Books and Ideas

John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign

John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign

The McGovern campaign marked a turning point in many lives, including John Lennon’s.

Oct 22, 2012 / Blog / Jon Wiener

A Simple Guide to Every Single Republican Tax Proposal A Simple Guide to Every Single Republican Tax Proposal

(As verified by 178 independent studies)   Sure, sometimes they call it supply-side, And sometimes they say job creation Is risked if our entrepreneurs Think profits get snatched by taxation. It comes to the same simple credo Around which the party has danced: If rich people pay less in taxes, Then everyone’s life is enhanced.

Oct 17, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin

After the Euphoria: On the Arab Uprisings After the Euphoria: On the Arab Uprisings

What are the new rules of the political game in the Middle East? Nobody knows, but Marc Lynch’s The Arab Uprising is a useful guide.

Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Cockburn

Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes

In The Expendable Man, the story of an innocent under suspicion is given a racial twist.

Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

The Cuban Missile Crisis and Ownership of the World The Cuban Missile Crisis and Ownership of the World

Though the Cuban Missile Crisis was fifty years ago, imperial America and the threat of nuclear war remains. 

Oct 16, 2012 / Noam Chomsky

Peter Dreier: ‘We Stand On the Shoulders’ of Social Justice Activists Peter Dreier: ‘We Stand On the Shoulders’ of Social Justice Activists

From Barbara Ehrenreich to Paul Wellstone, changemakers fighting for equality are the real American heroes. 

Oct 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Press Room

Mitt Doesn’t Think That Nearly Half the People In This Country Are Moochers After All Mitt Doesn’t Think That Nearly Half the People In This Country Are Moochers After All

After weeks of acknowledging only that his “47 percent” remarks were “not elegantly stated,” Mitt Romney now says that they were “just completely wrong.”         —News reports   He was, he says, completely wrong; To care for everyone is vital. He’s singing now a different song, And “Etch A Sketch” is that song’s title.

Oct 11, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Exit Stage Left: The FBI and Student Radicals

Exit Stage Left: The FBI and Student Radicals Exit Stage Left: The FBI and Student Radicals

How in 1960s Berkeley the state waged a two-front war to stamp out opponents, real and imagined, to its rule.

Oct 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Steve Wasserman

Shelf Life Shelf Life

A.M. Homes’s May We Be Forgiven; Sherman Alexie’s Blasphemy.

Oct 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier

Gay Baiting Gore Vidal: Politics in 1960 Gay Baiting Gore Vidal: Politics in 1960

During his Congressional run in 1960, the late writer and Nation contributor fired back at a less-than-friendly newspaper publisher.

Oct 8, 2012 / Blog / Jon Wiener

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