The Nation’s Early Experiments in Jazz The Nation’s Early Experiments in Jazz
When the magazine began covering jazz in the 1920s, it often struggled to catch the beat.
Jan 14, 2025 / Richard Kreitner
The Legacy of the British Legal System Continues to Inflict Misery in Sierra Leone The Legacy of the British Legal System Continues to Inflict Misery in Sierra Leone
Decades after independence, colonial-era laws have created a mass-incarceration crisis in Sierra Leone as poor citizens are thrown into prison for the smallest offenses.
Dec 19, 2024 / Feature / Mara Kardas-Nelson
Auctioning Off Judaism’s Past Auctioning Off Judaism’s Past
As the collections of Sir Moses Montefiore and David Solomon Sassoon go under the hammer today, what's the future for rare books and historic artifacts in the age of generative AI...
Dec 18, 2024 / David Brodsky
David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History
From his first book to his landmark account of the politics of the pre-WWI labor movement, Montgomery explored how people’s experiences of work shaped their political horizons.
Dec 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein
What Happened to the Democratic Party? What Happened to the Democratic Party?
The squalid state of our present political institutions points to a failure of not just individuals but the system as a whole.
Dec 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann
The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly The Peculiar Case of Ignatius Donnelly
The Minnesota politician presents a riddle for historians. He was a beloved populist but also a crackpot conspiracist. Were his politics tainted by his strange beliefs?
Dec 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Katzenstein
Can You Understand Ireland Through One Family’s Terrible Secret? Can You Understand Ireland Through One Family’s Terrible Secret?
In Missing Persons, Clair Wills's intimate story of institutionalized Irish women and children, shows how a family's history and a nation’s history run in parallel.
Dec 10, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Emily McBride
How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse
A talk with Dionne Brand about her recent book, Salvage, which looks at how the classic texts of Anglo-American fiction helped abet the crimes of capitalism, colonialism, and more...
Dec 5, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques
Along the Roads That Built Modern Brazil Along the Roads That Built Modern Brazil
José Henrique Bortoluci's What Is Mine tells the story of his country’s laborers, like his father, who built its infrastructure, and in turn its fractious politics.
Dec 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jimin Kang
The Long History of the "Elsewhere Museum" The Long History of the "Elsewhere Museum"
Can the ethnographic museum be reinvented?
Dec 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Farah Abdessamad