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
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