Jeff Wasserstrom

Learn to Love Engineers | Los Angeles Review of Books New books by Dan Wang and Hu Anyan depict ‘both the achievements and the costs of China’s technological rise,’ and why Americans should take note.

Spirited and wide ranging review of the @wwnorton.com book Breakneck & Jack Hargreaves's translation of Hu Anyan's I Deliver Parcels in Beijing (cc @wwborders.bsky.social ), in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
/review by @afrawang.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/chin...

* meant "wide ranging" of course...

Learn to Love Engineers | Los Angeles Review of Books New books by Dan Wang and Hu Anyan depict ‘both the achievements and the costs of China’s technological rise,’ and why Americans should take note.

Spirited and wind ranging review of Breakneck & I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social by @afrawang.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/chin... cc @yilingliu95.bsky.social @joshchin.bsky.social @nuvoices.bsky.social

I liked the varied ways newspapers were displayed in China so much, I convinced a colleague to let me use a related photo he took for the cover of a 2007 book of mine....

I just posted about topical events taking place at UCI Jan 28, 30 & 31, but just heard about an important one coming on Jan 27, VERY topical & featuring insightful colleagues--Venezuela Now: U.S. Intervention, Gender, and Race in the Caribbean, 1 pm to 2 pm in Humanities Gateway (HG) 1010.

A lot going on at UCI next week (in person/free events)--Oligarchy & Its Discontents: Wealth & Power in America & Around the World conference/keynote by @eosnos.bsky.social 4:30pm Jan 30 to 5pm Jan 31 sites.uci.edu/2026forum/ + related events 2:30 Jan 28 & 12 & 2 Jan 30 sites.uci.edu/forum/2026/0...

👇 @greatdismal.bsky.social @boingboing.net

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

Posting again on the anniversary of Orwell's death, @atasoyemrah.bsky.social & my take on the possible/likely origins (in news, fiction & non-fiction of his time) of his now very topical vision of geopolitics in Nineteen Eighty-Four theconversation.com/how-george-o... cc @margaretatwood.bsky.social

How George Orwell’s 1984 predicted the global power struggles happening now Is art replicating life when it comes to Orwell’s most influential novel? Emrah Atasoy and Jeffrey Wasserstrom investigate

Reupping this as January 21, the anniversary of Orwell’s death, begins in Europe and is midway through in Asia, www.the-independent.com/news/world/g... —by @atasoyemrah.bsky.social & me, in part the piece looks at novels, news, & non fiction of the 1930s-1940s that influenced Orwell’s vision

How George Orwell’s 1984 predicted the global power struggles happening now Is art replicating life when it comes to Orwell’s most influential novel? Emrah Atasoy and Jeffrey Wasserstrom investigate

A year & a day ago, I joined 2 writers I admire, D.J. Taylor & Sandra Newman, at an @orwellprize.bsky.social event on Orwell 75 years after his death www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f... --if held now, the event would surely have had more on geopolitics www.the-independent.com/news/world/g...

How George Orwell’s 1984 predicted the global power struggles happening now Is art replicating life when it comes to Orwell’s most influential novel? Emrah Atasoy and Jeffrey Wasserstrom investigate

A year & a day ago, I joined 2 writers I admire, D.J. Taylor & Sandra Newman, at an @orwellprize.bsky.social event on Orwell 75 years after his death www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f... --if held now, the event would surely have had more on geopolitics www.the-independent.com/news/world/g...

Announcing the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Finalists for Nonfiction!

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

My favorite part of this piece on the ever-more relevant Orwell by @jwassers.bsky.social brings us into the potential literary inspirations of his nightmares of a tri-partite world... prophetic? I hope not...

theconversation.com/how-george-o...

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

Since Orwell's been on your mind theconversation.com/how-george-o... this is partly about now but partly about the geopolitics of his time...

👇 @princetonupress.bsky.social

👇 @orwellprize.bsky.social @indexoncensorship.org

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

“Today a different feature [of 1984] — which as recently as 2019, some critics dismissed as ‘obsolete’ — is getting more attention: its vision of a world divided into three spheres, controlled by autocratic governments that constantly form & then break alliances.” theconversation.com/how-george-o...

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

Important article by @jwassers.bsky.social and @atasoyemrah.bsky.social on reading current global politics with and via George Orwell’s 1984. Literature foregrounds, and foretells -- theconversation.com/how-george-o...

How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.

In our @theconversation.com essay, @atasoyemrah.bsky.social & I explore the relevance of Orwell's 3 superstate idea now (and refer to recent comments by @anneapplebaum.bsky.social & others) & also look at possible inspirations for it events & writings of his time theconversation.com/how-george-o...

Our The Conversation UK article published! “How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now” Published: January 19, 2026

Emrah Atasoy, Uni of Warwick, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Uni of California, Irvine @jwassers.bsky.social

theconversation.com/how-george-o...

Glad they did that!

Revisiting the “Comfort Girls” of Report 49: Race, Sex, and Information in Asia’s War for Empire Abstract. In 1944, a Japanese American intelligence officer stationed in Ledo, India, unwittingly composed a famous historical document: “Japanese Prisoner

They fixed it! My article is now open access. academic.oup.com/ahr/article/...

👇 Correction: this very special event will start at 2:30 rather than 2 on January 28

Journalism at the Edge A Dialogue with Prize-Winning Reporters Emily Feng and Sarah A. Topol  Moderator: Barry Siegel, founding director of UCI's Literary Journalism Program  Free and open to the public.

January 28, at UCI, 2-3:30pm: @emilyzfeng.bsky.social of @npr.org and Sarah A. Topol of @nytimes magazine will be in dialogue on their award-winning reporting, moderated by UCI's own Barry Siegel (a Pulitzer Prize winner) www.humanities.uci.edu/events/journ... --free, open to the public

Thanks so much to DC's Jifeng Books for naming The Party's Interests Come First a top book of 2025.

On January 31, I'll be moderating a book talk there with Benjamin Nathans on his wonderful To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

Great crowd yesterday for my hometown book talk in Clawson, Michigan. Thanks so much to @mauracunningham.bsky.social for doing such a terrific job moderating!

Weekly Wanderings: January 4, 2026 So … 2026. What a year, huh? 🤨 One good thing: I had the pleasure of serving as moderator for my friend Joseph Torigian at a discussion of his book, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, at Three Cats in Clawson, MI this afternoon. Three Cats is a restaurant/gift shop/event space in an old theater, so Joseph got to see his name up on the marquee:

Weekly Wanderings: January 4, 2026

So … 2026. What a year, huh? 🤨 One good thing: I had the pleasure of serving as moderator for my friend Joseph Torigian at a discussion of his book, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, at Three Cats in Clawson, MI this…

I wrote something. www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=...

𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐖𝐀𝐍. We'd like to publish reviews of these books in 2026. If you'd like to engage with any of these titles, please send an email to editors@asiancha.com