The Latest
Trump’s Culture Wars Come to Architecture
Missing in all the controversy are the economic forces behind the business of building.
Hyman Bloom’s Messy Bodies
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ retrospective of Hyman Bloom offers visitors the chance to engage with work that exemplifies how art can foster justice-minded, ethical looking.
Emily Dickinson Escapes
Until recent decades, Dickinson was most often depicted as a sentimental spinster or reclusive eccentric. A new biography and TV show reveal instead a self-aware artist who created a life that defied the limits placed on women.
Impeaching for Imperialism
Beneath Trump’s impeachment lurks a troubling complacency—among Democrats and Republicans alike—with the nature of U.S. imperial power.
Painting the New York Times
An interview with Nicky Nodjoumi—one of Iran’s greatest artists, in exile since 1980.
The War Against the Poor Knows No Borders
The Trump administration’s sanctions against Iran and cuts to SNAP benefits are two sides of the same war that the rich are waging against the global poor.
Poetry and Fiction Contests
Enter for your chance to win $1,000 and publication in Boston Review. Plus, entry is free to all those outside of the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe.
High Stakes Tests Aren’t Better—And They Never Will Be
Accountability is important. But tests that tie school funding to student performance only make things worse.
Science Won’t Settle Trans Rights
Appeals to the biological facts conceal a deeper contest over political equality—and scientific authority itself.
The Private History of Ethiopia’s Wars
Maaza Mengiste’s novels reject grand narratives, offering uncommonly intimate glimpses of dictatorship and displacement.
Science Hasn’t Refuted Free Will
A growing chorus says that science has shown free will to be an illusion. But it actually has offered arguments in its favor.
Designing Better Impeachments
How other countries’ constitutions protect against political free-for-alls.
Taxing the Superrich
For the sake of justice and democracy, we need a progressive wealth tax.
Science for Sale
Using a variety of ploys to manufacture doubt, a whole industry of science-for-hire experts helps corporations put profits over public health and safety.
Missing Zinn
Cornel West opens up about his friendship with Howard Zinn and what he would have made of the last decade.
The Hidden Stakes of the 1619 Controversy
Critics of the 1619 Project obscure a longstanding debate within the field of U.S. history over the antislavery implications of the American Revolution.
Conservatives’ Newfound Interest in Dignified Work
They can give up free-market orthodoxy, but they still can’t bring themselves to embrace labor.