Books and Ideas

Nazi salute by Friends of New Germany at Madison Square Garden.

What Is the History of Fascism in the United States? What Is the History of Fascism in the United States?

In Fascism Comes to America, Bruce Kuklick traces the shifting meanings of the term “fascist” from its origins to the present day and how it has, over the years, gradually lost it...

Jan 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Richard J. Evans

Wendy Brown: A Conversation on Our “Nihilistic” Age

Wendy Brown: A Conversation on Our “Nihilistic” Age Wendy Brown: A Conversation on Our “Nihilistic” Age

The Nation spoke with the political theorist about the multifront crisis of the post-Trump era and the moral and intellectual commitments of scholars and higher education.

Jan 10, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Extracting heroin from poppies on April 10, 1978, in Los Angeles, Calif.

A Metaphysical Memoir of Heroin A Metaphysical Memoir of Heroin

Michael Clune’s White Out is among the most intense and intellectually thrilling books on opiate addiction.

Jan 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Kolitz

“Night,” 1897.

Susan Taubes’s Uncanny Chronicles of Domestic Hell Susan Taubes’s Uncanny Chronicles of Domestic Hell

Her previously unreleased fiction—a novella and short stories—in Lament for Julia peek into the banal and nightmarish travails of married life.

Jan 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kathy Chow

A child eats amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on December 29, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A Palestinian Whose Childhood Was Destroyed by War Pleads for Peace A Palestinian Whose Childhood Was Destroyed by War Pleads for Peace

Never letting children endure war again is the “never again” that might actually heal our wounded humanity.

Jan 3, 2024 / Ibtisam Barakat

Downtown Jakarta, 2006.

Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia

In, Happy Stories, Mostly, a collection of short stories, the complexities of queer life in the Southeast Asian country come into focus.

Dec 28, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Bryony Lau

Nation Poetry

nous nous baignons — variations nous nous baignons — variations

an experimental translation of Marie-Andrée Gill 

Dec 28, 2023 / Poems / Kristen Renee Miller

James Stewart, as George Bailey, points at Lionel Barrymore in a scene from “It's a Wonderful Life.”

Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway? Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway?

How everybody’s favorite Christmas movie about the perils of monopoly capitalism became a victim of monopoly capitalism.

Dec 25, 2023 / Ray Nowosielski and David Cassidy

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

There’s something very feudal about his massive doomsday bunker.

Dec 22, 2023 / Kate Wagner

The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”

The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction” The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”

A buzzy film adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, a novel about publishing’s racial politics, misreads what is truly ailing the book industry.

Dec 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

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