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Who to Believe
One evening in January 2015, a mental health counselor named Foad Afshar met with a twelve-year-old boy inside his office in Concord, New Hampshire. Afshar was 55, a gregarious man with eyeglasses,...
View ArticleThe Whitewashing of George H. W. Bush
In the last few days, journalistic eulogies have abounded for George H. W. Bush, who died at the age of 94 on Friday night. It’s established tradition for honoring former presidents. But as Jon Allsop...
View ArticleNever Look Away Grapples With Germany’s Past
Vergangenheitsbewältigung is one of those quintessential German words: a long, clunky amalgam of syllables and ideas that expresses a concept you never imagined you’d need to name. It refers to the...
View ArticleWalking Dead Love Song 32
I try not to think about getting gunned down in the holiday market. I try not to think about subway grenades or suicide bombs or slender guns tucked in a duffel bag. Happier times, I think. Happier...
View ArticleOf Late
I have my bed and I have my blanket she says slim tree blue spruce so old she reads the board: Today is Sunday lurch (for lunch) snap (for snack) sky bled a month ago another...
View ArticleAt The Hotel Metropole
Maids curtsied in starched peaked caps so white they hurt your eyes and you knew the war was coming from nowhere, swift and bloody. Was I a child checking in with my mother, or a boy with a lover? Who...
View ArticleThe Art of the Underwhelming Deal
Nine months ago, President Donald Trump brushed off growing criticism of his escalating trade war with China and a host of traditional American allies. “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of...
View ArticleThe GOP’s Laboratories of Oligarchy
In the classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally play a game known as “Calvinball.” The rules are simple: Hobbes makes them up as he goes. In one strip, the imaginary...
View ArticleThe Real Impact of George H. W. Bush’s Presidency
George H. W. Bush, who died on December 1, is remembered more for his influence on world events than for his domestic policies. That may be an inevitable byproduct of serving as president during the...
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Idra Novey’s Troubled Activists
The women in Idra Novey’s novels—activists, dissidents, and translators of fiction with high ideals—set out to do the right thing. But they often get trapped in the details. What begins as conviction...
View ArticleNetflix Won’t Save Prestige Cinema
The best movie of the year is only playing in few theaters in New York City. Alfonso Cuarón’s intimate yet epic Roma, the story of a young maid and the fracturing family she works for in early-1970s...
View ArticleThe Last Days of Rookie
On the last day of November, Tavi Gevinson announced that Rookie, the online magazine for teenage girls she launched in 2011, was shutting down. Cast in the mold of Jane Pratt’s Sassy, the heirless...
View ArticleThe death of the WASP elite is greatly exaggerated.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is using the death of President George H. W. Bush to mourn the caste the late president belonged to. Bush, Douthat argues, was an exemplary member of the old WASP...
View ArticleThe Biggest Threat in the Postal Report Is to Rural Americans, Not Amazon
On Tuesday, President Trump’s task force on the U.S. Postal Service’s troubled finances released its report on the future of the agency. The word “Amazon” appears nowhere in the body of the report,...
View ArticleA Guide to Saudi Arabia’s Influence in Washington
At this point, the evidence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about—and likely ordered—the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is compelling. After CIA Director Gina Haspel’s...
View ArticleSlim Pickings for the Democratic Establishment
By this time next year, dozens of Democrats will have declared their candidacy for president; by this time next year, it’s possible that a dozen or more will already have dropped out. Party leaders are...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court’s Double-Jeopardy Dilemma
The Supreme Court appeared hesitant on Thursday to overturn almost two centuries of precedents that allow state and federal prosecutors to each charge a defendant for the same crime. In Gamble v....
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The Head and the Load Is a Kaleidoscopic Tour of Africa’s Colonial History
It begins with sirens, a weird greasy glissando creeping up the register then back down again. The sound is so familiar, but with a shock one realizes that these sirens are not mechanical—they are...
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A Future With Less News
“I think news is incredibly important to society and democracy,” Mark Zuckerberg told a group of editors and media executives in May. The Guardian and its sister newspaper, The Observer, had reported...
View ArticleTrump’s Reelection Doesn’t Hinge on a Recession
President Donald Trump’s advisers are rattled. Not because the second year of his presidency is about to end with little to show for itself. Or because the Mueller investigation is intensifying and...
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