Countervailing Powers: On John Kenneth Galbraith Countervailing Powers: On John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith was a satirist of economics as much as a practitioner of it.
May 11, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein
In Our Orbit: Desolation Peaks In Our Orbit: Desolation Peaks
In Fire Season Philip Connors offers a tribute to the life of solitude he leads as a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest.
May 11, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Judith Long
Nation Readers’ Top Ten Protest Songs: Part #2 Nation Readers’ Top Ten Protest Songs: Part #2
An incomplete list.
May 10, 2011 / Books & the Arts / The Nation
Osama bin Laden Has Been Killed Osama bin Laden Has Been Killed
All cheered as the president said it. ’Midst cheering, though, some folks said, “Let it Be quite clear right now That some way, somehow, The Donald will try to claim credit.”
May 4, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin
Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education
The exploitation of contingent labor, a shrinking middle class, administrative elephantiasis: the turmoil in academia is a microcosm of American society as a whole.
May 4, 2011 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Ode Ode
Blue jay vocalizes a clash on the color wheel, tulip heads removed one by one with a golf wedge. It’s something in the frequency. Expectations are high. There’s a reason they call it the nervous system. Someone in bed at 11 AM impersonates an empty house. Dear god. The sharpener’s dragged his cart from the shed. His bell rings out of the twelfth century to a neighborhood traumatizing its food with dull knives. A hammer creeps to the edge of a reno and peers over. Inching up its pole, a tentative flag. What is the source? Oh spring, my heart is in my mouth.
May 4, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Karen Solie
Margins of Modernism: A New Historicism in Art Margins of Modernism: A New Historicism in Art
In the paintings of Silke Otto-Knapp and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, there's an unending entanglement, and dialogue, between the present and the past.
May 4, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Tony Kushner’s Intelligent Homosexuals Tony Kushner’s Intelligent Homosexuals
Without turning into sentimental left-wing pageantry, Kushner’s new play illuminates radicalism and makes art of sectarian dreams and failures.
Apr 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Margaret Spillane
Talking With W.S. Merwin Talking With W.S. Merwin
The Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress talks about spontaneous demonstrations, his hope for poetry, and why he doesn't read criticism anymore.
Apr 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jordan Davis
Islam’s Nonviolent Tradition Islam’s Nonviolent Tradition
History is replete with peaceful role models like the “Frontier Gandhi” of colonial India.
Apr 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Michael Shank