Books and Ideas

President Jonah President Jonah

As his State of the Union message approaches, we deserve a rest from the fundamentalist presidency of G.W. Bush, whose guiding principles are antithetical to democracy and will onl...

Jan 25, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Gore Vidal

Cesar’s Ghost Cesar’s Ghost

Cesar, who was always good at symbols, saved his best for last: a simple pine box, fashioned by his brother's hands, carried unceremoniously through the Central Valley town he made...

Jan 21, 2006 / Feature / Frank Bardacke

Just Us Just Us

Three books examine American history through the scope of racism and racial identity.

Jan 19, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Oshinsky

Pity the Region Pity the Region

Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilization criticizes a self-righteous US foreign policy oblivious to the power of retributive justice in the Middle East.

Jan 19, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Augustus Richard Norton

The Cost of Integrity The Cost of Integrity

The recent controversy over false claims in James Frey's The recent controversy over false claims in James Frey's best-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces" raises questions abo...

Jan 13, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kluger

In Her Mind’s Eye In Her Mind’s Eye

Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism is a political classic trapped in the era in which it was written.

Jan 11, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Rée

Easier Said Than Done Easier Said Than Done

Kwame Anthony Appiah's Cosmopolitanism explores the middle ground between the universal laws of liberalism and relativism's blind respect for all differences.

Jan 11, 2006 / Books & the Arts / John Gray

Harry Magdoff Harry Magdoff

The late socialist economist Harry Magdoff read Marx at fifteen and never looked back. A self-educated co-editor of the Monthly Review, he not only fought for a just and humane wor...

Jan 5, 2006 / Books & the Arts / The Nation

Of Queers and Kong Of Queers and Kong

From Brokeback Mountain's closeted cowboys to King Kong's embrace of Anne Darrow, Hollywood has queered cherished icons of masculinity. But the two films paint a bleak picture: Lov...

Jan 5, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard Goldstein

La Vie de Bohème La Vie de Bohème

Drawing from the New York counterculture in which he immersed himself, Ted Berrigan's sonnets and other poems sing beautifully about being broken and graceful and tough.

Jan 4, 2006 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella

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