Politics

Forgotten Men

The Long Road from FDR to Trump

What Would Doctorow Do?

His novels might be read as a fictive analogue to Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States: a polyphonic chronicle of the betrayal of his country’s original promise.

The GOP Plan to Turn Students into Trump Voters

By attacking higher education, the new tax bill belies the GOP’s ambitious political motivations.

Growing Up Under Mugabe

On the enduring legacy of a dictatorial ruler.

One Year Later

We have to do much more than fight back, we have to fight for the world that could liberate and sustain us all when Trump is gone.

Rescuing Economics from Neoliberalism

As we heap scorn on neoliberalism, we risk throwing out some of its most useful ideas.

#ThemToo

To fight sexual harassment in the workplace, we must learn from the history of women in the labor movement.

Keeping the Faith

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s latest book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, is his clearest expression yet of political fatalism. But black activism has always believed in the possibility of change.

In the Name of Victims

Looking beyond the symbolic crisis to the realities of Title IX implementation.

Two Cheers for Polarization

We may not like it, but when it comes to U.S. politics, polarization may very well be part of the solution.

America’s Imperial Unraveling

Could Trump’s repudiation of the Iran Deal be the beginning of the end of U.S. hegemony abroad?

An Empire unto Himself

When it comes to sexual assault, Harvey Weinstein is old-school. But Trump has changed the rules of the game.

Against Second-Rate Democracy in Kenya

Citizens of African countries are expected to accede to a lower political standard than real democracy. Not only does this perpetuate the old colonial imagination, it is also fundamentally wrong.

Monopoly Men

After an eventful summer in Silicon Valley, there is blood in the water. At stake is democracy itself.

Schlesinger and the Decline of Liberalism

Schlesinger’s America has vanished, as has his unique brand of liberalism.

Disrupting the Conservative Platform

Given today’s economic challenges, some on the right are beginning to embrace a more robust safety net.

To Map, to Warn, to Hope

Introducing Global Dystopias.

No Eulogy for the Living

An open letter to the Philippines.

Writing While Socialist

Vijay Prashad on writing, struggle, and hope in difficult times.

What White Supremacists Want

Trump's paternalistic language of care draws an exceptional circle around whites only.

Know Thy Futurist

Many visions of the future proliferate in Silicon Valley. Which one is worth fighting for?

The Descent of Democracy

While the United States has expanded its borders of inclusion over time, the borders of whiteness have never fallen. Only a robust black public sphere can change that.

The German Left Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Could Germany's left-wing parties unseat Angela Merkel in Sunday's election? Only if they bury the hatchet.

Draining the Swamp

Mar-a-Lago is the apotheosis of the Florida Dream in which wealthy interests degrade the environment and hollow out prospects for the poor. But as Hurricane Irma shows, this dream was never sustainable.

Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox


A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization