Literary Criticism

Dev Hynes performing as Blood Orange.

Blood Orange’s Sonic Experiments Blood Orange’s Sonic Experiments

Dev Hynes moves between grief and joy in Essex Honey, his most personal album yet.

Dec 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Bijan Stephen

Seattle, Washington, 2022.

Organized Labor at a Crossroads Organized Labor at a Crossroads

How can unions adapt to a new landscape of work?

Dec 17, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Nelson Lichtenstein

Idi Amin in Kampala, 1975.

Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda

In his new book Slow Poison, the accomplished anthropologist revisits the Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni years.

Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Howard W. French

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Your Name Here dramatizes the tensions and possibilities of political art.

Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

A group welcomes Angelo Herndon to New York after his release on bail from the Georgia State Prison.

Angelo Herndon and the Radical Politics of Free Speech Angelo Herndon and the Radical Politics of Free Speech

The story ofhis landmark case reminds us of how powerful a popular front of socialists and liberals can be in protecting our civil liberties.

Nov 17, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Randall Kennedy

How Can We Fix American Democracy?

How Can We Fix American Democracy? How Can We Fix American Democracy?

Preserving our democracy is as urgent a task as ever, but the question is how.

Nov 11, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Nicholas Lemann

An engraving depicting a sansculottes offering a Phrygian cap to King Louis XVI.

The Invention of the Modern Self The Invention of the Modern Self

How did the idea of the individual come into being?

Nov 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs

Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.

Oct 20, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour

Walter Lippmann on the ocean liner Conte di Savoia.

Walter Lippmann’s Phantom Publics Walter Lippmann’s Phantom Publics

Arguably no American journalist wielded as much influence as Walter Lippmann did in the 20th century. But what did he do with that power?

Oct 15, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Howard

Donald Trump with construction workers at the Trump Palace.

How the Capitalism of the 1980s Created Donald Trump’s Theory of the State How the Capitalism of the 1980s Created Donald Trump’s Theory of the State

The proliferation of privately held companies during the Reagan years laid the foundations for Trump’s approach to government.

Oct 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein

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