History

The author’s mother, 1927.

Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life

In Ordinary Notes, Sharpe considers Black culture “in all of its shade and depth and glow.”

Dec 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Omari Weekes

The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement

The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement

Culture / Books & the Arts / December 12, 2023 More Than a Natural Function The politics of birth. The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement Though it res…

Dec 12, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Moira Donegan

Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin Was No Hollywood Figurehead Bayard Rustin Was No Hollywood Figurehead

The new biopic about the socialist organizer stops at the March on Washington. What is it leaving out?

Dec 12, 2023 / Column / Adolph Reed Jr.

How Did Marxism Become Marxism?

How Did Marxism Become Marxism? How Did Marxism Become Marxism?

A new book examines a set of thinkers and activists who helped transform a set of radical ideas into a political tradition.

Dec 11, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Peter E. Gordon

Families walking in a New York park, 1952.

A New York Cult That Promised the End of the Nuclear Family A New York Cult That Promised the End of the Nuclear Family

Alexander Stille’s The Sullivanians documents the sordid history and fascinating intellectual roots of a psychotherapy group that proposed a utopian alternative to conventional fa...

Dec 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Callie Hitchcock

Joaquin Phoenix in “Napoleon.”

History According to Ridley Scott History According to Ridley Scott

Ultimately what we learn in Napoleon says far more about the director than it does about Napoleon.

Dec 4, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Mike Duncan

Steve McQueen and Jonathan Glazer Confront the Holocaust 

Steve McQueen and Jonathan Glazer Confront the Holocaust  Steve McQueen and Jonathan Glazer Confront the Holocaust 

In Zones of Interest and Occupied City, the two filmmakers attempt to depict the ordinary fascism and everyday violence of World War II.

Dec 4, 2023 / Books & the Arts / J. Hoberman

Representative Mike Johnson leaves a House Republican conference meeting in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

Mike Johnson’s “18th-Century Values” Mike Johnson’s “18th-Century Values”

The new speaker of the House says he's a history buff. But has he learned from it, or is he condemned to repeat it?

Nov 30, 2023 / Column / Katha Pollitt

Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens

Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens

A photographer excavates personal history through reconstruction of Adams's World War II photographs of Japanese Americans interned at the Manzanar Relocation Center.

Nov 29, 2023 / Photo Essay / Joseph Maida

This family owned their own farm near Haifa. They fled when the British mandate ended and it became certain Israel would control the town. Today they are refugees in a camp near Gaza. The only possession they still have is a padded blanket.

The Long, Bloody History of the Israel-Gaza “Border” The Long, Bloody History of the Israel-Gaza “Border”

The current conflict has its roots in the 75-year struggle over the constantly shifting physical boundaries between Israel and the Palestinians whose land it has occupied.

Nov 29, 2023 / Anne Irfan

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