Books and Ideas

Scooter Libby: A Republican Nursery Rhyme Scooter Libby: A Republican Nursery Rhyme

Catching small fry, letting the big fish go.

Nov 3, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin

All the King’s Media All the King’s Media

The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural ev...

Nov 3, 2005 / Books & the Arts / William Greider

The True Story of Equiano The True Story of Equiano

Vincent Carretta's Equiano, the African is the complex narrative of a Carolina slave who bought his freedom, married an English woman and published a memoir on his life as a seafar...

Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Robin Blackburn

The Power of Fear The Power of Fear

Jill Lepore's New York Burning paints a realistic portrait of a purported slave rebellion in 1741 and the hysteria that followed, a harrowing lesson of how abusers of power become ...

Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Russell Shorto

I Wonder As I Wander I Wonder As I Wander

Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost plumbs the mysteries of losing oneself and finding oneself in the realm of the utter unknown.

Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Gorra

Another Miracle From Bill Frist Another Miracle From Bill Frist

The doctor who proved himself a master of distant diagosis has one more trick up his sleeve.

Oct 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin

State of the Magazines State of the Magazines

On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal news magazines facing declining circulation have started to play into the celebrity culture. But there are gems that have the power to carry ...

Oct 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky

The Uncertainty Principle The Uncertainty Principle

By writing a novel about a conventional novelist writing about a conventional man, J.M. Coetzee's latest work illuminates the role of the novel and cuts through typical and tired t...

Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Pankaj Mishra

The War of the Liberals The War of the Liberals

Power and the Idealists clings to the notion that the Iraq War was waged for humanitarian ideals, while At the Point of a Gun documents the inner torment of humanitarian interventi...

Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Holmes

The Two-Way Squeeze The Two-Way Squeeze

The quiet purposefulness that characterized Rosa Parks's actions bears eloquent witness to the power of her protest.

Oct 25, 2005 / Books & the Arts / The Editors

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