Books and Ideas

The Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy, Editor of the ‘Alton Observer,’ Dies at the Hands of a Pro-Slavery Mob, Alton, Illinois (1837)

The Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy, Editor of the ‘Alton Observer,’ Dies at the Hands of a Pro-Slavery Mob, Alton, Illinois (1837) The Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy, Editor of the ‘Alton Observer,’ Dies at the Hands of a Pro-Slavery Mob, Alton, Illinois (1837)

Christ’s editor becomes Christ’s martyr: band the newspaper columns black for Elijah P. Lovejoy, who fired back. They threw his first three presses into the river. They came with g…

Oct 18, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Melissa Range

Trump Kim hand on back

Donald ❤ Kim Donald ❤ Kim

Trump now says he’s in love with Kim Jong-un. In that seduction, Kim Jong-un was speedy. Some ego-stroking letters did the trick. It’s really simple when a man’s that needy.

Oct 18, 2018 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Hubert Humphrey and the Unmaking of Cold War Liberalism

Hubert Humphrey and the Unmaking of Cold War Liberalism Hubert Humphrey and the Unmaking of Cold War Liberalism

A new biography captures how the Minnesota senator and vice president was poised to be liberalism’s conscience but instead played a role in its downfall.

Oct 18, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin

RaMell Ross’s Beautifully Unsentimental Meditation on Southern Life

RaMell Ross’s Beautifully Unsentimental Meditation on Southern Life RaMell Ross’s Beautifully Unsentimental Meditation on Southern Life

Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a probing and intimate documentary about life in today’s rural Alabama.

Oct 18, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Ben Rhodes and the Crisis of Liberal Foreign Policy

Ben Rhodes and the Crisis of Liberal Foreign Policy Ben Rhodes and the Crisis of Liberal Foreign Policy

Obama and his speechwriter and national-security adviser set out to break from the foreign-policy establishment; instead, they found themselves absorbed by it.

Oct 17, 2018 / Books & the Arts / David Klion

Tom Tomorrow cartoon

How to Convince Conservatives That a Scientific Discovery Might Just Kill Us All How to Convince Conservatives That a Scientific Discovery Might Just Kill Us All

Step 1: You can't.

Oct 16, 2018 / Tom Tomorrow

Julius Caesar

How Latin Got Woke How Latin Got Woke

Latin has long been the domain of dead white men. Today, a new cadre of scholars is trying to take it back.

Oct 12, 2018 / StudentNation / Lisa De Bode

The FBI/White House Supplemental Background Check on Brett Kavanaugh

The FBI/White House Supplemental Background Check on Brett Kavanaugh The FBI/White House Supplemental Background Check on Brett Kavanaugh

If the Federal Bureau had been no more thorough Than that when it was in charge, All the federal pens would have cell blocks left empty, And Dillinger’d still be at large.

Oct 11, 2018 / Column / Calvin Trillin

The Magic of Helen DeWitt

The Magic of Helen DeWitt The Magic of Helen DeWitt

In the world of Some Trick, the best words are so acute they lacerate.

Oct 11, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld

One Thousand Years of Labor

One Thousand Years of Labor One Thousand Years of Labor

Andrea Komlosy’s new history traces our evolving notions of work and how what we do is ultimately also about what we owe one another.

Oct 10, 2018 / Books & the Arts / Gabriel Winant

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