How Much Do We Learn From the First Cut of History? How Much Do We Learn From the First Cut of History?
One year later, the blockbuster Game Change can be read as much for how little election narratives explain about history as for the story of the 2008 campaign.
Sep 8, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Julian E. Zelizer
Bluer Rather Than Pinker Bluer Rather Than Pinker
How much does language tell us what to see, and hence what to think?
Sep 7, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
On Revelations of Where the Secret Funding for the Tea Party Comes From On Revelations of Where the Secret Funding for the Tea Party Comes From
Who's behind the curtain?
Sep 2, 2010 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Ten Things the Past Can Teach Us Today Ten Things the Past Can Teach Us Today
"Live as if you are free" and other lessons of the past can help us build a progressive future.
Sep 2, 2010 / Books & the Arts / The Nation
Peregrine Peregrine
The peregrine don't bother with the beak and feet and toss them to the sidewalk off the top of the Methodist's tower like KFC out the window of a speeding car of drunks, sparrow and pigeon parts on the sidewalk, a roadside litter, the road here in this case is the sky. It rains blood more literally than it always does and the birds of prey have non-metallic feathers. Everyone in Chicago has read in the Times, coyotes prefer Mc D's. Our kind of wild life steps right up, robs the joint in the disguise of himself he knows no one would believe. True, animals don't use human technologies, but the changes in us, because of such advances, advance the animal relation to us. They've necessarily learned vicariously what they need to know of how two-legged technologies run; they keep up with us the same way the dumbest button pusher keeps up with the MIT computer engineer. Not rocket science, but enough to know what it does is there to work around or with whatever it is. Adaptation is an education in more fields than we imagine.
Sep 2, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Ed Roberson
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Ruth Harris's Dreyfus; Deborah Amos's Eclipse of the Sunnis.
Sep 2, 2010 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella
Reverse Psychology: On Ernst Weiss Reverse Psychology: On Ernst Weiss
In Georg Letham, Ernst Weiss turned to psychoanalysis to tap an atmosphere of unknown terror and mystery.
Sep 1, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Elias Altman
Slacker Friday Slacker Friday
On the media, John McCain, "Hotel California," wives, ex-wives and shows at the Palladium.
Aug 28, 2010 / Blog / Eric Alterman
The Unmaking of a Company Man The Unmaking of a Company Man
An education begun in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate.
Aug 27, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Andrew J. Bacevich
On ‘Friday Night Lights’, Abortion Stigma Goes Primetime On ‘Friday Night Lights’, Abortion Stigma Goes Primetime
Manipulating information women who are seeking abortion receive is a staple of antichoice politics. A recent episode of Friday Night Lights reveals how damaging that strategy is.
Aug 26, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Nancy Northup