Books and Ideas

What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?

Since I'm from California, I sometimes dare to dispute the seemingly popular East Coast belief that my home state is a cultural wasteland.

Apr 13, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Abby Aguirre

L’Amérique, Mon Amour L’Amérique, Mon Amour

Along with the Bible and Moby-Dick, Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America has got to be one of the world's least-read classics.

Apr 8, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Lazare

Prison Without Walls Prison Without Walls

Our nation's two-decade spree of building prisons and sentencing even nonviolent criminals to long spells inside them has produced a staggering number of incarcerated people in A...

Apr 8, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Egan

Empty Vessel Empty Vessel

For a man who destroyed his country and wrecked or stole hundreds of thousands of lives, Slobodan Milosevic is an oddly colorless villain.

Apr 1, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Laura Secor

Everybody’s Talking About the Weather Everybody’s Talking About the Weather

The last few years have seen renewed interest in the Weathermen.

Mar 30, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Varon

In America In America

If the words "first novel" and "arrival of a major American talent" appear on the front flap of a dust jacket, you can almost be sure that the picture on the back flap will depic...

Mar 25, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Philip Connors

Water’s Edge Water’s Edge

Manhattan is a tight little island. Around thirteen miles long, it has a width that varies from two miles to a few hundred feet.

Mar 25, 2004 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella

Letter From Algeria Letter From Algeria

Excavating the disappeared.

Mar 25, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jack Brown

The New Critic The New Critic

The American foreign affairs establishment seems finally to have gotten worried about the antics of the Boy Emperor.

Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Chalmers Johnson

Moses Goes Down Moses Goes Down

If upon reading the first sentence of Moses Isegawa's debut novel, Abyssinian Chronicles, in an Amsterdam bookstore a few years back, I quickly re-read it a few times and committ...

Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Matt Steinglass

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