Books & the Arts

Changing History Changing History

Editor's Note: One year after the attacks, Eric Foner assessed the impact of 9/11 on the way America tells the story of itself and readjusts its relationship with the world. ...

Sep 5, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

Book Reviewing, African-American Style Book Reviewing, African-American Style

On April 14, my review of Maya Angelou's A Song Flung Up to Heaven appeared in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. I finally assessed the book thusly: In writing that is bad to ...

Aug 29, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Wanda Coleman

Mitchell Paints a Picture Mitchell Paints a Picture

In Empire Falls, Richard Russo’s neo-Dickensian novel of a dying mill-town in central Maine, the high school art teacher is portrayed as something of a soul-killer. Indiffere…

Aug 29, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Auteur, Auteur! Auteur, Auteur!

The streets of lower Manhattan are deserted--also spotlessly clean and glowing in the light of the golden hour--when the studio head takes the movie director outside to tell hi...

Aug 29, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Hey, He’s Bruce Hey, He’s Bruce

When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, reunited to tour behind The Rising, came to Madison Square Garden on August 12, they juxtaposed "41 Shots," Springsteen's powerful so...

Aug 29, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro

In Cold Type In Cold Type

As summer winds down, retreats and vacations come to an end (no more toasted marshmallows) and regular life begins again, with everyday chores like buying new shoes for childre...

Aug 29, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Amy Wilentz

What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?

THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK. By Stephen L. Carter. Knopf. 657 pp. $26.95.

Aug 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener

The Mayor of My Hometown The Mayor of My Hometown

It's only August, but I'll go out on a limb and congratulate the Village Voice's Keith Harris for what I feel confident will stand the test of time as the stupidest comment of ...

Aug 15, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman

Gilded Age II Gilded Age II

How did it all start? What triggered the 1990s political corruption, its inequality in wealth and its stock market bubble? This is the decade that Kevin Phillips rails against in ...

Aug 15, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Alice H. Amsden

Mary McCarthy at 90 Mary McCarthy at 90

Mary McCarthy would have turned 90 on June 21, a fact that is itself astonishing to those who remember her flagrant youth, when her sharp style made her the most feared and forthri...

Aug 15, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Morris Dickstein

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