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
“To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor “To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor
A recent book on her career in publishing makes the case that the great American novelist should also be seen as a pathbreaking editor.
Oct 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire
The Story of America Can Be Found on the Banks of the Rio Grande The Story of America Can Be Found on the Banks of the Rio Grande
Richard Parker’s love letter to El Paso, The Crossing, argues that the Texas city can illustrate the best and the worst of the nation’s history.
Aug 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kyle Paoletta
Before Sebald Was Great Before Sebald Was Great
By looking at his early work, we can better understand who the German writer was beyond his persona as the melancholy intellectual and serious man of letters.
Jul 28, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
Want to Understand Global Inequality? Visit the Dump. Want to Understand Global Inequality? Visit the Dump.
Alexander Clapp’s Waste Wars, a world-spanning inquiry into the politics of garbage, makes a case that everything that is wrong with capitalism is embodied in our trash.
Jul 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Carol Schaeffer
The Wild Lives of Cargo Ships The Wild Lives of Cargo Ships
A capacious new history examines the remaking of the the global economy through the story a single barge.
Jun 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
A Generation of Injustice at Tyson Foods A Generation of Injustice at Tyson Foods
Alice Driver’s Life and Death of the American Worker, an intimate look at a processing plant in Arkansas, exposes the inhumanity of a workplace and how workers fought back.
Jun 5, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Caroline Tracey
When It Comes to Building New Housing, “Abundance” Is More Like Avoidance When It Comes to Building New Housing, “Abundance” Is More Like Avoidance
Neither Klein and Thompson nor many of their critics on the left offer a robust strategy for actually building affordable homes. Here’s one that has been proven to work.
May 7, 2025 / Mike Gecan
Feminism Against Itself Feminism Against Itself
Sophie Lewis grapples with the ways the feminist movement has harbored prejudices and abetted wrongdoing in Enemy Feminisims.
Mar 27, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Grace Byron
The Art of Separating: A Conversation With Haley Mlotek The Art of Separating: A Conversation With Haley Mlotek
The Nation spoke with the author No Fault, a genre-bending examination of marriage and divorce that is one-part cultural history and one-part memoir.
Mar 24, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gracie Hadland