Books and Ideas

McCullers: Canon Fodder? McCullers: Canon Fodder?

What makes an American writer? In today's narrow, backlashed literary market the chain of command is quite clear. The "greats" are Updike, Pynchon, Mailer, Bellow and Roth.

Jun 8, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Schulman

Flower Power: The Lessons Flower Power: The Lessons

An article in the financial section of the New York Observer this spring described a company named NetJ.com Corporation.

Jun 8, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein

How a Caged Bird Learns to Sing How a Caged Bird Learns to Sing

This article is adapted from a lecture that was part of a series on self-censorship in the media given at New York University. The lecture series is being published this month in T...

Jun 8, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard

The Sri Lankan Patients The Sri Lankan Patients

This time none of that lollygagging elusiveness that began The English Patient.

Jun 1, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Tom LeClair

The Troves of Academe The Troves of Academe

"A university," poet John Ciardi acidly observed, "is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students." Add this contemporary counterpunch: A college is what a...

May 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Carlin Romano

When the CIA Was the NEA When the CIA Was the NEA

In June 1948 George Kennan, director of the State Department's policy planning staff, drafted National Security Directive NSC-10/2.

May 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Michael P. Rogin

Harrington’s Dilemma Harrington’s Dilemma

Maurice Isserman's The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington evokes and will enrich the legacy of the last great American socialist in the tradition of Eugene Debs and N...

May 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Tom Hayden

Author, Author! Author, Author!

"There are more than a million writers in the United States and they write more than 500,000 books each year, 90% of which never see publication.

May 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Art Winslow

Sartre’s Roads to Freedom Sartre’s Roads to Freedom

Asked where he was coming from, my friend's son replied, “From the demo against the death of Sartre.” It was April 19, 1980, and the definition fitted perfectly…

May 18, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Singer

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