Books and Ideas

Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories

Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories

Can one tell the story of a country through one family?

Aug 23, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Coup Chile

The Distortions of Pinochet The Distortions of Pinochet

Nona Fernández’s novels reckon with the Chilean dictatorship through surreality and memory.

Aug 19, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lucas Iberico Lozada

California venice beach

Sandi Tan’s Magical Americana Sandi Tan’s Magical Americana

Her new novel, Lurkers, captures the defiant and surreal exuberance that has defined her work across fiction and film.

Aug 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rebecca Liu

Smog In Los Angeles

Mythos and Cliché: The Fractured History of Los Angeles Mythos and Cliché: The Fractured History of Los Angeles

Learning from and reckoning with the stories writers tell about a world-historical city. 

Aug 17, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf

Art and Exile in the Third Republic

Art and Exile in the Third Republic Art and Exile in the Third Republic

James McAuley’s The House of Fragile Things examines the travails of a circle of Jewish art collectors, tracing a history of betrayal and dispossession.

Aug 16, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Stamler

Talking Radical Media With Noam Chomsky

Talking Radical Media With Noam Chomsky Talking Radical Media With Noam Chomsky

The 92-year-old leftist sees meaningful progress in news coverage.

Aug 13, 2021 / Q&A / Victor Pickard

Stop the Steal rally

The Long History of American Cruelty The Long History of American Cruelty

A conversation with Adam Serwer about the ideological roots of Trumpism, the failures of the Reconstruction era, and his new book, The Cruelty Is the Point.

Aug 12, 2021 / Q&A / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Democracy’s Money Problem

Democracy’s Money Problem Democracy’s Money Problem

Comparing democracies across the world, a new book reveals that when it comes to financing elections they are not that democratic at all. 

Aug 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jan-Werner Müller

Seeing the Climate Crisis Through the Eyes of Henry Thoreau

Seeing the Climate Crisis Through the Eyes of Henry Thoreau Seeing the Climate Crisis Through the Eyes of Henry Thoreau

“I walk toward one of our ponds,” Thoreau wrote in “Slavery in Massachusetts,” “but what signifies the beauty of nature when men are base?”

Aug 11, 2021 / Feature / Wen Stephenson

College student gets a Covid vaccine

Unintended Consequences Unintended Consequences

Republicans object to masks While going about their daily tasks. To rule that folks must vaccinate, They say, makes this a Nazi state. The surges now are all located Among those pr…

Aug 10, 2021 / Column / Calvin Trillin

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