Books and Ideas

A screenshot from a 2011 interview with James C. Scott.

James C. Scott, the Ambivalent Anarchist James C. Scott, the Ambivalent Anarchist

The radical anthropologist offered not only incisive studies of the state but also a vision of what life looked like beyond it.

Sep 5, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Ben Mauk

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, enjoy music by members of the marching band at Liberty County High School in Hinesville, Georgia, August 28, 2024, as they travel across the state on a two-day campaign bus tour.

The Democrats Are Finally Running a Teacher. What Took Them So Long? The Democrats Are Finally Running a Teacher. What Took Them So Long?

After decades of serving as a punching bag for the party’s neoliberals, public schools and the people who work in them are back in fashion.

Sep 3, 2024 / Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider

Assassination Nation

Assassination Nation Assassination Nation

The Nation magazine was founded in the startled wake of Abraham Lincoln’s murder—the first presidential assassination in the country. It wouldn’t be the last.

Sep 3, 2024 / Richard Kreitner

Lessons of a Weimar Anti-Fascist in Palestine

Lessons of a Weimar Anti-Fascist in Palestine Lessons of a Weimar Anti-Fascist in Palestine

After my father fled Nazi Germany in 1933, he witnessed a toxic new nationalism rising among Jews in Palestine—and was silenced for trying to warn of its dangers.

Sep 3, 2024 / Feature / Barry Yourgrau

White Backlash

White Backlash White Backlash

Desecration day.

Aug 30, 2024 / Steve Brodner

Two women stand in uniform with their hands behind their back.

Why We Should Honor the Chicano Moratorium Against the War Why We Should Honor the Chicano Moratorium Against the War

On this date 54 years ago, the largest ethnically focussed action in the movement against the Vietnam War took place—offering an important example of the power of a people united....

Aug 29, 2024 / Bill Gallegos

Former Republican presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump shake hands during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona.

By His Endorsement of Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Shows the Dark Side of Camelot By His Endorsement of Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Shows the Dark Side of Camelot

The complex Kennedy legacy has reactionary as well as liberal strands.

Aug 28, 2024 / Jeet Heer

Natasha Trethewey’s Life in Poetry and Prose

Natasha Trethewey’s Life in Poetry and Prose Natasha Trethewey’s Life in Poetry and Prose

A work of biography, an essay on literature and memory and the South, a prose poem full of lyrical dexterity, Trethewey's latest book is like all of her others: a master study of ...

Aug 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Edna Bonhomme

The Genius of Garth Greenwell

The Genius of Garth Greenwell The Genius of Garth Greenwell

Set abroad or at home, in unfamiliar worlds an ocean away or in an intensive care unit in Iowa, Greenwell's novels are songs of the self and of the United States as a whole.

Aug 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold

Buffy (Darren Robinson) of the Fat Boys in Chicago, 1985.

Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop

An elegiac retelling of rap's origins, Hip-Hop Is History also ends with a sense of hope.

Aug 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Bijan Stephen

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