Tag
Politics
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Arendt Speaks of Oases
Arendt sees the oasis as a way to save our self-understanding from the psychological cry of adjustment as well as the totalitarian demand for conformity.
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The 100-Year-Old Racist Law that Broke America’s Immigration System
The Chinese and Asiatic exclusion laws of the 19th and early 20th century paved the way for the Immigration Act of 1924.
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The Border Is the Crisis: Reflections on the Centenary of the Immigration Act of 1924
One hundred years have passed since the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act and the creation of the Border Patrol. But the undercurrents that mobilized both never went away and are resurging with renewed fervor.
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“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin
“I was always working on a theory of America.”
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A Poetics of Living Rebellion
Rebellions cannot be studied with our traditional toolbelt of Western historical methods.
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When NYC Invented Modern Policing: Emily Brooks on WWII–Era Surveillance and Discrimination
“I often think how much better off we would be if there were more free recreational activities for youth that were not nested under the carceral sphere.”
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The Revolution Will Be Caring
What makes something mutual aid or collective care and not capitalist charity?
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“Living in and as Refusal”: Eric Stanley on Anti-Trans/Queer Violence
“While ungovernability takes many paths, here it approximates living in and as refusal.”
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Enemy of the State
Félix Darfour accused the post-independence Haitian republic with corruption. He lost his life for it.
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What Makes a Prison?
Recent calls to bring back asylums suggest that confinement can be benevolent, even rehabilitative—but, in reality, “a prison is a prison is a prison.”
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“Remaindered Life”: Durba Mitra in Conversation with Neferti Tadiar
“The survival of the world depends on the gendered work of subsistence and reproduction, carried out predominantly by women in the global South.”
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Heal Thyself?
How do current social and political arrangements limit our opportunities for feeling better?
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“Dignity Matters as Much as Material Needs”: Michèle Lamont on Recognition Claims and Understanding American Politics
“To recognize the existence of injuries requires the recognition of others and their dignity.”
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Weaving a Feminist Cyberlaw
Women invented cyberspace. Yet today’s internet rewards misogyny with fame, wealth, and power. Could it be otherwise?
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What Really Makes Cities Global?
To ask what kind of city Los Angeles is today is, also, to wonder what kind of city it could be tomorrow.
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The Seduction of Desert Spectacles: Talking “Arid Empire” with Natalie Koch and Andrew Curley
“You cannot divorce domestic empire from international empire. Those histories created one another.”
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Filling in Time Reading Vasily Grossman While Waiting for S
Public Books and the Sydney Review of Books have partnered to exchange a series of articles with international concerns.
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Socialist Nostalgia, Cuban State Power
Is it ever possible to reconcile clashing visions of national memory?
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Don’t Save Yourself, Save the World: A Dialogue with Vincent Lloyd
“I’m very skeptical about the ability of people in positions of power and privilege—including intellectuals—to name truths about the world.”
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On Our Nightstands: May 2023
A behind-the-scenes look at what Public Books editors and staff have been reading this month.
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“We Want More Housing, but How?” Talking with Max Holleran
“There are a lot of basic things that America has still not accepted in terms of how to live a happy urban life.”
