Dear Reader,
Donald Trump spent his first days back in the White House rolling out plans for mass deportations, an unbridled assault on civil rights, and the defunding of vital social programs. Meanwhile, the tech billionaire class has grown even more powerful. Its tightening grip on news and social media—coupled with the Trump administration’s attempts at repression and censorship—poses a serious threat to independent publishing.
But it is precisely in moments of crisis that clear-eyed analysis is needed most. Our contributors have seen this moment coming, from Baher Azmy’s prescient argument that “Guantánamo Is Everywhere” to Elizabeth Catte’s early warning about J.D. Vance, Samuel Scheffler’s lucid dissection of the fate of liberalism, Pankaj Mishra’s blistering critique of mainstream media, and Lisa Heinzerling’s legal reporting on the destruction of the administrative state. And our next issue—which you can read by becoming a member—covers Trump’s return in depth, with searching essays on how we got here and how to fight back.
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No matter what 2025 has in store, we are ready to continue delivering the rigorous and informed analysis that millions of readers turn to each year to understand our political moment—work that Politics and Prose Bookstore recently called “some of the most penetrating to be found anywhere in the United States.” But this is just the beginning of a deepening crisis for American democracy, and as a small nonprofit, we need your support to continue covering it. If you value the writing in our pages, please consider making a contribution, as generous as you can, today. You can do so by clicking here, or by using the widget below.
Sincerely,
Deborah Chasman
Publisher and Coeditor-in-Chief, Boston Review
