Books and Ideas

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.

Jun 15, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Günter Grass

Second-Wave Soundings Second-Wave Soundings

The women's liberation movement, as it was called in the sixties and seventies, was the largest social movement in the history of the United States--and probably in the world.

Jun 15, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Linda Gordon and Rosalyn Baxandall

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

Prince Albert in a Can Prince Albert in a Can

What's the meaning of Al Gore? Or George Bush?

Jun 8, 2000 / Books & the Arts / David Corn

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

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