Books and Ideas

Dangerous Liaisons Dangerous Liaisons

He says he is not a fighter--or rather, the narrator says it; he's "an onlooker," someone who steps aside, "frail," "not the savior of the world," not a "prophet," speaking onl...

Apr 3, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Joseph McElroy

Respectfully Yours Respectfully Yours

Richard Sennett is best known in the United States for his 1972 book (written with Jonathan Cobb), The Hidden Injuries of Class. That study of white working-class men, how they...

Mar 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Linda Gordon

To the Unfinished To the Unfinished

Clear eminence without whom I would be nothing oh great provision never seen barely acknowledged even wished away

Mar 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / W.S. Merwin

A Stone Unturned A Stone Unturned

Someone once described Graham Greene as the novelist of decolonizing Britain.

Mar 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith

The Tragedy of William O. Douglas The Tragedy of William O. Douglas

William O. Douglas was a judicial record-setter.

Mar 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / David J. Garrow

What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?

There's no better antidote to orange alerts and duct-tape dictums than good fiction, and if the terrorists occupying the White House have shot your attention span, try a book of ...

Mar 25, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Judith Long

Germline Warfare Germline Warfare

A most remarkable event occurred in the weeks preceding the June 2000 announcement of the completion of the first draft of the human genome DNA code: One of the leaders of the ...

Mar 20, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Ralph Brave

Against the Genetic Grain Against the Genetic Grain

I first heard of Jon Beckwith in the mid-1970s, in a question framed by my genetics professor: Why would anyone willfully disrupt a research program designed to collect useful ...

Mar 20, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Marks

Around the World in 80 Ways Around the World in 80 Ways

In about five years' time, there will be a new Paul Theroux travel book, and it will look like this.

Mar 13, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Eric Weinberger

War and Remembrance War and Remembrance

In a provocative book published recently in Germany, a Hamburg scholar named Klaus Briegleb appeared to take on the entire national literary establishment for indulging in self...

Mar 13, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Hugh Eakin

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