The Nation's Books & the Arts

President of Peace, Department of War. A New Name Sends Mixed Signals.

Trump’s Pentagon rebrand shows what @mattduss.bsky.social ss calls “belligerent chest-thumping, not peacemaking — with dangerous consequences for U.S. security, global standing, and our armed forces.” @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/u...

The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy A new book on the Biden’s wars serves as a stark reminder that the Democrats need to formulate a new foreign policy—as well as reckon with the one they had.

“what is one to make of a book that, after detailing how Biden and his team helped perpetrate an era-­defining catastrophe in Gaza, proceeds to describe that team as ‘an example of steady and purposeful leadership’?”

On Woodward’s “War” @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/worl...

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.

Baldwin’s loves helped him recover from personal crises and learn to accept himself. They also helped him find hope in an era of violence and upheaval.

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.

I wrote about Nicholas Boggs' new James Balddwin biography for @thenation.com Read here: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy A new book on the Biden’s wars serves as a stark reminder that the Democrats need to formulate a new foreign policy—as well as reckon with the one they had.

Read @mattduss.bsky.social in @thenation.com on Bob Woodward’s "War": In its total absence of real reflection on what the Biden admin could have gotten wrong, the book serves as a compelling brief for why Trump was reelected.

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies What was it about Buckley that made him so attractive to liberals—and what was it about liberals that caused them to be attracted to conservative figures like Buckley in the first place?

this is excellent www.thenation.com/article/cult...

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.

This was great and was glad it offered an audio version! @thenation.com @rodriquese.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The Lost Souls of the Internet In Searches, Vauhini Vara probes the ways that we rely on the Internet and how we periodically attempt to free ourselves from its grip.

"Big Tech’s ambition is to create an archive of everything we do and everything we are—an aspiration that is unprecedented in human history. The only thing that comes close can be found in religion." I wrote about Vauhini Vara's Searches @thenation.com (free link!) www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy A new book on the Biden’s wars serves as a stark reminder that the Democrats need to formulate a new foreign policy—as well as reckon with the one they had.

“‘War’ reflects how the Democratic Party establishment desperately wants to see itself…More than any other recent president, Biden embodied the foreign policy establishment, and that establishment cannot admit failure”

@mattduss.bsky.social on Bob Woodward’s “War”

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies What was it about Buckley that made him so attractive to liberals—and what was it about liberals that caused them to be attracted to conservative figures like Buckley in the first place?

"There can be no real defeat of the far right until liberals learn what the right already understands all too well: Politics is telling the difference between a friend and a foe."

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Fall Books features Matt Duss on the crisis of Democratic foreign policy, Becca Rothfeld on Ingeborg Bachmann, Laila Lalami on the Internet's lost souls, Sarah Chihaya on Susan Choi, Elias Rodriques on James Baldwin, and @jeetheer.bsky.social on William Buckley: www.thenation.com/issue/octobe...

Thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to my brilliant editor @davidmarcus.bsky.social, who commissioned me as well as another finalist, and who has made The Nation's @booksandthearts.bsky.social section such a vital space for book criticism.

Great piece on why living an examined life can't exclude examinations of social relations and politics, especially for a species that is inherently social and political, by @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social. (Or as I almost put it, great piece of thinking about thinking about thinking.)

Spring Books is live! Featuring @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social on Agnes Callard, Vivian Gornick on Murray Kempton, @lioneltrolling.bsky.social on Young Trump, Sarah Chihaya on Sigrid Nunez, @ednabonhomme.bsky.social on Zora Neale Hurston, and John Banville on Ireland www.thenation.com/issue/may-20...

Agnes Callard and the Examined Life In her new book, Callard makes the case that we should all live more philosophically but where does politics fit in?

A focus on philosophical conversation, while a useful remedy to all of today's distraction, can also become a strategy of evasion. @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social in our Spring Books issue www.thenation.com/article/cult... @thenation.com

The Rebellions of Murray Kempton One of his generation’s most prolific journalists, Kempton never turned a blind eye to the inequalities all around him.

Vivian Gornick in Spring Books on the many lives of Murray Kempton @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Agnes Callard and the Examined Life In her new book, Callard makes the case that we should all live more philosophically but where does politics fit in?

"The very first line of Open Socrates admonishes the reader, “There is a question you are avoiding.” For Callard, that question is: Why are you living this way? But this only points to a host of questions that Callard herself avoids..."

me for @thenation.com

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The making and remaking of Capital. Epic piece by Alyssa Battistoni in latest @booksandthearts.bsky.social / @thenation.com on Marx’s masterpiece, the history of its translations, and what it means to read it today www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Donald Trump’s Long Con Trump’s “Art of” trilogy may be full of willful exaggeration but the books also reveal how the 1980s and 90s formed his dog-eat-dog worldview.

"You could call the business model Trump developed a kind of personality arbitrage." @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in @thenation.com's Spring Books on how the 1980s and 90s made Trump www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Donald Trump’s Long Con Trump’s “Art of” trilogy may be full of willful exaggeration but the books also reveal how the 1980s and 90s formed his dog-eat-dog worldview.

I read Donald Trump's books for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Cormac McCarthy’s Unforgiving Parables of American Empire He demonstrated how the frontier wasn’t an incubator of democratic equality but a place of unrelenting pain, cruelty, and suffering.

Like Melville, Cormac McCarthy offered us a view into the rapaciousness, megalomania, and violence of American empire. https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/cormac-mccarthy-obit-melville/

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holy shit, it's everyone's favorite biweekly iconic lefty magazine culture section, @booksandthearts.bsky.social, right here on this very app!!!!!!!!!!!!