online archive
5:00PM
MAR 3 2008
A split second, a life’s sentence
J. Edgar Bauer (JNU): The Female Phallus: On Alfred Kinsey’s sexual vitalism, the theo-political reinstatement of the male/female divide, and the postmodern de-finitization of sexualities. Experts from the worlds of music, literature, film and art answer those intriguing questions you've always wanted to ask. A review of Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism by Michael Burleigh (and more and more and more and an interview). A split second, a life’s sentence: It’s those seemingly inconsequential choices that turn innocents into outlaws. Reason science reporter Ron Bailey’s recent conversion on global warming has libertarians all fired up. An interview with Joseph Stiglitz on the true cost of war. A review of American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation Back to Work by Nick Taylor. A review of Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman and The Brain-Dead Megaphone by George Saunders. Babble with Beckett: How foreign languages can provide writers with a way out of the familiar. From Prospect, an article on China's new intelligentsia. What have the frenzied wine-worshipping rituals of Greek mythology got to do with the intricacies of the human brain? A review of Luck and the Irish by R. F. Foster. Google “brooklyn writer” and you’ll get, did you mean: the future of literature as we know it? (and more on Brooklyn’s bookish ambition)
1:00PM
MAR 3 2008
The end of an era
From Foreign Affairs, Jerry Z. Muller (CUA): Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism; Stephen E. Flynn (CFR): America the Resilient: Defying Terrorism and Mitigating Natural Disasters; Francisco Rodriguez (Wesleyan): An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chavez; Scott G. Borgerson (CFR): Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming; a review of Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power by Fred Kaplan; and more on Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (and a review of Hugh Wilford’s The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America, in Bookforum). Richard John Neuhaus reviews Martha Nussbaum's Liberty of Conscience. From Mute, post-Fordism’s appetite for self-directed activity is bringing about a crisis in progressive education; what should an emancipatory education entail today? An interview with Spencer Wells, author of Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project. A review of Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño (and more and more and an excerpt in Bookforum). Here’s looking at the end of an era: An article on Hollywood hot spots that matter. Noam Chomsky on terrorists wanted the world over. If it's all about you, you're in trouble: Why a sense of entitlement can wreak havoc on happiness.
9:00AM
MAR 3 2008
Questions from great philosophers
From Democratiya, a review of The Fall-Out: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His Innocence by Andrew Anthony; a review of The Cultural Contradictions of Democracy: Political Thought Since 9/11 by John Brenkman; a review of L’Impuissance Française: Une diplomatie qui a fait son temps by Isabelle Lasserre; and David Miliband on the democratic imperative. Between cathedrals and modern administrative temples, Strasbourg hasn’t yet solved the problem of its isolation. A look at how adult brains are wired to go ga-ga over babies. Feminism and the English language: Can the damage to our mother tongue be undone? A review of Eli Gottlieb’s Now You See Him. From the latest issue of Bookforum, Sketches of Spanish: Edith Grossman has reimagined the Latin American canon for readers of English, who perhaps, like she, have ventured to Latin America only via the page. A review of Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? 23 Questions From Great Philosophers by Leszek Kolakowski. More on The Commission by Philip Shenon. A review of Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling 1865-1900 by Charles Allen. A review of The Politics of Freedom by David Boaz. An article on Matt Drudge as the world's most powerful journalist. From LRB, Yonatan Mendel on how to become an Israeli journalist, and more on Flat Earth News by Nick Davies.
