Culture

False Comforts: On Randall Kennedy

False Comforts: On Randall Kennedy False Comforts: On Randall Kennedy

Randall Kennedy is fascinated by a paradox: the color line's persistence and its seeming implosion.

Nov 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jim Sleeper

Miley Cyrus Comes Out for OWS Miley Cyrus Comes Out for OWS

&ldquotLiberty Walk,” the one percenter teen sensation’s catchy, if repetitive, remixed single sets her music to laudatory images from OWS encampments throughout th...

Nov 29, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg

Warring Impulses: Photography’s Documentary and Artistic Strains

Warring Impulses: Photography’s Documentary and Artistic Strains Warring Impulses: Photography’s Documentary and Artistic Strains

Can a beautiful image also accurately capture a moment in time? Can a documentary photograph also be an object of thoughtful reflection?

Nov 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Francis Reynolds

Newt Gingrich and Freddie Mac Newt Gingrich and Freddie Mac

Lambasting pols who got too close to Freddie, Newt failed to say that he himself already Got Freddie payments that were large and steady.  As is his custom, Newt was undeterred. Hypocrisy’s not really what occurred. For Newt we’d need to find a stronger word.

Nov 22, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin

The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street

The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street

Will it last? Skeptics are entitled to their doubts, but I'm confident that, as with the Populist movement of a century ago, OWS will bring lasting change

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / William Greider

Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie

Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie is an artist of the things we don’t say, or can’t, and that find expression anyway.

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald

Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald

Dwight Macdonald’s panic about Midcult now seems less prescient than misplaced.

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Szalai

Erosion: On Errol Morris

Erosion: On Errol Morris Erosion: On Errol Morris

Why does Errol Morris cling to a model of documentary photography eighty years out of date?

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl

Zoned: On the European Union Zoned: On the European Union

The European Union exists in a no-man’s-land between democracy and technocracy.

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Henry Farrell

Obscure Objects of Desire: On Jeffrey Eugenides

Obscure Objects of Desire: On Jeffrey Eugenides Obscure Objects of Desire: On Jeffrey Eugenides

In The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides can’t explain what happens to his characters without throwing in every last why.

Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz

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