Books & the Arts

How Saidiya Hartman Changed the Study of Black Life

How Saidiya Hartman Changed the Study of Black Life How Saidiya Hartman Changed the Study of Black Life

A conversation with writer about her pathbreaking book Scenes of Subjection and how our understanding of race has changed in the last two decades. 

Nov 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

The Civil War’s Economic Shadow

The Civil War’s Economic Shadow The Civil War’s Economic Shadow

To finance the war, the Union had to turn to the banks, and with lasting consequences.

Nov 2, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie McCurry

Photo diagram from the Bruno Hauptman trial.

How the Courts Stack the Odds Against the Innocent How the Courts Stack the Odds Against the Innocent

A new book by Daniel Medwed examines the reasons the wrongfully convicted find it so hard to prove their innocence.

Nov 1, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jed S. Rakoff

Nation Poetry

Mama I Am Sorry Mama I Am Sorry

For the stillbirth and the live ones. For my books, degrees, and all the other1 ways I have betrayed you. For unlinking our arms a dozen times the year before2 your surgery, unconv…

Nov 1, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Cindy Juyoung Ok

Nation Poetry

First Foray Into Apophatic Theology First Foray Into Apophatic Theology

and then God is not like the sound the kindling makes as it meets the matchhead, not like the buoy in the bay invisible at night, not like the gravity calling to the pear on the bo…

Nov 1, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Matthew Olzammn

Javier Zamora and the Canon of Undocumented Literature

Javier Zamora and the Canon of Undocumented Literature Javier Zamora and the Canon of Undocumented Literature

The poet’s memoir joins a growing body of work chronicling the personal and political odysseys undocumented Americans face. 

Oct 31, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jesús A. Rodríguez

How Useful Is Theory In Moments of Crisis?

How Useful Is Theory In Moments of Crisis? How Useful Is Theory In Moments of Crisis?

A conversation with sociologist Dylan Riley about the state of left politics, defending social theory as a political tool, and his new book Microverses.

Oct 28, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ishan Desai-Geller

The Shadows of Stanley Cavell

The Shadows of Stanley Cavell The Shadows of Stanley Cavell

A posthumous collection of essays, Here and Now: Sites of Philosophy, reveals both what was insightful and what was profoundly lacking in the project of ordinary language philosoph...

Oct 27, 2022 / Books & the Arts / John-Baptiste Oduor

Peter Schjeldahl, 2008

Schjeldahl’s Art Schjeldahl’s Art

At a time when art criticism was becoming more and more scholastic in tone, Peter Schjeldahl proudly upheld the banner of belletristic criticism.

Oct 26, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

The Hidden Politics of Smell

The Hidden Politics of Smell The Hidden Politics of Smell

In Sensorium, a book by the perfumer Tanaïs, tells a deeply personal story of scent and the role it played in colonial histories.

Oct 25, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Naib Mian

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