Books and Ideas

Ghosting History Ghosting History

Heidi Durrow traces a young girl's harrowing plunge into racial identity.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Madison Smartt Bell

Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor

A former covert CIA operative turned novelist is fast emerging as one of the most important fiction writers in the military/covert ops/political thriller genre dominated by right-w...

Jun 29, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Scahill

Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate

Proposition 8, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Civil Unions? Nation Senior Editor Richard Kim and writer Reihan Salam talk it all out on Bloggingheads.tv.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Bloggingheads

BP

BP BP

(Sung by Representative Joe Barton, to the tune of "Blue Moon")   BP, you've been so badly defamed— By shakedown artists so robbed, by petty bureaucrats blamed. BP, I'm sorry they've been so strict on These damages. You've been picked on, Without a case to convict on. But pay no mind to all these overreactions, For memories of this one more spill Will fade, like all your other infractions, And once again we'll shout, "Drill, baby, drill!" BP, you've been so badly defamed, The public's been so inflamed. BP, I'm truly ashamed.

Jun 24, 2010 / Column / Calvin Trillin

As Big as Mount Ararat

As Big as Mount Ararat As Big as Mount Ararat

Orhan Pamuk may be the face that Turkish literature turns to the West, but the novelist Yashar Kemal is its conscience and heart.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Marc Edward Hoffman

Bierced

Bierced Bierced

Ours is an age of the unexpected, the extraordinary—the uncanny. What better time to resurrect the stories of Ambrose Bierce?

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Victor LaValle

Right-Wing Women Win Big in Primary Voting Right-Wing Women Win Big in Primary Voting

Have they kicked through the glass ceiling?

Jun 17, 2010 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Ardor and the Abyss

Ardor and the Abyss Ardor and the Abyss

Emily Dickinson's reclusiveness was a way of protecting the world from herself.

Jun 16, 2010 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Gabriel García Márquez's Clandestine in Chile; Jaron Lanier's You Are Not a Gadget; Roger Lowenstein's The End of Wall Street

Jun 16, 2010 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella

The Obama Presidency: Possibility or Peril? The Obama Presidency: Possibility or Peril?

A progressive moment was supposed to follow Obama's election. Robert Kuttner's A Presidency in Peril asks where it went.

Jun 14, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Ari Berman

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