Walter Benjamin Forever: A Critic’s Coveted Afterlife Walter Benjamin Forever: A Critic’s Coveted Afterlife
Following the quirky, revolutionary life path of one of the most celebrated twentieth-century intellectuals.
Oct 15, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Noah Isenberg
Rooted in Reconstruction: The First Wave of Black Congressmen Rooted in Reconstruction: The First Wave of Black Congressmen
Without the courage of the forgotten black legislators of the Reconstruction era, it would be impossible for a black man today to run for president.
Oct 15, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
Collateral Damage: Reporting the War in Iraq Collateral Damage: Reporting the War in Iraq
Three new books vividly portray the devastating impact of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Oct 15, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Chris Toensing
This Town Is Going Out of Business This Town Is Going Out of Business
[This town is going out of business that I call my brain] [the public space of my head got suburbed] [the heaven-heaped core of capital-] [ized stars is empty now as sleep is full] [of new words for new feelings like infrastructure-] [nostalgia or love-outside-the- citadel] [the past tense is tragedy while the present tense is comedy] [as all the empires and epochs have ended] [but for this one and then only out here] [in the late districts of the imagination] [in the old light of our pretty periphery]
Oct 15, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover
The Kingston Trio and the Red Scare The Kingston Trio and the Red Scare
The death of Nick Reynolds, one of the Kingston Trio, last week at 75, provoked fond memories of one era and painful reminders of another.
Oct 14, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Peter Dreier and Jim Vrabel
Civic Virtues: Gore Vidal’s Selected Essays Civic Virtues: Gore Vidal’s Selected Essays
A new collection of Gore Vidal's essays showcases five decades of literary and political criticism, with his mocking, disenchanted patriotism in all its eloquence.
Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / George Scialabba
Lords of Misrule: Thomas Frank Takes on the GOP Lords of Misrule: Thomas Frank Takes on the GOP
On the campaign trail, they're culture warriors; once in office, conservatives just follow the money.
Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Jefferson Decker
Credenzas of Fragmentation: Lobo Antunes’s Decadent Despair Credenzas of Fragmentation: Lobo Antunes’s Decadent Despair
In António Lobo Antunes's new novel, a lost boy despairs of finding a real family in the wasteland of his past.
Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer
Panoramas: ’24 City,’ ‘Ashes of Time Redux,’ ‘Happy-Go-Lucky Panoramas: ’24 City,’ ‘Ashes of Time Redux,’ ‘Happy-Go-Lucky
24 City and Ashes of Time Redux, two stars of the New York Film Festival; plus Happy-Go-Lucky and Ballast reviewed.
Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Prison Poem: “You stripped away the sea… #11” Prison Poem: “You stripped away the sea… #11”
After stripping me of the seas, a scattering & running start, And giving me instead a foothold of violent earth, What'd it get you? A brilliant retribution: You couldn't seize these lips still stirring. (Translated from the Russian by John High)
Oct 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Osip Mandelstam