Books and Ideas

Empty Rooms: On Nicole Krauss

Empty Rooms: On Nicole Krauss Empty Rooms: On Nicole Krauss

Nicole Krauss's Great House swings from the evocative to the overcharged.

Jan 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz

Literature and Exile

Literature and Exile Literature and Exile

Books are the only homeland of the true writer, books that may sit on shelves or in the memory.

Jan 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Roberto BolaƱo

Vanishing Points: Language Poetry Remembered Vanishing Points: Language Poetry Remembered

The Grand Piano is a highbrow Friends—a collective history of the early years of Language poetry.

Jan 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

The Message Other Mayors Got From How Newark’s Corey Booker Came Out of the Great Storm The Message Other Mayors Got From How Newark’s Corey Booker Came Out of the Great Storm

It was the ultimate photo-op.

Jan 6, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Hope in 2011

Hope in 2011 Hope in 2011

The arc of history bends towards justice, but it will not bend by itself.

Jan 6, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel

Today’s Color Line

Today’s Color Line Today’s Color Line

America may have a black president—but very few other African-Americans have been elected to political office.

Jan 6, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

Dwight Eisenhower & ‘The Nation’

Dwight Eisenhower & ‘The Nation’ Dwight Eisenhower & ‘The Nation’

The Nation was central to Eisenhower's understanding of the military-industrial complex.

Jan 6, 2011 / Books & the Arts / James Ledbetter

Trakt Marks: On Ian Frazier’s Siberia

Trakt Marks: On Ian Frazier’s Siberia Trakt Marks: On Ian Frazier’s Siberia

Like Siberia itself, Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia seems simply to drift off into the distance.

Jan 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Elaine Blair

A Secret Archive: On the Mexican Suitcase

A Secret Archive: On the Mexican Suitcase A Secret Archive: On the Mexican Suitcase

The 4,500 images in the recently discovered Mexican Suitcase deepen our understanding of photojournalism as well as the complexities of the Spanish Civil War.

Jan 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Dan Kaufman

The Gutted Writ: On Habeas Corpus

The Gutted Writ: On Habeas Corpus The Gutted Writ: On Habeas Corpus

Habeas corpus rescued Walter Rideau from an unjust prison sentence, but during its long history the great writ has been used to muffle the sighs of prisoners as much as to reliev...

Dec 22, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Robert Perkinson

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