Books & the Arts

Was Communism Reformable? Was Communism Reformable?

Never in history until the Soviet Union collapsed eight years ago had a great empire gone through such cataclysmic changes and accepted such staggering territorial losses without...

Dec 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Robert V. Daniels

What Price, Palestine? What Price, Palestine?

The plan to take Israeli athletes hostage during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games was conceived at a cafe on the Piazza della Rotonda in Rome, in the shadow of the Pantheon and the ...

Dec 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Michael Young

Lord High Executioners Lord High Executioners

He looks like a pear that's going bad. Tall, corpulent and much the worse for gravity, W.S.

Dec 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

‘Rock’ in a Hard Place ‘Rock’ in a Hard Place

Not since Charlton Heston painted the Sistine Chapel has there been so epic a film about arts patronage as Cradle Will Rock. Heston, you will recall, had to cope only with the Va...

Dec 9, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Exploding Plastic Inevitable Exploding Plastic Inevitable

The fifties may have been the last great moment when Americans entrusted their dreams of transformation to the material world.

Dec 9, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Joanne Jacobson

Kosovo: On Ends and Means Kosovo: On Ends and Means

The spectacle of human beings acting out mindless violence through pack behavior instills more terror in the heart than perhaps any other event in the natural world.

Dec 9, 1999 / Books & the Arts / George Kenney

Stop-Time in the Levant Stop-Time in the Levant

It is remarkable to what extent almost anything having to do with the Middle East in this country--be it political, cultural, historical or even personal--is permeated by the tri...

Dec 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Ammiel Alcalay

Algren’s Question Algren’s Question

He would hang his coat neatly over the back of his chair in the leaden station-house twilight, say he was beat from lack of sleep and lay his head across his arms upon the query-...

Dec 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Dan Simon

Algren Speaks Algren Speaks

Dear Joe,

Dec 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Nelson Algren

Back to Beginnings Back to Beginnings

Cheick Oumar Sissoko, who lives and works in Mali, has looked around and noticed that his fellow filmmakers in sub-Saharan Africa are few--"and due to our financial need (great w...

Dec 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

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