Books

Zachary Karabell on the Middle East

BLANK Aug 8, 2008 What is it about the region that provokes intense sectarian passions, prompting seemingly endless vendettas? "Kingmakers," by Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, tells the story of British and American entanglement and how the modern Middle East was invented. It also offers an exemplary history of hubris. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Kasia Anderson on Barbara Walters

BLANK Aug 1, 2008 "Audition" details the life story, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, of a pioneering journalist-entertainer who reported the news while making it in ways both admirable and troubling. Dig deeper ( 16 Min. Read )

Nikki Keddie on Iran

BLANK Jul 25, 2008 In "Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies," Barbara Slavin, a leading Middle East reporter for USA Today, offers a refreshingly nuanced and revelatory taxonomy of power within theocratic Iran that sheds light on its leaders and their ambitions. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

William Pfaff on General Motors

BLANK Jul 18, 2008 Are workers to blame for the fix that General Motors (along with many other corporations) is in? A new book by Roger Lowenstein argues that they are. He couldn't be more wrong. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Ellen Garrison on ‘All the Sad Young Literary Men’

BLANK Jul 11, 2008 Are Keith Gessen and his posse really the voice of the Zeitgeist, the intellectual heirs to Norman Mailer and George Plimpton? Or just the highbrow version of Judd Apatow? Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Ruth Rosen on ‘The Populist Vision’

BLANK Jul 4, 2008 Do the socially progressive ideals that jump-started 20th-century reform movements have lessons relevant to the concerns of 21st-century America? A new book makes a strong case that they do. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

The Gospel According to … the Boss?

Staff / Truthdig Jul 1, 2008 Unitarian Universalist minister Jeffrey Symynkywicz is quite the Bruce Springsteen enthusiast, apparently. The Boston fan has studied Bruce Springsteen's lyrics as though they were Scripture, and the end result is Symynkywicz's new book -- wait for it -- "The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Doug Henwood on the Global Power Elite

BLANK Jun 27, 2008 Are we now ruled by an international "superclass" that hollows out traditional notions of national sovereignty, and whose loyalties are only to the bottom line and its own members? Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Tony Platt on American Eugenics

BLANK Jun 20, 2008 Here's a story, both chilling and inspiring: how prisoners at an Oklahoma prison in the aftermath of the Depression led a struggle to limit the practice of compulsory sterilization. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Richard Flacks on Tom Hayden

BLANK Jun 13, 2008 For 50 years, Tom Hayden has been an indefatigable organizer on behalf of the disenfranchised, and now, with the publication of his "Writings for a Democratic Society," we have a chance to trace the arc of activism of an American original who continues to make history. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Nicholas von Hoffman on ‘The Big Squeeze’

Nicholas von Hoffman / Truthdig Jun 6, 2008 A new book by New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse argues that the plight of American workers, both white-collar and blue-collar, is growing worse, putting the American dream out of the reach of tens of millions of citizens. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Gary Indiana on Hobsbawm?s ‘On Empire’

BLANK May 30, 2008 Eric Hobsbawm, one of our most celebrated historians, looks at what makes the American Colossus uniquely dangerous in its imperial overreach at the dawn of the third millennium. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )