Support the Troops… and Support Me Support the Troops… and Support Me
A new history of the military welfare state shows how politicians and military leaders have draped themselves in yellow ribbons to advance their own careers.
Dec 17, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Martha Saxton
December 16, 1901: Margaret Mead Is Born December 16, 1901: Margaret Mead Is Born
“The Samoan girl leads a busy, unconscious existence in which impulse and duty appear to play pleasantly correlative roles.”
Dec 16, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
December 15, 2011: Christopher Hitchens Dies December 15, 2011: Christopher Hitchens Dies
“Posterity is unlikely to deal kindly with his willingness to be a singer in the camp of George W. Bush.”
Dec 15, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Voting Rights and the Second Redemption Voting Rights and the Second Redemption
Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot argues that democratic rights can never be taken for granted.
Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
November 24, 1859: Charles Darwin Publishes ‘On the Origin of Species’ November 24, 1859: Charles Darwin Publishes ‘On the Origin of Species’
“Mr. Charles Darwin is probably the man who has done most to make the nineteenth century famous, full as it has been of wonders.”
Nov 24, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
November 15, 1959: The Clutter Family Is Murdered in Holcomb, Kansas, Later the Subject of Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’ November 15, 1959: The Clutter Family Is Murdered in Holcomb, Kansas, Later the Subject of Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’
“It turns out that what we are really witnessing is a kind of morality play: the conversion of Truman Capote.”
Nov 15, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Why Does Ta-Nehisi Coates Say Less Than He Knows? Why Does Ta-Nehisi Coates Say Less Than He Knows?
The journalist’s best-selling memoir offers eloquent testimony to the vulnerability of black life, but it surrenders too much to despair.
Nov 15, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jesse McCarthy
Imperialism With an Internationalist Face Imperialism With an Internationalist Face
In her masterful new study of the League of Nations, Susan Pedersen shows how the organization helped prolong the era of colonialism.
Oct 29, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Martti Koskenniemi
Self as Sovereign Self as Sovereign
Where do we get the notion of mind as separate from body?
Oct 22, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Emily Wilson
Nobel Prize Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s Oral Histories Are Chronicles of the Future Nobel Prize Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s Oral Histories Are Chronicles of the Future
In her cantos of loss readers feel a sense of communion, of a shared humanity in the face of horror.
Oct 9, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Meier