Books and Ideas

Faraway, So Close Faraway, So Close

In Five Germanys I Have Known--part memoir, part extended rumination on German-Jewish identity--Fritz Stern revisits his family's past and finds that he has never been quite at hom...

Dec 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Omer Bartov

Parasites of Plunder? Parasites of Plunder?

Hitler's Beneficiaries advances a controversial, deeply flawed argument that Germans failed to revolt against the Nazis because Hitler established a welfare state built on plunder.

Dec 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard J. Evans

A New Policy for Iraq A New Policy for Iraq

Why don't we just ask the wise men?

Dec 20, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin

A View From the Bridge A View From the Bridge

Hart Crane, one of America's greatest poets, relished the extremes that eventually destroyed him.

Dec 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Melanie Rehak

Waltzing With Warlords Waltzing With Warlords

Five years after the United States ousted the Taliban, optimism about Afghanistan's future is evaporating. Three new books shed light on what went wrong.

Dec 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Peter Bergen

Four Options That the Baker-Hamilton Report Offers to Those Prosecuting the War in Iraq Four Options That the Baker-Hamilton Report Offers to Those Prosecuting the War in Iraq

And each one has to do with getting the hell out.

Dec 14, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin

The Soviet Union, R.I.P.? The Soviet Union, R.I.P.?

The collapse of the Soviet Union was far from inevitable: A historic opportunity to democratize and marketize Russia by more gradual means was lost--and the people paid the price.

Dec 13, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stephen F. Cohen

Dictator Slays Millions in Last-Minute Push to Be Time’s Man of the Year Dictator Slays Millions in Last-Minute Push to Be Time’s Man of the Year

Myanmar's brutal ruler Than Shwe is angling for the honor.

Dec 9, 2006 / The Nation

2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: Eleanor Lerman 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: Eleanor Lerman

Eleanor Lerman's poems sing a song that is bravely gloomy, but they sing it with a fierce and earned dignity.

Dec 7, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Tony Hoagland

Uncle Tom’s Shadow Uncle Tom’s Shadow

The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin explores one of the most influential novels in American history.

Dec 7, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

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