Books

393 results
Page 33
A boy and his tiger. (Image © Bill Watterson)

Bill Watterson: An introvert's appreciation

Happy birthday, Mr. Watterson, wherever you are

When Bill Watterson worked on Calvin and Hobbes, he had no need (and even less desire) to leave the house seeking acclaim or inspiration. Everything he needed was inside his own head.
Roz Warren

Roz Warren

Articles 3 minute read

Andrew J. Bacevich's 'Breach of Trust'

The great betrayal

In Breach of Trust, career officer turned political scientist Andrew J. Bacevich traces the woes of today’s military, and much of our politics as well, to the volunteer army instituted after Vietnam. Is a return to the draft a solution?
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 6 minute read
"The Traitor: The Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus." Henri Meyer: Le Petit Journal, January 13, 1895.

'An Officer and a Spy' by Robert Harris

A retelling of the Dreyfus affair

The Dreyfus affair, as presented by novelist Robert Harris in An Officer and a Spy, raises issues around secrecy and spying that still resonate today.
Armen Pandola

Armen Pandola

Articles 4 minute read
"Woland's Entourage," by RaShelli, deviantART/Creative Commons.

'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov

Sympathy for the devil?

Mikhail Bulgakov dealt with the twinned madnesses of Stalinism and his expectation of a short life through the full, flailing exercise of will, intelligence, and faith.
Bob Levin

Bob Levin

Articles 5 minute read
Summer of 1936. William Edward "Bud" Fields, wife Lily Rogers Fields, and infant daughter Lilian at their sharecropper cabin in Hale County, Alabama. Photograph by Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration.

'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' by James Agee and Walker Evans

Let Us Now Praise James Agee

This is a book of stunning honesty and self-awareness and inspired observation. Its humanity is as blinding and magnificent and humble as its prose is magesterial.
Bob Ingram

Bob Ingram

Articles 5 minute read
McKibben: Up against the corporations.

Bill McKibben’s ‘Oil and Honey’

The Jeremiah of global climate change

In his new book, Oil and Honey, Bill McKibben, America’s foremost environmentalist, describes his own journey from prophet of disaster to political activist. It’s a crusade with the highest of stakes: our planetary future.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 4 minute read
Mary Matalin and James Carville doing the Naw'lins thang.

Carville and Matalin's 'Love and War'

Twenty years later, James Carville and Mary Matalin’s dog and pony show has morphed into hackneyed dialogue suitable for reality TV.
Jackie Schifalacqua

Jackie Schifalacqua

Articles 3 minute read
Anne sexton

A memory of Anne Sexton

Cleft

Poetry didn't move the young Bob Levin, until Anne Sexton left him wobbling, dizzied — but exposed, somehow, through pain to hope.
Bob Levin

Bob Levin

Articles 4 minute read

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Death penalty protesters at the Supreme Court in 2007

Evan Mandery’s 'A Wild Justice'

The Nine Lives of Capital Punishment

Opponents are more optimistic than they have been in almost 50 years that the death penalty is a dying institution. But such hopes have been dashed before, as Evan J. Mandery’s Wild Justice points out.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 5 minute read

Eric Schlosser’s ‘Command and Control’

Nuclear roulette: Nothing can go wrong, go wrong….

Relax: We made it through the Cold War without a nuclear attack. Don’t relax: The U.S. still holds 4,500 nukes, all vulnerable to the mishaps and malfunctions that plague every complex human endeavor.
Mark Wolverton

Mark Wolverton

Articles 4 minute read