Book Reviews

Michael Gorra on J.M. Coetzee’s ‘Diary of a Bad Year’

Michael Gorra / Truthdig Jan 18, 2008 The Nobel Prize-winning author of such stunning (and controversial) novels as "Waiting for the Barbarians" and "Disgrace" offers up his 19th book, about a South African writer, like Coetzee himself, who now lives in Australia and tries to understand the role of a writer caught between hope and history. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

Doug Henwood on Robert Kuttner’s ‘The Squandering of America’

Doug Henwood / Truthdig Jan 11, 2008 Just how sick is the U.S. economy? Just how deep is the divide between the super-rich and the rest of us? Just how bad would a meltdown of our political economy be? And what, if anything, can be done about it? Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Carol Brightman on the 1960s

Carol Brightman / Truthdig Jan 4, 2008 Three new memoirs by veterans of the New Left provide nuance and complexity to a tumultuous decade whose political and cultural legacy is still contested. Bonus points to those who can answer the question: Do you still need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows? Dig deeper ( 21 Min. Read )

Carla Kaplan on ‘The Mitfords’

Carla Kaplan / Truthdig Dec 28, 2007 A new collection of letters between the fascinating Mitford sisters offers unparalleled insight into one of the 20th century's most famous families. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Zachary Karabell on Mark Lilla’s ‘The Stillborn God’

Zachary Karabell / Truthdig Dec 21, 2007 With religious passions inflaming and complicating politics worldwide, the very project of a secular future is threatened. In "The Stillborn God," Mark Lilla reveals the roots of the age-old quest to bring political life under God's authority. He also explores how modern Western thinkers found a way to free politics from theological power and build barriers against destructive religious fanaticism. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Benjamin Barber on ‘Supercapitalism’

Benjamin Barber / Truthdig Dec 14, 2007 Can an overheated market remedy an underachieving democracy? Can the public interest be served by an economic engine in which corporate rivals use government to quash their competitors? These and other questions are the subject of a provocative new book by Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Clinton. Benjamin Barber, author of "Jihad vs. McWorld" and "Consumed," takes a close look at Reich's argument. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Andrew Cockburn on the Islamic Bomb

Andrew Cockburn / Truthdig Dec 7, 2007 A quartet of new books provides an inside look at Pakistan's nuclear smuggling network and how it flourished. A sordid tale of how the United States simultaneously acted as an enabler for the construction of the "Islamic Bomb" and coddled the Islamists who might one day control it. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Cristina Nehring on What’s Wrong With the American Essay

Cristina Nehring / Truthdig Nov 30, 2007 One of our most trenchant critics takes a withering look at how contemporary essayists in a global world have gone increasingly, foolishly, local. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

John Mack Faragher on the ‘Hard Road West’

John Mack Faragher / Truthdig Nov 23, 2007 One of the most gifted historians of the American West takes a close look at the remarkable tale of triumph and tragedy that Keith Meldahl recounts in his dramatic story of the largest overland migration since the Crusades, as well as the equally compelling epic of the geology of the harsh and sublime Western landscape. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Nicholas von Hoffman on ‘The Conscience of a Liberal’

Nicholas von Hoffman / Truthdig Nov 16, 2007 Why is it that so many voters continue to elect reactionaries who do their best to disenfranchise them? The answer, says Paul Krugman in his new book, is racism. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Mark Sarvas on ‘The Hot Zone’

Mark Sarvas / Truthdig Nov 9, 2007 As the first Internet reporter for Yahoo News, Kevin Sites spent a year of living dangerously covering 20 wars all over the world. Is Web journalism the wave of the future? Mark Sarvas, a pioneer of literary blogging, takes a close look. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Todd Gitlin on ‘The Terror Dream’

Todd Gitlin / Truthdig Nov 2, 2007 Was the Bush administration's fevered response to 9/11 made easier by primal American myths of victimization and fear, as Susan Faludi argues in her provocative new book? Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )