Culture

How to Understand the Struggle for Black Freedom After Emancipation

How to Understand the Struggle for Black Freedom After Emancipation How to Understand the Struggle for Black Freedom After Emancipation

Five important books tell the tale.

Nov 30, 2016 / Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Washington’s New African-American Museum Shows How Black History Shaped the American Experience

Washington’s New African-American Museum Shows How Black History Shaped the American Experience Washington’s New African-American Museum Shows How Black History Shaped the American Experience

The most recent and cutting-edge scholarship informs the exhibits.

Nov 30, 2016 / Feature / Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Wideman’s Ghosts

Wideman’s Ghosts Wideman’s Ghosts

A profound sense of hope and despair haunts John Edgar Wideman’s new work of nonfiction.

Nov 29, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Jesse McCarthy

Cohen_Philip Guston

Philip Guston’s Man Beyond Redemption Philip Guston’s Man Beyond Redemption

Guston’s drawings of Richard Nixon stayed private until decades after the artist’s death.

Nov 26, 2016 / Alina Cohen

Darcy James Argue’s Terrific Thrill

Darcy James Argue’s Terrific Thrill Darcy James Argue’s Terrific Thrill

A staggeringly ambitious album explores the themes of cultural paranoia and false truth.

Nov 25, 2016 / David Hajdu

Barack Obama Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving Celebrates Migrants Seeking Refuge From Intolerance and Threats Thanksgiving Celebrates Migrants Seeking Refuge From Intolerance and Threats

Thanksgiving is a holiday for what conservatives call “multicultural pieties”—for embracing diversity, for sharing our prosperity, for recalling the history of welcoming the strang...

Nov 24, 2016 / John Nichols

Trump and Obama meet

What Time Is It? Here’s What the 2016 Election Tells Us About Obama, Trump, and What Comes Next What Time Is It? Here’s What the 2016 Election Tells Us About Obama, Trump, and What Comes Next

Political scientist Stephen Skowronek talks about how his theory of the cycles of presidential history explains the campaign’s shocking results.

Nov 22, 2016 / Richard Kreitner

Mars

Seeing Mars, Seeing Red Seeing Mars, Seeing Red

As the climate warms and this planet of ours continues sprinting toward extinction, we’re seeing the cultural fixation with Mars take center stage.

Nov 19, 2016 / Sam Sax

The Personal Is Political, But Not Always Fictional

The Personal Is Political, But Not Always Fictional The Personal Is Political, But Not Always Fictional

What is the novelist Intizar Husain’s theory of Pakistani history?

Nov 19, 2016 / Ratik Asokan

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest: Thank Them for Their Service A Tribe Called Quest: Thank Them for Their Service

The group returned just when we needed it.

Nov 18, 2016 / Marcus J. Moore

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