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Michael Kazin

Ending the Kennedy Romance

The first volume of Frederik Logevall’s biography of JFK reveals the scope of his ambition and the weakness of his political commitments.

May 27, 2021 issue

Sigrid Nunez

‘Lost, at Sea, at Odds’

Jhumpa Lahiri wrote her new novel in Italian, her adopted language, but the greater challenge in Whereabouts was to write about a chronic depressive with seemingly no deep passions or significant relationships.

May 27, 2021 issue

Anna Della Subin

The Rules of the Confidence Game

The Book of Charlatans provides an unusual glimpse into the street life of medieval Islamic societies rarely captured in more elevated Arabic literary sources.

May 27, 2021 issue

Sasha Frere-Jones

The Paranoid Style in Adam Curtis

His films choreograph archive footage, charismatic pop, and portentous commentary in pursuit of a dark, totalizing narrative—all the seduction of conspiracy theory without the substance.

May 8, 2021

Jessica T. Mathews

Losing No Time

In his first hundred days President Biden has been bold, decisive, and willing to take risks in his foreign policy judgments, but his early mistakes on Iran and Taiwan may have dangerous consequences.

May 27, 2021 issue

Alan Rusbridger

Two Centuries of ‘The Guardian’

There have been both lean and comfortable times over the decades, but the paper has held its editorial nerve.

May 27, 2021 issue

David S. Reynolds

When Slaves Fled to Mexico

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.

May 13, 2021 issue

Ariel Dorfman

A Taxonomy of Tyrants

Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen delineates what the last century’s macho dictators have had in common.

May 27, 2021 issue

Adam Shatz

A Blues Surrealist

Julius Hemphill’s music uses stark, lyrical abstraction and svelte dissonances to confront the vicissitudes of black American life.

May 27, 2021 issue

Rachel Polonsky

Russian Metamorphoses

Teffi’s supernatural tales ask what we can understand about the nature of events, and about the transformative moments that thread events together into stories.

May 27, 2021 issue

Eula Biss; drawing by Karl Stevens

“Eula Biss’s Having and Being Had is a study of human beings as economic creatures, a collection of brief essays about how individuals navigate the tricky waves of ownership, work, and exchange, and what they feel as they do so.”

— Irina Dumitrescu: Don’t Get Too Comfortable

May 27, 2021

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Willa Glickman

The Future of Fracking

New technology has allowed access to more oil and gas in the US than ever expected. Will we be able to turn away from this dangerous windfall before it’s too late?

May 5, 2021

Mark Gevisser

‘Moffie’ and Me

South African filmmakers are confronting an aspect of the apartheid era that marked my generation: an abusive masculinity defined by its homophobia.

May 3, 2021

Carole Naggar

Marc Riboud’s Roving Lens

A retrospective conveys the breadth and close attention of this Magnum photographer as he traveled the world.

May 1, 2021

Claudia Dreifus

‘Comic Terrorism Works’: An Interview with John Waters

The avant-garde filmmaker who wanted to be the filthiest person alive has ended up becoming a national treasure. How did that happen?

April 29, 2021

From the Archives

Good Children’s Books!

Children’s book people are always fussing that they are not taken seriously enough. They should instead recognize their good luck and be still lest the bad fairy hear them and grant their wish.