Books & the Arts

Bad Lessons From ‘Won’t Back Down’ Bad Lessons From ‘Won’t Back Down’

A crude and hackneyed film, Won't Back Down peddles an improbable and deceptive message about schools and poverty.

Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Dana Goldstein

A Tale of Two Zionisms: On Peter Beinart A Tale of Two Zionisms: On Peter Beinart

Why Israel’s purposes cannot be grasped only through the American Jewish experience.

Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Bernard Avishai

The Open The Open

Where even the shadow has light, there summer is spoken.   Where darkness speaks you— a word— you still say light.   Where the body is, you say convocation, absolute sun.   (translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Mayhew)

Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Andrés Sánchez Robyana

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and Sonu Shamdasani’s The Freud Files; E. James Lieberman and Robert Kramer, editors, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank

Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Elias Altman

Empire and Revolution: On Joshua Freeman Empire and Revolution: On Joshua Freeman

In a new history of postwar America, Joshua Freeman argues that policy changes occur because of pressure from the bottom up.

Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Thomas J. Sugrue

Brooklyn Book Festival, 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival, 2012

This Sunday's Brooklyn Book Festival is one of the country's most celebrated celebrations of books, reading and independent publishing.

Sep 19, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg

The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan

The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan

A new biography shows how the poet Robert Duncan fed a line backward into the labyrinthine history of human imagination.

Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Maureen F. McHugh's After the Apocalypse; Joshua Cohen's Four New Messages

Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier

Last Picture Shows: Film and Obsolescence Last Picture Shows: Film and Obsolescence

Until the final reel of celluloid is shot and projected, will every film’s primary subject be film itself?

Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb

Rat Bastard: On Bruce Conner Rat Bastard: On Bruce Conner

The shadows were the elective habitat of the artist Bruce Conner, who thought true knowledge was shrouded in secrecy.

Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

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