Books and Ideas

The Return of the Culture Wars

The Return of the Culture Wars The Return of the Culture Wars

As before, hypocrites are lining their coffers by pandering to ignorance and xenophobia.

Jan 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Doug Harvey

The Weasel’s Tooth: On W.B. Yeats

The Weasel’s Tooth: On W.B. Yeats The Weasel’s Tooth: On W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats’s poems on Ireland contemplate failures: not of poetry but of public life in all its forms.

Jan 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Burt

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Merrill Gilfillan’s The Bark of the Dog and The Warbler Road; Tony Judt’s The Memory Chalet.

Jan 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella

The Ballad of John and J.D.: On John Lennon and J.D. Salinger The Ballad of John and J.D.: On John Lennon and J.D. Salinger

Mark David Chapman was carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he shot John Lennon. The murder was a collision of cultures.

Jan 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

Obama: Triangulation 2.0?

Obama: Triangulation 2.0? Obama: Triangulation 2.0?

In year three, will Obama heed the lessons of Clinton or Reagan?

Jan 20, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Ari Berman

A Short Analysis of Sarah Palin’s Video Speech on the Tucson Shootings A Short Analysis of Sarah Palin’s Video Speech on the Tucson Shootings

What's uppermost on her mind.

Jan 20, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss

Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss Library Man: On Claude Lévi-Strauss

With a sharp eye for cultural patterns and a keen feel for the shape of a story, Claude Lévi-Strauss was a poet in the laboratory of anthropology.

Jan 19, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney

Perfect-Bound: On Elizabeth Hardwick

Perfect-Bound: On Elizabeth Hardwick Perfect-Bound: On Elizabeth Hardwick

Elizabeth Hardwick found New York's jittery impermanence and inchoate density to be an obstacle for the fiction writer.

Jan 19, 2011 / Books & the Arts / James Marcus

An Atlas of Reckonings An Atlas of Reckonings

The horrors of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database arise through the cumulative weight of its abstract pieces of information.

Jan 19, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Robin Einhorn

House Republicans Plan Symbolic Repeal Vote on the Healthcare Law House Republicans Plan Symbolic Repeal Vote on the Healthcare Law

"We'll show the poor."

Jan 13, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

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