Books & the Arts

Woody at 100 Woody at 100

Woody Guthrie's influence was as profoundly felt as any musician in US, and perhaps world, history.

Jul 11, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg

The Great Disparity

The Great Disparity The Great Disparity

Timothy Noah and Charles Murray offer starkly different explanations of growing economic and social inequality in the United States.

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / William Julius Wilson

Flow Dynamics Flow Dynamics

So lightly and invisibly I hardly knew it,   river of blood descending without joy back to the heart through the frail vein all that time   —the largest of the body—   shredded then dissolved (“obliterated”) and there was a   sudden seepage into the surrounding tissue   instead of the blood pouring out as you’d expect forever before a new vein formed   to bypass what was gone like a wide meander   even the smallest flood ends, and the river goes straight from that point.   But in my case the thin-walled base-ends held   forming an anabranch, a section that diverts from the main channel,   rejoins it downstream.   Local ones can come from, make small islands in the watercourse or flow hundreds of miles   like the Bahr el Zeref in the south Sudan   that splits from the Bahr al Jabal of the White Nile, doesn’t return until Malakal   instead of leaving behind, as it could have   with the blood being old, a full-fledged oxbow lake, a little blue   scar beside the heart.

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Elizabeth Arnold

Freedom Deferred: On Stephen Kantrowitz Freedom Deferred: On Stephen Kantrowitz

How social equality was used to discredit the egalitarian project of Reconstruction.

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

The Good European: On Jürgen Habermas The Good European: On Jürgen Habermas

German “ordoliberalism” and Eurocrats have the EU on the brink, but Germany’s most famous philosopher remains optimistic about European democracy.

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Anson Rabinbach

Of Time and Intensity Of Time and Intensity

Is Time a dispersion of intensity? For epiphanists, maybe, but not for me— for whom Time is a transposition of immensity into a lower key.

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter Cole

Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney: Together at Last Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney: Together at Last

There’s a new Disney exhibit at the Reagan library. But what are drawings of Bambi and Cinderella doing in the National Archives?

Jul 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener

Tweet Beat: The Top Ten Best Republican Songs Tweet Beat: The Top Ten Best Republican Songs

Twitter brings you the the best Republican songs you've never heard of. 

Jul 9, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Katie Halper

Independence for Indy Publisher Chelsea Green Independence for Indy Publisher Chelsea Green

Chelsea Green employees celebrated July 4th this year, not only independent but as brand-new employee-owners of their company.

Jul 4, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Laura Flanders

Extreme Eccentrics: Modern Art and its Collectors

Extreme Eccentrics: Modern Art and its Collectors Extreme Eccentrics: Modern Art and its Collectors

When collecting works of avant-garde art, Albert Barnes and Leo and Gertrude Stein seemed even madder than its makers.

Jun 25, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

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