Books and Ideas

The Atacama desert, 2022.

Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory

Her book-length essay Voyager examines life after Pinochet—and the disjunctures in public remembering the era produced—through an exploration of the stars. 

Jun 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Amanda Paige Inman

Cormac McCarthy, 1973.

Cormac McCarthy’s Unforgiving Parables of American Empire Cormac McCarthy’s Unforgiving Parables of American Empire

He demonstrated how the frontier wasn’t an incubator of democratic equality but a place of unrelenting pain, cruelty, and suffering.

Jun 21, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Greg Grandin

Jesse Hagopian, his father, and his brother in Morgantown, Miss.

Celebrating Juneteenth by Emancipating History Celebrating Juneteenth by Emancipating History

A Black family’s pilgrimage to Mississippi.

Jun 19, 2023 / Jesse Hagopian

A banner depicting Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 2019.

The Settler-Colonialist Alliance of India and Israel The Settler-Colonialist Alliance of India and Israel

Over the decades, the two nations have become closer allies in business and politics. We talked to journalist Azad Essa about the origins of this international relationship.

Jun 19, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Deeksha Udupa

Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Cringe Eat, Pray, Cringe

Elizabeth Gilbert’s next novel faced outcry for its setting in Russia. So, before she could get canceled, she canceled herself.

Jun 14, 2023 / Katha Pollitt

Fordism Comes to the Gallery—and AI Comes for the Artists

Fordism Comes to the Gallery—and AI Comes for the Artists Fordism Comes to the Gallery—and AI Comes for the Artists

Though hyped in the media as the latest thing, the images generated by AI art are actually old, trapping the viewer in a time loop of kitsch.

Jun 14, 2023 / Dwayne Monroe

Perhat Tursun and the Plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

Perhat Tursun and the Plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang Perhat Tursun and the Plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

In The Backstreets, the novelist and poet documents the centuries of dislocation imposed on the Uyghur people

Jun 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Yangyang Cheng

Aziv Brigade

The Western Media Is Whitewashing the Azov Battalion The Western Media Is Whitewashing the Azov Battalion

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, these fighters were neo-Nazis. They still are.

Jun 13, 2023 / Feature / Lev Golinkin

The Enduring Grift of the Washington Operator

The Enduring Grift of the Washington Operator The Enduring Grift of the Washington Operator

A new book argues that D.C. became a swamp in the Trump years, but like any company town it has always been a hive of influence peddling, self-dealing, and graft.

Jun 12, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann

A John Birch Society exhibit held at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Boston, 1972.

How the John Birch Society Won the Long Game How the John Birch Society Won the Long Game

The American right doesn’t need the John Birch Society these days, but that is because it’s adopted the Birchers’ extremism wholesale.

Jun 8, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nathan Robinson

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