Essays Archive - Page 4 of 131

Like so many newcomers, I was looking for my city. Then I reached for E. B. White’s 1948 classic, Here Is New York

April 26, 2023 • by Naman Vakharia

Naman Vakharia ponders on his personal yet collective experience of moving to the dirty, dreamy, and historical city: New York....

Nuclear Russia and Its Enemies

Paul Josephson on the Russian peaceful—and not-so-peaceful—atom

April 26, 2023 • by Anastasia Shteinert and Paul Josephson

In an interview with Anastasia Shteinert, author Paul Josephson his new book "Nuclear Russia: The Atom in Russian Politics and Culture."...

Democracy

An excerpt from Paul Josephson’s Nuclear Russia

April 26, 2023 • by Paul Josephson

The concept of preempting an enemy’s nuclear weapons that was a central point of Soviet military thought has been reiterated by President Vladimir Putin....

Past Present

The Rollback of Child Labor Laws

Past Present Podcast, Episode 371

April 25, 2023 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the push to rollback child labor laws in the United States....

Migration

On the responsibility to refugees at the Belarusian-Polish border

April 25, 2023 • by Lidia Zessin-Jurek

The Polish-Belarusian border crossing has been, since mid-2021, one of the world’s many border zones where people get sick and die under the watchful eye of the state....

Education

Political Polarization Threatens American Education

Fighting back against the anti-learning culture wars

April 24, 2023 • by Molly Nolan

State and local governments and right-wing private organizations collaborate closely to both promote state control of education and defund it....

Political Polarization Threatens American Education

History

“Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb?”

An excerpt from American Relics and the Politics of Memory

April 24, 2023 • by Matthew Dennis

Relics’ ability to bridge space could match their facility in transcending time—they are conventionally transportable, sometimes through their fragmentation and multiplication, and their mobility enhances their usefulness to their possessors, who are thus able to deploy their power where they might have the greatest effect....

Migration

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Both political parties say they care about families—so why would the Biden administration return to a family separation regime?

April 19, 2023 • by Rachel Ida Buff

And yet, in the absence of new legislation that makes it easier to cross the border legally for work, the Biden administration has defaulted to a hard line on immigration that continues to separate families and promote border security. ...

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Feminism

Am I a Heteropessimist?

Four years since we learned the word, what does heteropessimism look like today?

April 19, 2023 • by Josephine Houman

Evidently, I am far from alone in the befuddlement I feel about my heterosexual relationship, nor am I the only one noticing the fact that, even though so many of us feel similarly, heteropessimism (and its attendant inaction) persists. ...

Podcast

Extremism in Defense of Liberty Is No Vice

April 19, 2023 • by Claire Potter

A conversation with historian Matthew Dallek about his new book, "Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right"...

Film

Nihilism for the Whole Family!

How Evelyn misinterpreted Waymond’s rebellion in Everything Everywhere All At Once

April 18, 2023 • by Ken Hu

Evelyn’s response to the multiverse reflects an existentialist resolution that builds upon a particular version of nihilism: if the universe is inherently meaningless, then we are at liberty to create our own meanings within it....

Gender

Racialized Redemptive Labor and Sex Work

An excerpt from Elena Shih’s probing book

April 18, 2023 • by Elena Shih

Commercial sex in Bangkok, broadcast through tourist networks, now links the city in many minds with human trafficking—following the global tendency to conflate all sex commerce with sex trafficking. ...

Essays

Where Is New York?

Like so many newcomers, I was looking for my city. Then I reached for E. B. White’s 1948 classic, Here Is New York

Nuclear Russia and Its Enemies

Paul Josephson on the Russian peaceful—and not-so-peaceful—atom

Putin’s Atom

An excerpt from Paul Josephson’s Nuclear Russia

The Rollback of Child Labor Laws

Past Present Podcast, Episode 371

Held Hostage to One’s Values

On the responsibility to refugees at the Belarusian-Polish border

Political Polarization Threatens American Education

Fighting back against the anti-learning culture wars

“Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb?”

An excerpt from American Relics and the Politics of Memory

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Both political parties say they care about families—so why would the Biden administration return to a family separation regime?

Am I a Heteropessimist?

Four years since we learned the word, what does heteropessimism look like today?

Extremism in Defense of Liberty Is No Vice

Nihilism for the Whole Family!

How Evelyn misinterpreted Waymond’s rebellion in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Racialized Redemptive Labor and Sex Work

An excerpt from Elena Shih’s probing book

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