Books and Ideas

New York City police officers preparing to enter Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, 2024.

A Fantasy of Post-Generational Politics A Fantasy of Post-Generational Politics

A recent book argues that reordering the stages of work and life—including retirement—could eradicate conflicts between generations, while ignoring the real issues that divide us....

Jun 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Julian Epp

Christopher Bollen’s Cairo Thriller

Christopher Bollen’s Cairo Thriller Christopher Bollen’s Cairo Thriller

The Lost Americans captures the atmosphere of paranoia and surveillance in the years since 2013.

Jun 20, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Hussein Omar

Juneteenth

Juneteenth Juneteenth

Juneteenth (June 19) commemorated the abolition of slavery in the United States, it became a national holiday on June 17, 2021.

Jun 19, 2024 / OppArt / Andrea Arroyo

A Message From 1930: Zion Cannot Be Built on Bayonets

A Message From 1930: Zion Cannot Be Built on Bayonets A Message From 1930: Zion Cannot Be Built on Bayonets

A hope for a more just future echoes across the decades from the pages of The Nation magazine.

Jun 19, 2024 / Richard Kreitner

A photograph by Gordon Parks. of a Washington, DC, street corner.

Diane Oliver’s Fiction From Both Sides of the Color Line Diane Oliver’s Fiction From Both Sides of the Color Line

Neighbors and Other Stories, a posthumously released collection, looks at all the uncertainty and promise of coming of age during and after the civil rights era.

Jun 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kelton Ellis

Nation Poetry

Royal Pardon Royal Pardon

Jun 12, 2024 / Poems / Jessica Q. Stark

A female welder. Circa 1930s–1940s.

A Sweeping History of the Black Working Class A Sweeping History of the Black Working Class

By focusing on the Black working class and its long history, Blair LM Kelley’s book, Black Folk, helps tell the larger story of American democracy over the past two and a half cen...

Jun 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Robert Greene II

Joni Mitchell being interviewed in 1972 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Seeing Ourselves in Joni Mitchell Seeing Ourselves in Joni Mitchell

Ann Powers’s deeply personal biography of Joni Mitchell looks at how a generation of listeners came to identify with the folk singer’s intimate songs.

Jun 11, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

Central Park Tower, One57, and 111 West 57th Street, 2022.

What’s the Deal With Manhattan’s Pencil-Thin High Rises? What’s the Deal With Manhattan’s Pencil-Thin High Rises?

A walk along 57th Street.

Jun 10, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Karrie Jacobs

A splitscreen image of a headshot of author Essie Chambers alongside the cover of her debut novel, Swift River.

A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture

In Essie Chambers’s debut novel, Swift River, protagonist Diamond Newberry finds ways to fill the gaps in her family tree.

Jun 6, 2024 / Kali Holloway

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