Leaving Home to Go Home Leaving Home to Go Home
Yaa Gyasi’s ideas about fiction are suffused with her lifelong attention to the fluctuating shadows that race casts on American life.
Aug 12, 2016 / Erin Vanderhoof
Before the 1 Percenters, There Were the Uzedas Before the 1 Percenters, There Were the Uzedas
In The Viceroys, Frederico De Roberto’s novel of the Risorgimento, the Uzeda family corrupts everything it touches.
Aug 10, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Frederika Randall
Oneida’s Original, Utopian Vision Oneida’s Original, Utopian Vision
Championing the free market is compatible with the company’s original free-love doctrine: The fierce desire of men to feel competent bankrolls both.
Aug 8, 2016 / Hannah Gold
Across the Border Across the Border
A new biography of William Henry Ellis reminds us how much we still don’t know about the elusive history of racial subterfuge in America.
Jul 21, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Michael A. Elliott
Out of Sight, Top of Mind Out of Sight, Top of Mind
A new book conveys the powerful role photography plays in sports. But the photographers are still something of a mystery.
Jul 15, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Ian F. Blair
The Political Uses of Malcolm X’s Image The Political Uses of Malcolm X’s Image
For Muslim youth, interest in the black freedom movement is part of a larger turn toward an American conception of race—it fills a political void and offers a sense of belonging. B...
Jul 12, 2016 / Hisham Aidi
The Insufficiency of Pan-Africanism as We Know It The Insufficiency of Pan-Africanism as We Know It
The fact that many people identify, however loosely, with being African doesn’t replace the need for the services that only a government can provide.
Jul 7, 2016 / Anakwa Dwamena
Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices
At a time when populism is in vogue, the Nobel Laureate has gone in the opposite direction. We need to read her and listen to the people she hears.
Jul 6, 2016 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella
A Supreme Legacy A Supreme Legacy
The conservative legacy of the Burger Court lives on in the precedents it set.
Jun 23, 2016 / Thomas Healy
How Not to Study Donald Trump How Not to Study Donald Trump
The “Trump Studies” syllabus was intended to mock his bigotry; instead, it served as a perfect example of white racism in academia.
Jun 22, 2016 / Greg Grandin