Books & Ideas

Just Give Me My Equality

A new book explains where egalitarianism went wrong—and what it still has to offer.

Why Policing and Prisons Can’t End Gender Violence

The authors of Abolition. Feminism. Now. discuss why racialized state violence and gender-based violence have to be fought together.

In Search of Foucault’s Last Words

Against the philosopher’s dying wish, the final volume of History of Sexuality has now been published. How should we approach it?

What Good Can Dreaming Do?

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven and the radical imagination

Classical Music and the Color Line

The field is reckoning with a long legacy of racial exclusion, despite its universalist claims.

Can Big Tech Serve Democracy?

New tools and technology policy might help, but politics come first.

Me Too Déjà Vu

The sex wars of the 1980s were about much more than pornography.

Demanding Justice for the Living

Derecka Purnell discusses her new book Becoming Abolitionists, how she came to join the movement against policing and prisons, and what a just world looks like.

The Changing Same of U.S. History

Two books on the Constitution reflect a vigorous debate about what has changed in the American past—and what hasn’t.

Radical Movements and Political Power

Today’s social movements are grappling once again with a central challenge for the New Left: how to remedy injustice while maintaining vitality and independence from the political system.

The Radical Promise of Human History

A sweeping new history of humanity upends the story of civilization, inviting us to imagine how our own societies could be radically different.

How Domestic Labor Robs Women of Their Love

The glaring omission in recent works depicting the agonies of nannying and housekeeping.

What Health Care Should Be

Physicians have been fighting for health justice for decades. To succeed, we need practical models for collectively remaking our systems of care.

Pornography’s Contradictions

Which forms of oversight enhance erotic flourishing, and which quash it?

Pleasure and Justice

On feminism, sex, and the ethics of desire.

Slouching Toward Humanity

Have efforts to conduct war more humanely helped to perpetuate it?

Against Incrementalism

Center-left parties should learn that small-bore solutions are a waste of time.

How Not to Fix Gentrification

The community development industry has failed in the fight for fair housing. Despite claiming to involve residents, power and self-interest still have the final say.

The News Is Dead, Long Live the News!

Public interest journalism may not be salvageable. But more than being saved, it needs to be radically rethought.

We Don’t Know, But Let’s Try It

For economist Albert O. Hirschman, social planning meant creative experimentation rather than theoretical certainty.

Beyond Choice

Liberalism cannot simply be extended to the uterus. Reproductive justice requires a vision of the social body.

China and the Lure of Global Capitalism

The country’s explosive development has relied on markets—at the cost of earlier ideals.

In the Common Interest

How a grassroots movement of American farmers laid the foundation for state intervention in the economy.

The Power of the Party

Founded a century ago, the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly defied predictions of its demise.

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