In Our Orbit : On Stephen F. Cohen In Our Orbit : On Stephen F. Cohen
Stephen F. Cohen’s The Victims Return contemplates the return to Soviet society of several million zeks after Stalin’s death.
Aug 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Polonsky
Melissa Harris-Perry: Dick Cheney’s Book Is Revisionist Melissa Harris-Perry: Dick Cheney’s Book Is Revisionist
Cheney has a somewhat deluded sense of recent history.
Aug 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / MSNBC
Alan Lomax: A Life of Sound Alan Lomax: A Life of Sound
During the early twentieth century, Alan Lomax and his father John traveled throughout the American South searching for the work songs, spirituals and folk tales that gave the regi...
Aug 25, 2011 / Books & the Arts / The Nation and Francis Reynolds
Enter Rick Perry Enter Rick Perry
With even more impressive hair than Kerry, At last into the race arrives Rick Perry. Though Perry’s blessed, no doubt, with splendid hair, he Believes some things that strike some folks as scary. Observers down in Texas still are wary. The space between his ears, they say, is airy. But for the pros who count which states he’d carry, What’s there beneath the hair is ancillary.
Aug 24, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Discandied: On Women and Elegy Discandied: On Women and Elegy
Learning to mourn with Susan Howe, Gertrude Schnackenberg, Anne Carson and C.D. Wright.
Aug 24, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Susan Stewart
This Is a Recording: On Alan Lomax This Is a Recording: On Alan Lomax
How Alan Lomax became the most significant Baedeker of America’s folkways.
Aug 24, 2011 / Books & the Arts / David Yaffe
A ‘Troublemaker’ Looks Back on an Era of Hope and Upheaval A ‘Troublemaker’ Looks Back on an Era of Hope and Upheaval
For half a century, Bill Zimmerman has labored for progressive causes as an organizer and political consultant. In a new memoir, he looks back on his career with an unwavering comm...
Aug 15, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Danny Goldberg
Cut, Cap and Balance Cut, Cap and Balance
(A Republican version of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” from Kiss Me, Kate) Cut, cap and balance. Just turn off the tap. Cut, cap and balance. Shut that purse up with a snap. Let’s cut wasteful programs in bunches— Like research and poor kids’ school lunches. All life is not really a fed affair, So let’s take a scalpel to Medicare. ’Cause if rich people pay less in taxes We’ll still whip that Evil old Axis. All citizens will be in clover If we just heed the teaching of Grover. Cut, cap and balance. Balance, cut and cap.
Aug 10, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Inhuman Bondage: On Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights Inhuman Bondage: On Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights
Robin Blackburn's The American Crucible treats modern slavery as an international institution with national histories.
Aug 10, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor is a sadly endangered type: the philosopher-statesman.
Aug 10, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Mark Oppenheimer