Books & the Arts

The Down Side of Thinking Positive The Down Side of Thinking Positive

Nation contributor Barbara Ehrenreich presents Bright Sided, her new book about the negative aspect of positive thinking.

Oct 23, 2009 / Books & the Arts / GRITtv

Cliff’s False Notes Cliff’s False Notes

Who was to blame for Clifford Irving's fake Howard Hughes autobiography? Irving, for sure, but don't forget the publishing industry.

Oct 22, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles Lam Markmann

British-Style Fakery British-Style Fakery

Thomas Chatterton was the balloon boy of eighteenth-century British literary circles.

Oct 22, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Horace Gregory

At Least, At Most: The Novels of Don Carpenter At Least, At Most: The Novels of Don Carpenter

With his plain, weather-beaten prose, Don Carpenter was a good enough novelist not to have to prove it.

Oct 21, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

A City Unbottled: Mary Beard’s Pompeii A City Unbottled: Mary Beard’s Pompeii

In The Fires of Vesuvius, Mary Beard unearths the seedier realities of the Roman social and political experience.

Oct 21, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Joy Connolly

A Makeshift World: On Thomas Demand A Makeshift World: On Thomas Demand

For the photographer Thomas Demand, Germany is like any other country because it is haunted by history.

Oct 21, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

A Witness to Total War A Witness to Total War

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the only neutral filmmaker in the country was Julien Bryan. His round-the-clock footage of Warsaw's destruction, assembled in Siege, is now aga...

Oct 21, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Eagan

Changing the Metaphor Changing the Metaphor

For Jackson Lears, the United States remains in thrall to a bogus spiritual quest born of a refusal to face the tragedy of the Civil War.

Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Richard White

Honey and Salt Honey and Salt

Technology has made us capable of exterminating ourselves. In The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood wonders what might save us.

Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

A Gift From the Ramparts of Capital… A Gift From the Ramparts of Capital…

People shouldn't take Peace Prizes too seriously except under those rare circumstances when a prize committee somewhere gets it right.

Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Cockburn

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