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Tech Mania Goes to College

Are MOOCs—massive open online courses—the utopia of affordable higher education, or just the latest fad?

David Kirp

Inside the Coursera Hype Machine

The company has attracted tens of millions in venture capital—but if you’re looking for the Amazon of online higher ed, try iTunes U.

Jon Wiener

Chileans Confront Their Own 9/11

Forty years after Pinochet's coup, a historic presidential campaign has revived debates about his dictatorship—and Washington's role in it.

Peter Kornbluh

This Modern World

Tom Tomorrow

Standing Up to the Hawks in Congress

President Obama was right to seek congressional approval to strike Syria—but a bipartisan coalition must turn him down.

The Editors

Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, the New Dissidents?

The United States is no Soviet Union—and yet it has set up machinery that satisfies certain tendencies that are in the genetic code of totalitarianism.

Jonathan Schell

Breaking My Silence

For years I have written about mass incarceration, while staying mute about drones and other injustices. It is time to connect the dots.

Michelle Alexander

Remembering Seamus Heaney

The contrarian poet refused to toe any party line.

Margaret Spillane

‘Rodman Returns to North Korea to Visit Kim’—The New York Times

Calvin Trillin

Bill de Blasio and the Rebirth of Economic Liberalism

The leading candidate for New York City mayor shows the way forward for Democrats.

Eric Alterman

Queers for Quinn?

Supporters of mayoral candidate Christine Quinn trumpet the historic nature of her candidacy, but her record is nothing to be proud of. 

Richard Kim

Remembering Seamus Heaney

The contrarian poet refused to toe any party line.

Margaret Spillane

Jester and Priest: On Leszek Kolakowski

How the great Polish philosopher went from being an anticlerical scourge to an apostle of John Paul II.

John Connelly

More of Less

Thomas Hirschhorn’s unmonumental monument to egalitarianism and Antonio Gramsci.

Barry Schwabsky

Summer’s Fall: White House Down

The happy ending to Hollywood’s summer: not guy gets girl but guy gets job.

Joshua Clover

Letters

Our Readers and Michael O’Donnell

Puzzle No. 3293

And don’t miss Kosman and Picciotto’s crossword blog, Word Salad.

Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto