Politics, Race

The Hidden Stakes of the 1619 Controversy

Seeking to discredit those who wish to explain the persistence of racism, critics of the New York Times’s 1619 Project insist the facts don’t support its proslavery reading of the American Revolution. But they obscure a longstanding debate within the field of U.S. history over that very issue—distorting the full case that can be made for it.

David Waldstreicher

Class & Inequality

Conservatives’ Newfound Interest in Dignified Work

They can give up free-market orthodoxy, but still can’t bring themselves to embrace labor.

Suresh Naidu

Print Issues

New Issue: On Anger

Our winter 2020 issue has gone to press, featuring Agnes Callard, Paul Bloom, Elizabeth Bruenig, Judith Butler, Martha Nussbaum and more. Preorder now. 

Philosophy & Religion

The Philosophy of Anger

There are two problems with anger: it is morally corrupting, and it is completely correct. 

Agnes Callard

Race

The Radical Lives of Abolitionists

History has tended to sanitize the lives of abolitionists, many of whom were involved in other radical movements as well, including Free Love, which promoted women’s independence and an end to traditional marriage.

Britt Rusert

Race

Black Abolitionists Believed in Taking Up Arms

Long before the Civil War, black abolitionists shared the consensus that violence would be necessary to end slavery. Unlike their white peers, their arguments were about when and how to use political violence, not if.

Randal Maurice Jelks

Philosophy & Religion

The Radical Equality of Lives

Judith Butler talks with Brandon M. Terry about MLK, the grievability of black lives, and how to defend nonviolence today. 

Brandon M. Terry, Judith Butler

Global Justice

Uncivil Disobedience in Hong Kong

The protests have been critiqued for their rejection of classic nonviolence—but that may help explain why they has been so successful.

Candice Delmas

Politics, Science & Nature

Technology Can't Fix Algorithmic Injustice

We need greater democratic oversight of AI not just from developers and designers, but from all members of society.

Annette Zimmermann, Elena Di Rosa, Hochan Kim

Politics, War & Security

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad.

Bonnie Honig

Reading Lists

Ten Years of Must Reads

Our editors’ picks from the past decade: Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Robin Kelley, and more. Plus, find out which was voted as our readers’ favorite. 

Boston Review

Arts in Society

The Historian’s Art

After retiring from Princeton, celebrated historian Nell Irvin Painter decided to go to art school. In this interview with Walter Johnson, she discusses what it’s like to be an old student, and how art lets her tell truths about history that she couldn’t as an academic.

Jonathan M. Square, Walter Johnson, Nell Painter