Category Archives: New Books

Christopher Lasch made his enemies on the left and the right. “Adopt a surly demeanor towards one and all in the hope of offending everybody”… more»

Humanism has a small following. That it could become a global movement is improbable, outlandish, and the thesis of A.C. Grayling’s new book… more»

Moscow, 1937. Arrests, executions, 540 magazines, at least three jazz bands, and swank salons, at which Shostakovich and Babel mingled with secret police… more»

Do you fantasize about being a tenured academic? A globe-trotting journalist? A novelist? How our unlived lives shape our lived experience… more»

A fervid new book denounces Christopher Hitchens as a liar and plagiarist. The late polemicist would’ve relished the assault… more»

Two cheers for paternalism. We are too fat, too in debt, and too terrible at planning for the future to avoid rethinking Mill’s harm principle… more»

When did “bureaucracy” become a dirty word? Once it stood for the end of privilege and the rise of merit and rights. What went wrong?… more»

War poets. The literary fate of those who survived World War I was little different from those who died in it. Consider Sassoon and Blunden… more»

For Émile Durkheim, son of a rabbi, religion anchored his life and work. But faith was less about a set of ideas than a force for social cohesion… more»

Hissing, clanking, buzzing. Human history can be studied aurally – assuming, of course, that we don’t lose our hearing in the effort… more»