James McAuley A Failure of Imagination The French left has not only abandoned its traditional constituents, it has also been unable to defend a positive vision of the multicultural society that France has become. April 21, 2022 issue
Jackson Lears The Forgotten Crime of War Itself In his new book, Samuel Moyn argues that efforts to humanize war with smarter weaponry or sanctify it with moral cant have obscured the task of making peace the first goal of foreign policy. April 21, 2022 issue
Benjamin Nathans Bureaucrat’s Honor Three memoirs by Trump administration officials reveal the integrity and moral discipline of the so-called deep state in the face of corruption and philistinism. April 21, 2022 issue
David Cole When Rights Went Right Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute? April 21, 2022 issue
Fintan O’Toole The Last of Her Kind Angela Merkel emerged from the ruins of the Eastern bloc as a spectacular example of the way the collapse of an old regime might create a much more benign sense of opportunity. April 7, 2022 issue
Fred Kaplan ‘A Bridge Too Far’ Even the most ardent advocates of NATO expansion after the implosion of the USSR realized that it had limits—and one of those limits was Ukraine. April 7, 2022 issue
Jacob Heilbrunn The Hawks Ascending Russia’s war on Ukraine has opened up a new front in Washington’s foreign policy elite, mobilizing veterans of the cold war and Iraq. Especially on the right, a fierce fight is in prospect. March 14, 2022
Howard W. French Slavery, Empire, Memory For nearly two centuries Britain has attempted to minimize the importance of slavery to its economic prosperity. April 7, 2022 issue
Melissa Gira Grant Policing Womanhood For groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, the erosion of abortion rights and trans rights are complementary pathways to building a Christian nation. May 15, 2022
Elizabeth A. Reese Unsteady Ground Native people have known for a long time that in this country, rights—whether to remain, to pray, to vote, or even to live—are impermanent and fickle things, subject to revision by those in power. May 14, 2022
Catherine Coleman Flowers Our Lives in Their Hands If state governments truly cared about the lives of poor women or our children, they wouldn’t poison our water and pollute our air. They can’t be trusted with our bodies. May 13, 2022
Sherrilyn Ifill Stealing the Crown Jewels Justice Alito purports to place the future of abortion in the hands of women voters—despite abetting the disenfranchisement of Black and Latina women. May 12, 2022
Lola Seaton ‘Hope You’re Staying Cool’ The July heatwave that brought chaos to London has changed the way Brits see the sun. July 31, 2022
Antonia Hitchens ‘Who Should Die for Me?’ In Estonia, the threat of Russian invasion and memories of Soviet occupation have led thousands to volunteer for their national defense. July 29, 2022
Ian Johnson Hong Kong from the Inside Four books about Hong Kong show how the city’s once-thriving culture of political engagement has been obliterated under Chinese control, though it may still retain its position as a global financial capital. August 18, 2022 issue
Fintan O’Toole The Irish Lesson If the purpose of abortion bans is to actually reduce the rate at which women terminate pregnancies, the Irish experience shows how utterly ineffectual they are. August 18, 2022 issue
Mark Danner We’re in an Emergency—Act Like It! At a time when the threat of authoritarianism is rising, Democrats have a duty to make crystal clear to voters what is at stake in the November elections. August 18, 2022 issue
Ian Bassin The Attorney General’s Choice Merrick Garland’s job in weighing a Trump indictment is not to heal the nation. July 22, 2022
Vicente L. Rafael The Return of the Marcoses The level of support in the Philippines for Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. cannot be explained by social media disinformation or sheer coercion alone. July 21, 2022
David Cole Egregiously Wrong In several of the term’s most controversial cases, the Court’s new majority applied originalism to disastrous effect. August 18, 2022 issue
Helon Habila Crude Reality Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were confronts the often ignored messiness and violence of oil extraction. July 21, 2022 issue