Harper’s Magazine
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📤 5788
📥 54
📝 1128
Since 1850. “America’s most interesting magazine” —New York Times Subscribe: harpers.org/save
“American Literature didn’t die, it just disappeared: gone, evaporated into the thin air of bureaucratic-consumer corporate life.” Vince Passaro on Malcolm Cowley and the dream of the American canon.
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In the Aftermath of Victory, by Vince Passaro
Malcolm Cowley and the dream of the American canon
https://buff.ly/XeB6yCQ
21 minutes ago
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“The institutions studied by political scientists do not exist outside ideology but are simply patterned instances of ideology—and if ideology changes drastically enough, the institutions change with it.” —Jason Blakely
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In the Land of the Data Blind, by Jason Blakely
Why political science can’t grasp Trumpism
https://buff.ly/4Acjerg
about 2 hours ago
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"Overgrowth below, forever on all sides I cooed for the day I’m trying to breathe like the curtains do The opposite of what I’d tried yesterday" From a manuscript in progress by Riley Jones.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
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New Poetry, by Riley Jones
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https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/new-poetry-riley-jones/
about 5 hours ago
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“Fundamentally, though, museums expand because expansion does not need a reason. To the people who make the decisions, it justifies itself, like life or happiness or—for a few hopeless fogies—art.” —Jackson Arn
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State of the Art, by Jackson Arn
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about 20 hours ago
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“What is that? Is that not longing? Pure and simple, open-ended as a fishing line. A gunshot. Oh my goodness.” From “Aliens in Mingus,” a new story by David Searcy.
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Aliens in Mingus, by David Searcy
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1 day ago
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“Through neural-circuit analysis, we confirmed that model behavior is controlled by abstract decision-making features related to risky and safe behaviors, not merely by prompts. AI systems have developed humanlike addiction.”
harpers.org/archive/2026...
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Slot-Machine Learning, by Harper’s Magazine
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https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/slot-machine-learning-large-language-models-gambling/
1 day ago
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“Utilities aren’t just passive actors responding to market signals; in most cases, they are corporations, seeking to maximize value and increase profits.”
@nickbowlin.bsky.social
on the utility industry’s regulatory failures and the soaring cost of electricity.
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Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin
What’s really behind your soaring utility bills
https://buff.ly/JaftY8B
1 day ago
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Subscribe to get hand-picked pieces from the Harper's archives delivered to your inbox every Friday.
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4 days ago
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“The phrase ‘everybody did their best to ignore the disaster taking hold’ has, I find, a rather eerie ring to it at the moment.” Vince Passaro (@passerpiccolo) on Malcolm Cowley and the the American canon.
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In the Aftermath of Victory, by Vince Passaro
Malcolm Cowley and the dream of the American canon
https://buff.ly/XeB6yCQ
4 days ago
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“She doesn’t buy or cook kale, but it’s as if she attacks the food that she does buy and cook.” From Diane Williams, originally published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (
@mcsweeneys.net
).
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Someone Else’s Story, by Diane Williams
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4 days ago
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From the January Harper’s Index.
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4 days ago
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“He sees the literary world as Cowley must have seen it—not merely in terms of the glories of literary creation, but of the absurd and grimly heroic battles often required to get good and even great books published.” —Vince Passaro
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In the Aftermath of Victory, by Vince Passaro
Malcolm Cowley and the dream of the American canon
https://buff.ly/XeB6yCQ
4 days ago
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“A village theatrical staging of N. F. Simpson’s absurdist play The Hole. Abandoned when it became clear that its anti-religious sentiments would not go down well in a church setting. (2025)” From a list of projects undertaken and abandoned by Adam Smyth.
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Wealth of Creations, by Adam Smyth
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4 days ago
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“The atmosphere in the courtroom was notably strange, somehow unsteady, as if gravity had been tampered with.” Rosa Lyster on the trial of the Sycamore Gap killers.
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If a Tree Falls, by Rosa Lyster
The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers
https://buff.ly/b7hvaBG
5 days ago
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“The American power grid has become, arguably, the largest machine on earth.” Nick Bowlin (
@nickbowlin.bsky.social
) on the utility industry’s regulatory failures and the soaring cost of electricity.
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Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin
What’s really behind your soaring utility bills
https://buff.ly/JaftY8B
5 days ago
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“How such a little town, since railroad days a hundred years ago or more, unravels like the mind.” From “Aliens in Mingus,” a new story by David Searcy.
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Aliens in Mingus, by David Searcy
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5 days ago
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“Ferrara’s films, with their walking-wounded characters who tear into one another when not busy inflicting grievous punishments on themselves, stood out for making no concessions when it came to providing something like a rooting interest.”
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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A Rake’s Progress, by Nick Pinkerton
Abel Ferrara’s addiction to filmmaking
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/a-rakes-progress-nick-pinkerton-american-filmmakers/
5 days ago
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“Nobody’s ‘haunted by the past’ or feels the ‘inexorability of time’ quite like a penniless twentysomething.” Vince Passaro on Malcolm Cowley and the the American canon.
