How Germany Keeps Amazon at Bay and Literary Culture Alive How Germany Keeps Amazon at Bay and Literary Culture Alive
In Germany, fixed-price laws curtail the power of retail chains and help to sustain a vibrant literary culture.
May 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Michael Naumann
Bad Paper: On Philip Coggan Bad Paper: On Philip Coggan
Is the current financial crisis a problem of liquidity or one of solvency?
May 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Mihm
Tempest Williams: The Mormon Church Is a Corporation (VIDEO) Tempest Williams: The Mormon Church Is a Corporation (VIDEO)
The Mormon Church is a corporation, says author and essayist Terry Tempest Williams, and there is reason to fear a Romney presidency....
May 28, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Laura Flanders
Orlando Figes and Stalin’s Victims Orlando Figes and Stalin’s Victims
A book by the famous British historian was not published in Russia because the Moscow publisher discovered too many errors and misrepresentations—not, as Figes suggested, for...
May 23, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter Reddaway and Stephen F. Cohen
Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright: Reprise Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright: Reprise
A black divine named Jeremiah Wright Preached scary sermons some would like to cite. They say Obama’s even now Wright’s knight— A Christian pastor’s Muslim acolyte. It’s one way to remind us he’s not white. If this won’t work, there’re other things that might. The Super PACs will find a way. Sit tight.
May 23, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Extreme Indolence: On the Fiction of Albert Cossery Extreme Indolence: On the Fiction of Albert Cossery
For Albert Cossery, the world is split between those who respect a cause and those who don’t give a tinker's damn.
May 22, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Mark Polizzotti
This Week in Poverty: A Little Help for the Long-Term Unemployed? This Week in Poverty: A Little Help for the Long-Term Unemployed?
230,000 long-term unemployed workers lost their benefits on Sunday and the system is about to get a whole lot worse.
May 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Greg Kaufmann
Ohio Ohio
(A 2012 version of the Wonderful Town classic) With the rest of the states either solidly red or solidly blue, the election will be decided in nine or ten swing states. —News reports Why oh why oh why oh? Why did I ever leave Ohio? Why did I locate where, since it’s no swing state, Pollsters don’t trouble to track? Zero is my vote’s weight. Reason to vote? That’s what I lack. Oh why oh why oh did I leave Ohio? Maybe I better go O-H-I-O, Where I could have my vote back.
May 16, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Blind Spot: On Christa Wolf Blind Spot: On Christa Wolf
A postwar German novelist’s complicated legacy.
May 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case
Mother Natures: On Elisabeth Badinter Mother Natures: On Elisabeth Badinter
In The Conflict, the French intellectual takes American mothering to task.
May 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Szalai