Books and Ideas

Riders on the Storm Riders on the Storm

Dread ripples through me as I listen to a phone message from our manager saying that we (The Doors) have another offer of huge amounts of money if we would just allow one of our s...

Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / John Densmore

DYNASTIES! DYNASTIES!

How their wealth and power threaten democracy

Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Kevin Phillips

Islam’s Divided Crescent Islam’s Divided Crescent

On September 23, 2001, midpoint between the horrific events of September 11 and the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, the New York Times ran an intriguing headline. "Forget the...

Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Anthony Arnove

Jefferson’s Patsy? Jefferson’s Patsy?

No one has contributed more to the United States than James Madison. He was the principal architect of the Constitution, the brilliant theorist who, more than any other single ind...

Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Carl T. Bogus

A Bombmaker of Conscience A Bombmaker of Conscience

We are all fascinated by the lives of the powerful and famous, and in the last part of the twentieth century Andrei Sakharov became one of Russia's most famous. He burst onto the ...

Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Dusko Doder

Backbeat in China Backbeat in China

A hundred days ago Wu'er Kaixi was a fugitive.... Yesterday, before an audience of 800 Americans and Chinese at Brandeis University, he showed what brought a 21-year-old Beijing N...

Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Jeffrey Wasserstrom

A Word to Graduates: Organize! A Word to Graduates: Organize!

It's boring but do it, says the playwright. Otherwise, you allow evil to settle in.

Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Tony Kushner

A Whole Earth Catalogue A Whole Earth Catalogue

In the United States a deeply rooted bias toward the practical renders all knowledge, even the most sublime forms of wisdom, merely an instrumental good. This pragmatic streak ten...

Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Eric Zencey

Birthday Poem Birthday Poem

Hot, rained-on, packed-down straw, strewn then abandoned between the rows of eggplant, tomato plants, onion, and herbs catches the evening's last September gnats in pale mats and ...

Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Lynne McMahon

Testing Times in Higher Ed Testing Times in Higher Ed

The SAT has been on the ropes lately. The University of California system has threatened to quit using the test for its freshman admissions, arguing that the exam has done more ha...

Jun 6, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Peter Sacks

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