Cultural Criticism and Analysis

JKF riding in a car through a parade.

JFK Assassination: The Final Secrets JFK Assassination: The Final Secrets

The release of the John F. Kennedy papers sets a standard for transparency that must also be applied to the current administration.

Mar 21, 2025 / Peter Kornbluh

Mario Savio, a leader of the University of California Free Speech Movement, center, with Jack Weinberg and Susan Goldberg and other arrested demonstrators during their trial, Berkeley, California, 1965.

America Needs a New Free Speech Movement America Needs a New Free Speech Movement

Donald Trump is showing us what an unaccountable class of corporate decision-makers looks like—and it looks like a lot of fear, and a terrible loss of freedom.

Mar 19, 2025 / Zephyr Teachout

Sherrod Brown: Three decades of talking about the dignity of work wasn’t enough to save him.

How the American Left Became Conservative How the American Left Became Conservative

Against the radical, if reactionary, experiment run from the White House, everyone from Democratic leaders in Congress to MSNBC hosts have turned to the defense of institutions.

Mar 18, 2025 / Michael Kazin

Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy

Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy Trump Took Over the Kennedy Center, but Silencing the Arts Will Not Be So Easy

Our last best hope for sharing, shaping, and wrangling over independent ideas may turn out to be America’s scrappy and disparate arts spaces—if they can hang on financially.

Mar 18, 2025 / Alisa Solomon

Are Men OK?

Are Men OK? Are Men OK?

According to Richard V. Reeves, American society is failing to address the needs of men and boys. Are his solutions the flip side of feminism—or just another form of backlash?

Mar 11, 2025 / Feature / Eamon Whalen

A backcountry road is covered in recent snow, February 2, 2024, in the Catskills Mountain region of New York.

February Storms in a Country That Still Works—for Now February Storms in a Country That Still Works—for Now

The reliable knot that pulls together the threads of basic human life in America is beginning to unravel, and there suddenly arises the possibility that the center will not hold.

Feb 26, 2025 / Susan Brind Morrow

Some day all this will be mine: Trump swears in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.

Donald Trump Is Stealing the Kennedy Brand Donald Trump Is Stealing the Kennedy Brand

Does the Kennedy name stand for liberalism—or oligarchy?

Feb 14, 2025 / Jeet Heer

Florida resident Ann Richter holds antisemitic flyers she found on her lawn.

Some Inconvenient Truths About Antisemitism and the Left Some Inconvenient Truths About Antisemitism and the Left

By ceding the space on antisemitism—responding when we are accused of it, but not taking up the fight against it as our cause—we’ve created a strategic opportunity for the right.

Feb 14, 2025 / Rachel Shabi

Pictured, from left to right: Zephyr Teachout, John Ganz, David Klion.

The Nation Names New Columnists Zephyr Teachout, John Ganz, and David Klion "The Nation" Names New Columnists Zephyr Teachout, John Ganz, and David Klion

From crony capitalism to the culture wars, they will chronicle a new and tumultuous chapter in American democracy under a second Trump administration.

Feb 13, 2025 / Press Room

Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk during the 60th presidential inauguration in the rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Monday, January 20, 2025.

The Social Critic Who Predicted Big Tech’s Dark Turn The Social Critic Who Predicted Big Tech’s Dark Turn

Theodore Roszak and the perils of technocracy.

Jan 31, 2025 / Peter Richardson and Michael J. Kramer

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