Culture

What We Can Learn From Andy Kopkind’s Energy, Edge and Radical Hope

What We Can Learn From Andy Kopkind’s Energy, Edge and Radical Hope What We Can Learn From Andy Kopkind’s Energy, Edge and Radical Hope

How to be committed without drinking the Kool-Aid—and other things Andy taught me.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Maria Margaronis

It’s Not Too Late: Save Democracy By Amending the Constitution

It’s Not Too Late: Save Democracy By Amending the Constitution It’s Not Too Late: Save Democracy By Amending the Constitution

Corporations are not people, money is not speech, and votes must matter more than billionaires’ dollars.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / John Nichols

1965–1975: How To Tell The Rebels Have Won

1965–1975: How To Tell The Rebels Have Won 1965–1975: How To Tell The Rebels Have Won

Vietnam is a unique case—culturally, historically and politically. I hope that the United States will not repeat its Vietnam blunders elsewhere.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / The Nation

Some Disturbingly Relevant Legacies of Anticommunism

Some Disturbingly Relevant Legacies of Anticommunism Some Disturbingly Relevant Legacies of Anticommunism

The impact of Cold War anticommunism on our national life has been so profound that we no longer recognize how much we’ve lost.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky

Hound Voice Hound Voice

December 10, 1938 Because we love bare hills and stunted trees And were the last to choose the settled ground, Its boredom of the desk or of the spade, because So many years companioned by a hound, Our voices carry; and though slumber bound, Some few half wake and half renew their choice, Give tongue, proclaim their hidden name—“hound voice.” The women that I picked spoke sweet and low And yet gave tongue. “Hound Voices” were they all. We picked each other from afar and knew What hour of terror comes to test the soul, And in that terror’s name obeyed the call, And understood, what none have understood, Those images that waken in the blood. Some day we shall get up before the dawn And find our ancient hounds before the door, And wide awake know that the hunt is on; Stumbling upon the blood-dark track once more, That stumbling to the kill beside the shore; Then cleaning out and bandaging of wounds, And chants of victory amid the encircling hounds. This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) published his first poem in The Nation in 1933; his last appeared three months after his death. 

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / William Butler Yeats

If We Repossessed Empty Homes, Homelessness Would Be Over

If We Repossessed Empty Homes, Homelessness Would Be Over If We Repossessed Empty Homes, Homelessness Would Be Over

It will need a robust Mayor and city government to take the law into their own hands; but the people would support them.

Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / William MacDonald and Bill de Blasio

The Dream Life of Desire

The Dream Life of Desire The Dream Life of Desire

Drawing a line between poetry and the political has never been simple.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko

Weird Bedfellows

Weird Bedfellows Weird Bedfellows

In their defense of “tradition” against the liberating potential of architecture, Prince Charles and Xi Jinping find unlikely common ground.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Michael Sorkin

Magna Carta Messed Up the World, Here’s How to Fix It

Magna Carta Messed Up the World, Here’s How to Fix It Magna Carta Messed Up the World, Here’s How to Fix It

The “logic” of capitalist development has left a nightmare of environmental destruction in its wake.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Noam Chomsky

Is America Possible Without Empire?

Is America Possible Without Empire? Is America Possible Without Empire?

Rather than sizzle or suffocate, let us get on with imagining a new America.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / William Appleman Williams and Greg Grandin

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