Books and Ideas

Shelf Life Shelf Life

The Letters of Sylvia Beach; Günter Eich's Angina Days: Selected Poems

Jul 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella

Restless Confederates Restless Confederates

Two new books argue that the South's slaveholding republic faced a crisis of legitimacy from the outset.

Jul 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

A Forest of Fathers

A Forest of Fathers A Forest of Fathers

Did liberal principles or sectarian impulses mobilize Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" to protest against the Syrian regime?

Jul 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Elias Muhanna

Mirror, Mask, Labyrinth Mirror, Mask, Labyrinth

Two new collections of the poems of Jorge Luis Borges.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Susan Stewart

Ghosting History Ghosting History

Heidi Durrow traces a young girl's harrowing plunge into racial identity.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Madison Smartt Bell

Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor

A former covert CIA operative turned novelist is fast emerging as one of the most important fiction writers in the military/covert ops/political thriller genre dominated by right-w...

Jun 29, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Scahill

Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate

Proposition 8, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Civil Unions? Nation Senior Editor Richard Kim and writer Reihan Salam talk it all out on Bloggingheads.tv.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Bloggingheads

BP

BP BP

(Sung by Representative Joe Barton, to the tune of "Blue Moon")   BP, you've been so badly defamed— By shakedown artists so robbed, by petty bureaucrats blamed. BP, I'm sorry they've been so strict on These damages. You've been picked on, Without a case to convict on. But pay no mind to all these overreactions, For memories of this one more spill Will fade, like all your other infractions, And once again we'll shout, "Drill, baby, drill!" BP, you've been so badly defamed, The public's been so inflamed. BP, I'm truly ashamed.

Jun 24, 2010 / Column / Calvin Trillin

As Big as Mount Ararat

As Big as Mount Ararat As Big as Mount Ararat

Orhan Pamuk may be the face that Turkish literature turns to the West, but the novelist Yashar Kemal is its conscience and heart.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Marc Edward Hoffman

Bierced

Bierced Bierced

Ours is an age of the unexpected, the extraordinary—the uncanny. What better time to resurrect the stories of Ambrose Bierce?

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Victor LaValle

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