Books & Ideas
What Is Medicine For?
In place of the hype over personalized medicine, we need a more sober evaluation of the meaning of health and health care.
Atone—But Not Because It Will Save Democracy
Germany’s official policy of shame about its past is a model the United States should adopt. But it won’t protect either country from far-right extremism.
Loving Latin at the End of the World
The beauty of the language should not keep us from reckoning with its history.
It’s No Secret Why Republicans Win
The right’s success is not a shadowy conspiracy; it has been achieved out in the open, largely through ordinary politics. Much of it can be countered the same way.
Bad Romance
Capitalism hasn’t disenchanted the world. Like a bad lover, it beguiles us into spiritual desolation.
What the Health Care Debate Still Gets Wrong
Contrary to the Obama administration, U.S. health care spending isn’t high because Americans use too much medicine. The real culprit is our fragmented and privatized system.
The Critical Bite of Cultural Relativism
The pioneers of cultural anthropology taught not just how to study other cultures, but how to criticize their own.
The Why of the World
Allured by the promise of Big Data, science has shortchanged causal explanation in favor of data-driven prediction. But ultimately we must ask why.
Pleasure and Danger
The dichotomy between two kinds of feminism—one fighting for sexual liberation and one fighting for equality—is false.
The Mismeasure of Minds
Twenty-five years after The Bell Curve, debates about racial inequality continue to appeal to biology—on both sides.
Obama’s Original Sin
An insider account reveals how the Obama administration’s botched bailout deal reinforced neoliberalism and betrayed campaign promises.
The Myths of Enlightenment
For the philosopher and intellectual historian Hans Blumenberg, myths and metaphors were pivotal to philosophical thinking, not opposed to it.
The Death and Life of the Jewish Century
The resurgence of anti-Semitism today is not a quirk of Donald Trump. It has deep roots in powerful institutions.
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