Books & the Arts

The Politics of Speech on the American Campus The Politics of Speech on the American Campus

Freedom of speech on campuses has long been under attack, but now more than ever.

Books & the Arts / Bruce Robbins

Sally Rooney’s Open Question Sally Rooney’s Open Question

In Intermezzo, we get characters acting out their political commitments instead of just talking about them. But is their vision of domestic cooperation enough?

Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump

A new film examines Trump’s formative years under the tutelage of Roy Cohn.

Books & the Arts / David Klion

From the Magazine

A depiction of the Broadway Linear Park from 32nd Street in Manhattan.

Can New York’s Most Famous Street be Turned into a Park? Can New York’s Most Famous Street be Turned into a Park?

The effort to transform Broadway into a pedestrian space.

Books & the Arts / Karrie Jacobs

A crowd outside Minneapolis’s Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank during an economic crisis in May 1893.

The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance

The deep roots of debt relief activism in the United States.

Books & the Arts / Astra Taylor

The Rise of the Influencer Chefs

The Rise of the Influencer Chefs The Rise of the Influencer Chefs

How a new generation of food TV on Tiktok and Instagram is remaking how we relate to cooking and eating.

Books & the Arts / Aaron Timms

Literary Criticism

The Myths of Anne Carson

The Myths of Anne Carson The Myths of Anne Carson

Throughout her long and prolific career, Carson has specialized in unexpected juxtapositions between modern life and ancient times, contemporary art and the literature of the…

Books & the Arts / Emily Wilson

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Having gnawed away at literary and political conventions from within their hallowed forms, Senna has now set her eyes on Hollywood.

Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

The Enduring Influence of Marx’s Masterpiece

The Enduring Influence of Marx’s Masterpiece The Enduring Influence of Marx’s Masterpiece

No book has done more than Capital to explain the way the world works.

Books & the Arts / Wendy Brown

History & Politics

New York Stock Exchange, 1895.

The Surprising Origins and Politics of Equality The Surprising Origins and Politics of Equality

A series of new books unearth the long history of egalitarian politics. They also ask whether equality, instead of another political ideal, should be at the center of our politics…

Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn

What Happened to the Democratic Majority?

What Happened to the Democratic Majority? What Happened to the Democratic Majority?

Today the march of class dealignment feels like an inexorable fact of American political life. But is it?

Books & the Arts / Matthew Karp

Then–US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifying before the Senate Budget Committee in 2009.

The Intractable Puzzle of Growth The Intractable Puzzle of Growth

For more than a century, the key measure of a healthy economy has been its capacity to grow and yet if production and consumption continues to expand at their current rate we migh…

Books & the Arts / Benjamin Kunkel

Art & Architecture

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s “Zion, Her Mother Shea, and Her Grandfather Mr. Smiley Riding on Their Tennessee Walking Horses, Mares, P.T. (P.T.’s Miss One of a Kind), Dolly (Secretly), and Blue (Blue’s Royal Threat), Newton, Mississippi.”

LaToya Ruby Frazier Rewrites the Rules of Documentary Photography LaToya Ruby Frazier Rewrites the Rules of Documentary Photography

A new career survey at the MoMA is a perfect illustration of the photographer’s mission: to reframe how viewers see the working-class and low-income people whom she counts as kin….

Books & the Arts / Jillian Steinhauer

Central Park Tower, One57, and 111 West 57th Street, 2022.

What’s the Deal With Manhattan’s Pencil-Thin High Rises? What’s the Deal With Manhattan’s Pencil-Thin High Rises?

A walk along 57th Street.

Books & the Arts / Karrie Jacobs

From “Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery to Reconstruction,” Aaron Douglas (1934).

The Cosmopolitan Modernism of the Harlem Renaissance The Cosmopolitan Modernism of the Harlem Renaissance

A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the world-spanning art of the Harlem Renaissance.

Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

Film & Television

Gary Oldman, Rosalind Eleazar, and Dustin Demri-Burns in “Slow Horses.”

The Ornery Intrigues of “Slow Horses” The Ornery Intrigues of “Slow Horses”

Emblematic of post–prestige television drama, AppleTV+’s spy thriller relies on the dyspeptic repartee and verbal sparring instead of sophisticated plot twists.

Books & the Arts / Jorge Cotte

Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina and Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine in “Megalopolis”.

The Empty Promise of “Megalopolis” The Empty Promise of “Megalopolis”

Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited magnum opus is a flop.

Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Ken Leung in “Industry.”

“Industry”’s Gleeful Critique of Capital “Industry”’s Gleeful Critique of Capital

HBO’s investment banking drama makes a soap opera out of the “useless” but lurid nature of finance.

Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi

Latest in Books & the Arts

An African American family seated in a convertible, 1972.

The Perils of a Post-Racial Utopia The Perils of a Post-Racial Utopia

In Nicola Yoon’s One of Our Kind, a dystopian novel of a Black upper-class suburb’s secrets, she examines the dangers of choosing exceptionalism over equality.

Nov 21, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Skeletons used in a museum in Amsterdam. They are posed in various positions for working; sawing wood, doing housework, carrying planks, office work, etc.

Why Americans Are Obsessed With Poor Posture Why Americans Are Obsessed With Poor Posture

A recent history of the 20th-century movement to fix slouching questions the moral and political dimensions of addressing bad backs over wider public health concerns.

Nov 20, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Zoe Adams

A detail of a painting by Thomas Nast.

Slavery in an Age of Emancipation Slavery in an Age of Emancipation

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.

Nov 19, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Manisha Sinha

The German reformer Thomas Muntzer (1491–1525) and his people during the German Peasants' War (1524–25). Colored engraving. 19th century.

Thomas Müntzer’s Misunderstood Revolution Thomas Müntzer’s Misunderstood Revolution

A recent biography of the German preacher and leader of the Peasants’s War examines what remains radical about the short-lived rebellion he led.

Nov 19, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Matt Broomfield

Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play?

Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play? Is It Possible to Suspend Disbelief at Ayad Akhtar’s AI  Play?

The Robert Downey Jr.–starring McNeal, which was possibly cowritten with the help of AI, is a showcase for the new technology’s mediocrity.

Nov 14, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Rhoda Feng

Possibility, Force, and BDSM: A Conversation With Chris Kraus and Anna Poletti

Possibility, Force, and BDSM: A Conversation With Chris Kraus and Anna Poletti Possibility, Force, and BDSM: A Conversation With Chris Kraus and Anna Poletti

The two writers discuss the challenges of writing about sex, loneliness, and the new ways novels can tackle BDSM.

Nov 13, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Chris Kraus

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