The Radical Life and Times of Crystal Eastman The Radical Life and Times of Crystal Eastman
A new biography reveals how the feminist, pacifist, labor activist, and socialist fused the best strains of American leftism into one.
Dec 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
A Queer Love Story That Does Away With the Male Gaze A Queer Love Story That Does Away With the Male Gaze
Set in 18th-century France, Céline Sciamma’s new film Portrait of a Lady on Fire finds a new way to chronicle a queer romance.
Dec 5, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
From ‘Diary’ From ‘Diary’
I hate this sweater but I’m too cold not to wear it as a metaphor for my career. My therapist says yes corporations take advantage of human beings’ ambitious nature. …
Dec 3, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Marisa Crawford
FKA Twigs, High Priestess of Pop Music’s Avant-Garde FKA Twigs, High Priestess of Pop Music’s Avant-Garde
Mixing sacred imagery and snatches of memoir, the British artist’s new album is Magdalene a beautiful and eerie statement.
Dec 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Julyssa Lopez
Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom
Charting the ironies of freedom won and lost during and after the Civil War, the American historian has also helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were alm...
Dec 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin
From ‘outside voices, please’ From ‘outside voices, please’
I grew drunk on the dragonflies’ ultra Three times I asked our misogynistic uncle, the family patriarch, for money for books for the girls to which he then scoffed drunkenly throwi…
Nov 19, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Valerie Hsiung
Ted Chiang’s Sci-Fi Goes Beyond the Promise of Technology Ted Chiang’s Sci-Fi Goes Beyond the Promise of Technology
In his short story collection Exhalation, he builds social worlds where every character and object is deeply intertwined in history and in future possibility.
Nov 19, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse
Mati Diop’s ‘Atlantics’ Is a Startling Study of Power Mati Diop’s ‘Atlantics’ Is a Startling Study of Power
As the contemporary film landscape heralds the coming of a class war, Diop’s beautiful movie reckons with capital and labor in groundbreaking fashion.
Nov 18, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Namwali Serpell
How Should We Remember the Puritans? How Should We Remember the Puritans?
In his new book, Daniel Rodgers not only offers a close reading of Puritan history but also seeks to rescue their early critique of market economy.
Nov 18, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Delbanco
David Maraniss’s Tale of Hope and Misfortune in Postwar America David Maraniss’s Tale of Hope and Misfortune in Postwar America
In A Good American Family, the journalist and editor examines his father and mother’s youthful idealism and the bitter years of McCarthyism that followed.
Nov 12, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Andrew J. Bacevich