Cultural Criticism and Analysis

Octoberfest Octoberfest

Four editors of October magazine trace the history of contemporary art. Though Art Since 1900 seeks to be comprehensive, its writers leave out entire movements and impose moralisti...

Dec 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

Pop Torture Pop Torture

Pop culture does more than validate the claim that torture could help foil bombs seconds before detonation.

Dec 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kim

Rogue Scholars Rogue Scholars

Defenders of torture dwell not only in the White House and Pentagon, but in the halls of academia. When prominent law professors and academics cite the fantastic "ticking-bomb theo...

Dec 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Tara McKelvey

Marxism and Form Marxism and Form

Perry Anderson's Spectrum journeys through the abstract worlds of conservative and liberal intellectual thought, and leaves in its trail insights on the substance and style of idea...

Nov 22, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stefan Collini

Succès de Scandale Succès de Scandale

American readers have long felt guilty about loving Lolita. As Vladimir Nabokov's nymphet heroine turns 50, Lila Azam Zanganeh traces the impact of a novel that has become both an ...

Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lila Azam Zanganeh

Mystic River Mystic River

Amartya Sen's latest collection of essays explores the rich flow of various peoples in and out of India and how they shaped the politics and spirituality of the nation today.

Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Tariq Ali

All the King’s Media All the King’s Media

The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural ev...

Nov 3, 2005 / Books & the Arts / William Greider

The Power of Fear The Power of Fear

Jill Lepore's New York Burning paints a realistic portrait of a purported slave rebellion in 1741 and the hysteria that followed, a harrowing lesson of how abusers of power become ...

Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Russell Shorto

I Wonder As I Wander I Wonder As I Wander

Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost plumbs the mysteries of losing oneself and finding oneself in the realm of the utter unknown.

Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Gorra

State of the Magazines State of the Magazines

On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal news magazines facing declining circulation have started to play into the celebrity culture. But there are gems that have the power to carry ...

Oct 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky

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