Books and Ideas

Jazz Off the Record

Jazz Off the Record Jazz Off the Record

In the late 1960s, the recording industry lost interest in America’s greatest art form. But in a small, dark club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, jazz legends were ...

Jan 14, 2025 / Feature / Ethan Iverson

The Nation’s Early Experiments in Jazz

The Nation’s Early Experiments in Jazz The Nation’s Early Experiments in Jazz

When the magazine began covering jazz in the 1920s, it often struggled to catch the beat.

Jan 14, 2025 / Richard Kreitner

Nation Poetry

Leaving the Ruins Leaving the Ruins

Jan 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Peter Balakian

Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation

Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation

In his new book of poetry, […], the poet, translator, and ER doctor explores Palestinians’ experiences of exile and displacement—and the difficulty of healing amid the ongoing Nak...

Jan 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Hussein Omar

The Worlds of Noam Chomsky

The Worlds of Noam Chomsky The Worlds of Noam Chomsky

If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.

Jan 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bessner

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, United states President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Meacham Begin, celebrate after signing the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978.

Jimmy Carter’s Biographer on the Late President’s Biggest Regret Jimmy Carter’s Biographer on the Late President’s Biggest Regret

Carter summoned Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to Camp David to make peace, not apartheid, in the Middle East. But the Israeli president broke his promise to freeze settlements.

Jan 9, 2025 / Kai Bird

Theodor Adorno giving a lecture at the Goethe-Institut in Rome, 1969.

What Adorno Can Still Teach Us What Adorno Can Still Teach Us

A conversation with Peter Gordon about the enduring influence of the Frankfurt School's leader, the future of critical theory, and his recent book, A Precarious Happiness.

Jan 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

A postcard depicting Vienna in the future, 1905.

Adam Ehrlich Sachs’s Exhibitions of Absurdity Adam Ehrlich Sachs’s Exhibitions of Absurdity

In Gretel and the Great War, an antic epistolary novel set in early 20th-century Austria, the writer tries to make sense of a society gone mad.

Jan 8, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Walker Rutter-Bowman

Juan de la Corte's “The Fire of Troy,” found in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry? Why Is the Right Obsessed With Epic Poetry?

From Elon Musk to Jordan Peterson, a certain strand of conservatism has recruited the poetry of Homer and Dante in their culture war.

Jan 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Orlando Reade

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