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Reading Lists

Our Top Essays of 2019

From Walt Whitman to Arundhati Roy, here are the essays that were read the most over the past twelve months.

Boston Review, Rosie Gillies

Editors' Note

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Law & Justice

Free Speech, Incorporated

A new, neoliberal interpretation of the First Amendment is undermining the regulatory state—and every labeling and advertising law is now in the crosshairs.

Arts in Society

To the Fordham

In a pre-Giuliani New York where pornographic theaters create communities of dissimilar people, a young blue-collar worker and a homeless ex-con forge a connection through their shared enjoyment of public sex.

Samuel R. Delany

Politics

How Not to Do Activism

The calculus of power isn’t defined by hits or clicks or tweets. It is measured in relationships and meaningful reactions over time.

Arts in Society, Race

Ally: From Noun to Verb

Robin D. G. Kelley talks with musician Vijay Iyer about systems of oppression, the responsibility of artists, and how jazz sells proximity to blackness to white people.

Robin D. G. Kelley, Vijay Iyer

Race, War & Security

The Pervasive Power of the Settler Mindset

More than simple racism or discrimination, the destructive premise at the core of the American settler narrative is that freedom is built upon violent elimination.

Nikhil Pal Singh

Law & Justice

A Jury of One’s Peers

Prosecutors use a system of “strikes” to engineer nearly all-white juries. Eliminating this system would not only make juries less racist, but also bring us closer to the original intent of the jury system.

Sonali Chakravarti

Politics

Loving Latin at the End of the World

Many revere Latin as the soul of Western civilization. But its beauty should not keep us from reckoning with its history.

Joel Christensen

Race

Against Black Homeownership

The real estate market is so structured by race that black families will never come out ahead.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Philosophy & Religion, Science & Nature

What Makes Science Trustworthy

The “scientific method” of high school textbooks does not exist. But there are scientific methods, and they play an essential role in making scientific knowledge reliable.

Politics

Politics is for Power, Not Consumption

Political hobbyism takes well-meaning citizens away from pursuing power.

Law & Justice

College Behind Bars

U.S. Judges Admit Enhanced Interrogation Is Torture

Joseph Margulies

The Legality and Reality of Torture

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

‘Flexible’ Family Leave Is Lousy Feminism

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

A Jury of One’s Peers

Sonali Chakravarti

Halloween and Stranger Danger

Free Speech, Incorporated

How Not to Argue for Tax Justice

Arts in Society

Zero Hour: The First Days of New Berlin

Three Poems

Ally: From Noun to Verb

Robin D. G. Kelley, Vijay Iyer

My cat paints her fur on with her tongue

Craig Sullender

Rap on Trial

Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis

Surely, Not

To the Fordham

Samuel R. Delany

Undelivered Message to the Sky: November 9, 2016

An Arrangement

READING LISTS

Veterans Day 2019

READING LIST

From PTSD to dissenting.

Is Populism a Problem?

READING LIST

A bumper crop of brilliant essays on why populism isn't “anti-elite”, Trump isn’t a populist, and more.

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