A City That Worked A City That Worked

The New York of 1945 was the victorious city of the New Deal and World War II, one that can barely be glimpsed today beneath postmodern towers and billboards for dot-com enterprise...

Jul 13, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Robert W. Snyder

The Speed of Poetry The Speed of Poetry

When I visit the Poetry Publication Showcase, an annual display of the year's new poetry books at Poets House in Manhattan, I feel as if I've been granted a precious audience wit...

Jul 13, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Jan Clausen

The New World Order (They Mean It) The New World Order (They Mean It)

The United States never held a large number of direct colonies, a fact that has prompted many political leaders to declare it the great exception to colonialism.

Jun 29, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stanley Aronowitz

George Smiley, Move Over George Smiley, Move Over

"This is a story about a spy," writes Millicent Dillon in Harry Gold: A Novel.

Jun 29, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Elsa Dixler

The Devil and Mr. Hearst The Devil and Mr. Hearst

William Randolph Hearst is one of those people we all know was very, very famous but are never quite sure why, or what we are to think of him.

Jun 22, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Dana Frank

The Devil in Mr. Marx The Devil in Mr. Marx

At a quarter to 3 in the afternoon on March 14, 1883, one of the world's brainiest men, Karl Marx, ceased to think. He passed away peacefully in his favorite armchair.

Jun 22, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Andy Merrifield

African Heart, No Darkness African Heart, No Darkness

A revealing question: Why has V.S. Naipaul come to be much better known in the West than the great African writer Chinua Achebe?

Jun 22, 2000 / Books & the Arts / James North

A Literature From Below A Literature From Below

The role of the public intellectual--and the moral onus, assuming that one exists--seems ever to thread the Scylla of celebrity and the Charybdis of marginality.