Books and Ideas

The Browning of America The Browning of America

In the past two decades, Richard Rodriguez has offered us a gamut of anecdotes, mostly about himself in action in an environment that is not always attuned to his own inner life. ...

May 30, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans

Custom Custom

There is a difference it used to make, seeing three swans in this versus four in that quadrant of sky. I am not imagining. It was very large, as its effects were. Declarations ...

May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Carl Phillips

The Evolution of Darwinism The Evolution of Darwinism

Popular perception notwithstanding, the theory of natural selection was accepted by every serious evolutionist long before Darwin. Earlier scientists interpreted it as the cleares...

May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / David Hawkes

Pursued by Love’s Demons Pursued by Love’s Demons

As if the back streets of our local city might dispense with their pyrrhic accumulation of dust and wineful tonality, offer a reprise of love itself, a careless love rendered g...

May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Charlie Smith

Grabitization (Don’t Look) Grabitization (Don’t Look)

Almost everything that is wrong with Washington Post foreign editor David Hoffman's new book about Russia's transformation into a capitalist system, The Oligarchs, can be discerne...

May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Matt Taibbi

Renewing Urban Renewal Renewing Urban Renewal

One of the things we do not do well in this country is learn from our mistakes. This is particularly true in the strengthening and rejuvenating of cities.

May 16, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Roberta Brandes Gratz

Futbol Futbol

As if to move a flexible sphere from here to there with unassisted head and foot were natural and obvious. As if a dance could always bow to resolute constraint and never be dance...

May 16, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Alfred Corn

Only the Dead Know Brooklyn Only the Dead Know Brooklyn

For more than a century, a recognizable pattern existed among those migrating to New York City: They came first either through Ellis Island or up from the American South, and m...

May 16, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Theodore Hamm

The Statue of Liberty

Patriotism’s Secret History Patriotism’s Secret History

Our most cherished national symbols—from the Pledge of Allegiance to "America the Beautiful" to Lady Liberty's poetry—are rooted in liberal ideals.

May 16, 2002 / Peter Dreier and Dick Flacks

Milosevic, Still at War Milosevic, Still at War

It is probably safe to say that the war crimes trial in The Hague of the former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic is not going well. At least so far. No credible witnesses ha...

May 9, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Dusko Doder

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