In Congo Square
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro : New Orleans
Two new books uncover the colonial origins and musical roots of New Orleans.
2008
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Stewartsville
Christine Smallwood : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
What possessed the fierce individualist George R. Stewart to compile a history of place-naming in the United States?
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Out of Africa
Fatin Abbas : Africa
Two new books by African writers share many flaws with their Western predecessors.
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Studs
Victor Navasky : Nation History
Remembering our national griot, the bearer of stories of people, ordinary and extraordinary.
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Studs Terkel: Vigilant Optimist
Bruce Shapiro
Studs Terkel always stood for the radical idea of the long memory. Telling the stories of our times, he remained to the end a vigilant optimist about civil rights and social progress.
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Studs Terkel: The Power of His Prose
Dennis Kucinich : Nation History
He was our Boswell, our Whitman, our Sandburg. He could get people to open up and share their innermost thoughts and dreams.
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The Horror of Dirt
Elaine Blair : Autobiography & Memoir
Upstairs and downstairs with Virginia, Vanessa and the Bloomsbury set.
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Rooted in Reconstruction
Eric Foner : History
Without the courage of the forgotten black legislators of the Reconstruction era, it would be impossible for a black man today to run for president.
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Collateral Damage
Chris Toensing : Iraq War
Three new books vividly portray the devastating impact of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
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Lords of Misrule
Jefferson Decker : Conservatives & The American Right
On the campaign trail, they're culture warriors; once in office, conservatives just follow the money.
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From Gorbachev to Putin
Robert V. Daniels : Russia
Five authors provide differing views of the post-glasnost era and of the failed promise of democratic reform in Russia.
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No Exit
Daniel Lazare : Supreme Court
Laurence Tribe's new book asks us to consider the "invisible" web of ideas that have grown around the text of the Constitution. But who's to say what it contains?
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Spectacular Wrongs
Samuel Moyn : Books, Literature, & Ideas
A new history celebrates the nineteenth-century roots of humanitarian intervention and glosses over their imperial pretensions.
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Mandarins, Guns and Money
Mark Mazower : US Foreign Policy
Four authors examine the evolution of the social sciences and how academic theorizing impacted global affairs before and after Vietnam.
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Inconvenient Truths
Steven Epstein : HIV & AIDS
Elizabeth Pisani and Jonny Steinberg explore antipodal aspects of the fight against AIDS.
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Dick Meyer: Why We Hate Us
Sarah O'Leary : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
Veteran journalist Dick Meyer discusses America's love-hate relationship with itself.
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A Hungry Mind
Paula Findlen : Biography
Ingrid Rowland's Giordano Bruno rediscovers the Renaissance philosopher and heretic.
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We Colonials
Margot Canaday : Civil Rights & Liberties
William Eskridge's Dishonorable Passions is the first comprehensive history of sodomy law in America.
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Seam Stress
Andrew Rice : Sports
Two new books explore the states of wonder and mortification evoked by baseball.
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Who's Your Buddha?
Howard W. French : China
A collection of oral histories reveal a new understanding of the modern Chinese experience.
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Speak Again, Memory
Greg Grandin : Books
Readers of Fidel Castro's My Life will find explanations of the Cuban Revolution, but no apologies for its suppression of dissent.
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The Creep of Things
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow : Environment
Two new anthologies explore the virtues and occasional shortcomings of Bill McKibben's quest for environmental salvation.
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Hello Cruel World
John Palattella : Journalists & Journalism
The narrative journalism of David Samuels finds conversation, color and conflict in the vortex of American life.
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The American Way of Spying
Spencer Ackerman : US Intelligence/Covert Ops
The history of American intelligence-gathering is rife with incompetence, dysfunction and contempt toward legislative oversight.
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