unchecked militarism and economic crisis.

Dec 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Mikhail S. Gorbachev

The Soviet Union’s Afterlife

The Soviet Union’s Afterlife The Soviet Union’s Afterlife

Twenty years later, questions endure about how and why the nation abruptly dissolved.

Dec 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stephen F. Cohen

Back in the USSR

Back in the USSR Back in the USSR

Ever since 1991, Russians have been looking to the Soviet past for comfort and pride.

Dec 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Vadim Nikitin

You Can’t Always Get What You Want: On Stephen King

You Can’t Always Get What You Want: On Stephen King You Can’t Always Get What You Want: On Stephen King

In 11/22/63, Stephen King conveys the horrors of American exceptionalism.

Dec 21, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

Rick Perry Compares Himself to Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow Rick Perry Compares Himself to Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow

So Perry is fond of debates now, He’s calling himself in these rumbles An Iowa caucuses Tebow— Except for how often he fumbles.

Dec 21, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Five Worst Political Books of 2011 Five Worst Political Books of 2011

Bill Clinton on jobs, Chris Matthews on JFK and Dick Cheney on himself.

Dec 21, 2011 / 5 Books / Jon Wiener

The Perils of the Front-Runner in a Horse Race The Perils of the Front-Runner in a Horse Race

Though Romney was leading right out of the gate, He’s also a guy some conservatives hate. But all other entries they managed to find Were scratched from the start or have fallen behind. So now they’ve decided that Newt is a whiz— The horse that they’re backing, corrupt as he is. Thus Gingrich, now galloping (though he’s quite husky), May make Romney look like the late Edmund Muskie.

Dec 14, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

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