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
The Secret Sharer The Secret Sharer
Although the epigraph of Damon Galgut's novel is taken from Chekhov, it is the ghost of Graham Greene that hovers most palpably over The Good Doctor, and even in the cadence of i...
Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Claire Messud
Accidental Friends Accidental Friends
"One does not jail Voltaire." So responded the president of France to calls that Jean-Paul Sartre be arrested for backing an independent Algeria.
Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Russell Jacoby
I Confess (Sort of) I Confess (Sort of)
A confession is, by definition, a declaration of guilt.
Mar 11, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Kate Levin
Labor Pains Labor Pains
When I took childbirth classes six years ago, the word "pressure" was bandied about an awful lot: We heard about the pressure on our bladders, the pressure applied to our backs t...
Mar 11, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Niesslein
The Three-State Solution? The Three-State Solution?
All nations are modern inventions, but those fashioned in the Middle East show their scaffolding more than most.
Mar 11, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Juan Cole
The Deciding Vote The Deciding Vote
According to the Constitution, the President, with the consent of the Senate, selects the members of the Supreme Court.
Mar 11, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?
In the midst of a wicked winter, I like to curl up with some sultry nature writing. My father instilled in me a fascination with the natural world.
Mar 9, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Teresa Stack
My Dinner With Aleksander My Dinner With Aleksander
In 1964 an important if somewhat obscure Polish writer and public intellectual named Aleksander Wat arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, and began the work that wou...
Mar 4, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Paloff