Books & the Arts

A figure looks at the dynamic map board showing power distribution through California’s electrical grids in the control center of the California Independent System Operator, 2004.

The World’s Problems Explained in One Issue: Electricity The World’s Problems Explained in One Issue: Electricity

Brett Christophers’s account of the market-induced failure to transition to renewables is his latest entry in a series of books demystifying a multi-pronged global crisis.

Jul 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Trevor Jackson

The first family to move into the Levittown development in New York, 1947.

The Planetary Vision of Soviet Russia’s Great Modernist Novel The Planetary Vision of Soviet Russia’s Great Modernist Novel

Andrey Platonov’s masterpiece Chevengur imagined a politics of solidarity that placed at its center the health of the planet.

Jul 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Maria Chehonadskih

Christina Ramberg, “Untitled (Hand),” 1971.

Christina Ramberg’s Public Secrets Christina Ramberg’s Public Secrets

A look at the life and work of one Chicago's great 20th-century painters.

Jul 15, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, 2019.

The Rise and Fall of the Marvel Cinematic Universe The Rise and Fall of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

How a movie studio and its head honcho redefined moviemaking for the worst.

Jul 11, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kyle Paoletta

Anya Taylor-Joy in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”

Why Did “Furiosa” Flop? Why Did “Furiosa” Flop?

A web of interconnected reasons might explain why George Miller’s long-awaited new entry to his Mad Max series failed in the box office.

Jul 10, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi

In Poetry’s Church

In Poetry’s Church In Poetry’s Church

More than a half century of the Poetry Project

Jul 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Frere-Jones

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s “Zion, Her Mother Shea, and Her Grandfather Mr. Smiley Riding on Their Tennessee Walking Horses, Mares, P.T. (P.T.’s Miss One of a Kind), Dolly (Secretly), and Blue (Blue’s Royal Threat), Newton, Mississippi.”

LaToya Ruby Frazier Rewrites the Rules of Documentary Photography LaToya Ruby Frazier Rewrites the Rules of Documentary Photography

A new career survey at the MoMA is a perfect illustration of the photographer's mission: to reframe how viewers see the working-class and low-income people whom she counts as kin....

Jul 3, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jillian Steinhauer

Harriet Tubman in 1868 or 1869.

The Many Lives of Harriet Tubman The Many Lives of Harriet Tubman

Tiya Miles’s Night Flyer is a landmark biography of one of 19th-century America’s most important figures. 

Jul 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kellie Carter Jackson

A certificate for a volunteer serving in the Union army.

Can the Constitution Save Us? Can the Constitution Save Us?

The Constitution is often invoked as a safeguard for American democracy, but does it more often get in democracy’s way?

Jul 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jedediah Britton-Purdy

Taylor Swift, Poet

Taylor Swift, Poet Taylor Swift, Poet

Country singer, globetrotting pop star, and now melancholic poet—Taylor Swift has offered her listeners almost everything.

Jul 1, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie Burt

x