Who Is Jack O’Dell? Who Is Jack O’Dell?
The career of Hunter Pitts O’Dell is a crucial episode in the hidden history of American radicalism.
Aug 11, 2014 / Books & the Arts / D.D. Guttenplan
Forty Years Later, Our ‘Long National Nightmare’ Is Far From Over Forty Years Later, Our ‘Long National Nightmare’ Is Far From Over
Watergate itself is “smoking gun” proof of that old axiom about the corruption of power.
Aug 5, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner
‘Gross Cruelty and Fraud’ in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Brief History ‘Gross Cruelty and Fraud’ in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Brief History
The quagmire of the Vietnam War was built on a “queasy foundation of fact and myth.”
Jul 31, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner and Back Issues
Spina’s Shadow Spina’s Shadow
“Darling, this is Alessandro Spina, who is trying to make Italians feel guilty about their colonial crimes.”
Jul 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / André Naffis-Sahely
The Corners The Corners
Where the question are you alright usually finds one very much not alright. Cellphone at the bus stop, cellophane, wind, Hasty Mart in its collar of pigeon spikes. With smokes in front of the sports bar, careerists mid-shift lit at dusk by the inner light of cheap bottles of domestic. Like payphones, cords have been cut that tied them to the world. Let me off here, the primary neighbourhood, I’ll walk the traffic’s bank, its decorative plantings and contradictory signage, the current, I can’t brave it. Fortunes approach right-angled in their vehicles of delivery, hearts beat quickly in anticipation or dread inspired by the landmarks. How long have I traveled here in these years of gentrification and not realized they’re gone—the inconvenient, inadequate, or taken for granted? The psychic welcomes no more walk-ins in this life. Time is short. Though a timeless sublegal entrepreneurial spirit flourishes over which laundromats preside geologically, with deep sighs, belying with the state of their drains their adjectives. No one can be alone like they can. Pedestrians, obey your signals. On the boulevard of a two-stage crossing he reads in her an imminent change in direction. We were here once, hand in hand at the intersection of the cardinal and ordinal, blessed with purpose, and the Star of Poland still in business.
Jul 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Karen Solie
Comforting Vacuums Comforting Vacuums
In Stories We Tell, actor turned director Sarah Polley interrogates her past, revealing that our stories are our dearest form of property.
Jul 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb
Little Boxes Little Boxes
Micro-apartments have become trendy in planning circles, but their austerity is just another limit on the aspirations of the poor.
Jul 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Michael Sorkin
In Our Orbit: A Tolerance for Ambiguity In Our Orbit: A Tolerance for Ambiguity
In The Good Spy, Kai Bird documents the life of CIA agent Robert Ames, a sincere and unlikely mediator in the Middle East.
Jul 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Cecilia D’Anastasio
Great War: The Insane and Familiar ‘War Madness’ of 1914 Great War: The Insane and Familiar ‘War Madness’ of 1914
"About nothing does the mob forget so quickly as about war."
Jul 28, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner
Blinded Me with Balance: How the US Media Get Science Coverage Wrong (& How They Can Get It Right) Blinded Me with Balance: How the US Media Get Science Coverage Wrong (& How They Can Get It Right)
Eric on this week's concerts and Reed on the media’s coverage of climate change.
Jul 21, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson