The Two Faces of East German Socialism
Anniversaries have a way of focusing historical memory. One such anniversary is upon us in 2022 and another came and passed in 2021. Forty years ago, in 1982, East Germany’s most famous dissident, the internationally acclaimed scientist and critical Marxist Robert Havemann, died. Imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis for his activities as an…
Read MoreOur Flattening Culture
We find ourselves in a cultural collapse far more total than anything I have seen in my lifetime, and perhaps greater than any in US history. Similar signs appear in other nations. People seem stupider, more inclined to violence, partaking less of reason, motivated by vague feelings of personal grievance. We are interested more in…
Read MoreEconomic Recovery with No Growth Strategy
I should begin with where we stand with the economy today. Stand is not the right way to put it. We are falling. We are down on our rears and I am not at all optimistic about where we are headed. Perhaps the biggest danger out there is the political danger of ongoing backlash. I…
Read MoreReview: Sean T. Mitchell, Constellations of Inequality: Space, Race, and Utopia in Brazil. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2017
Sean Mitchell’s book is an illuminating account of the shifting landscapes of race and inequality that ravage Brazil in the early years of the twenty-first century. Deftly transitioning between an intricate plot of First-World catch-up through space technology, and the scorching socio-material inequalities that continue to assail the worst-off, he shows how inequality is produced…
Read MorePoetry Review Column
Bill Nevins We’re back with a few more poetry book reviews and recommendations. Despite–perhaps in defiance of—the pandemic, so many fine books of poetry have been published since we last reviewed here. It’s tough to choose among them. Here goes: The Hurting Kind Ada Limón Milkweed Editions 2022 This is the sixth volume of poetry…
Read MoreReview: Frances Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Francis Fukuyama, former deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff, follows up his last book on Political Order and Political Decay with a book that relates personal identity to political identity, entitled Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. He is the author of The End of History and the…
Read MoreREVIEW ESSAY: On Friendship and Social Movements: AIDS activism and struggles against fascism, global AIDS and harm reduction
Books reviewed: The Pox Lover: An Activist’s Decade in New York and Paris by Anne-christine d’Adesky, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2017) No Fascist USA! The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements by Hilary Moore and James Tracy (San Francisco: City Lights Press, 2020) Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and Future of Addiction by…
Read MoreConstructing a Boogeyman: Myths and Realities of Antifa Activism
For many people in the United States, antifa activism is a relatively new phenomenon that they view with suspicion at best and derision at worst. Short for antifascist, antifa is a term used by activists who organize to oppose the political activity of far-right movements and their members. Because activists on the far right frequently…
Read MoreNotes on the Occupy Movement
The Occupy Wall Street movement was long coming but is certainly a sharp departure from the usual protest: instead of a one-day demonstration, a 24/7 encampment; not a list of demands, but a stark statement about wealth concentration. This movement seeks not justice, within the prevailing system, but, albeit implicit, a massive redistribution of wealth. …
Read MoreReview Essay: Thomas de Zengotita’s Postmodern Theory and Progressive Politics: Toward a New Humanism (New York: Palgrave, 2019)
Derrida, Kristeva and Foucault. Whatever you might think about these legends of French Theory and American academic culture, reading Thomas de Zengotita’s Postmodern Theory and Progressive Politics will have you wondering who is having the thoughts: Is it the Cartesian subject, skeptical and analytical; a French postmodern not-a-subject, intertwined with an infinite cascade of texts; or, perhaps,…
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