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https://buff.ly/XeB6yCQ
6 days ago
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“My goal is not just to write a clever clue. I want you to laugh out loud when you realize you have been hoodwinked by the English language.” A Harper's puzzle tester interviews Richard E. Maltby Jr. about his fifty years writing cryptic crosswords.
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Word Collision, by Richard E. Maltby Jr., Roddy Howland Jackson
Richard E. Maltby Jr. on his fifty years of writing puzzles for Harper’s Magazine, his side hustle as a musical lyricist and Tony Award–winning director, and the crossword’s place in contemporary…
https://buff.ly/wiPqvhc
6 days ago
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“Very shortly, I shall be back at my work again like a man reborn. It is a marvelous passage I now have to resume composing!” Richard Wagner in a letter of November 1864 to Ludwig II, the king of Bavaria, who had paid off the composer’s debts.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
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Werkaholic, by Richard Wagner
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https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/werkaholic-richard-wagner-letters-for-the-ages/
6 days ago
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“The woodcutter and his friend had to creep along a path that ran beside a wall, one of the oldest in the country. It was midnight, and they were carrying a saw. The storm was above their heads. They came upon the tree, which stood all alone.” —Rosa Lyster
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If a Tree Falls, by Rosa Lyster
The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers
https://buff.ly/b7hvaBG
6 days ago
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“Why does he still struggle? Believe in phantoms. Believe in freedom. Believe in make-believe. Figure it out, he urges himself.” Adapted from Slaveroad, by John Edgar Wideman.
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Life Sentences, by John Edgar Wideman
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7 days ago
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“Kirk, the face of conservative youth and a powerful force in Republican politics, had shown clear signs that he was changing sides on that battlefield of ideas—at least when it came to ideas about Israel. This made him dangerous.” —Andrew Cockburn
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Turning Point, by Andrew Cockburn
How the GOP consensus on Israel cracked
https://buff.ly/iw0DZjK
7 days ago
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“Because oil fixers play such an important and sensitive role, they can accumulate extraordinary power with heads of state, who often bestow on them the title of presidential adviser and grant them use of a diplomatic passport.” – Ken Silverstein
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Invisible Hands, by Ken Silverstein
The secret world of the oil fixer
https://buff.ly/bDxPSS1
7 days ago
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“Is it ungrateful, in the midst of the second Trump Administration, to be skeptical of the art museums that have managed to keep expanding, thanks to billionaire largesse?” From an essay by Jackson Arn, which appeared in the Fall issue of Liberties.
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State of the Art, by Jackson Arn
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7 days ago
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“When utilities earn substantial profits, one might expect customers to see some relief in their monthly bills. But as a result of the ownership model of the utilities that serve most Americans, this is rarely what happens.” —
@nickbowlin.bsky.social
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Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin
What’s really behind your soaring utility bills
https://buff.ly/JaftY8B
7 days ago
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“A novel with lightly fictionalized versions of people I was aware of as contemporaries at university who went on to run the country. Abandoned after I realized I couldn’t face the prospect of thinking about these people. (2023)” —Adam Smyth
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Wealth of Creations, by Adam Smyth
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8 days ago
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“Neither the president nor his supporters, it seems fair to say, sense any moral or legal contradiction between ‘saving’ EI Salvador and subverting Nicaragua—between defending the hemisphere and invading a hemispheric neighbor.” –T.D. Allman (January 1984)
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The Doctrine That Never Was, by T.D. Allman
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8 days ago
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“Despair is an occupational hazard for anyone who counts on government to deliver reform.” Thomas Frank on Trump’s second term.
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Liberal Despair, by Thomas Frank
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8 days ago
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“In the cellblock’s courtyard, we were made to stand in front of monitors that played footage from October 7 on a loop.” Emily Wilder reported from a humanitarian convoy to Gaza, originally published in
@jewishcurrents.bsky.social
.
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Trial of Conscience, by Emily Wilder
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8 days ago
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“We have become strangers to American politics, because for too long we have refused to let it appear sufficiently strange to us.” Jason Blakely on political science’s failure to grasp Trumpism.
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In the Land of the Data Blind, by Jason Blakely
Why political science can’t grasp Trumpism
https://buff.ly/4Acjerg
8 days ago
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An interview with Richard E. Maltby Jr. about his fifty years writing cryptic crosswords for the magazine.
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9 days ago
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Every month in our Findings column, Rafil Kroll-Zaidi presents a constellation of the most—and least—important scientific discoveries.
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10 days ago
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“If we view the current occupation through the lens of fifty years of U.S. policy, we can begin to construct a rationale for war that is not charming but at least has the benefit of coherence.” —Luke Mitchell (July 2004 )
harpers.org/archive/2004...
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Blood for oil, by Luke Mitchell
The only justification that makes sense
https://harpers.org/archive/2004/07/blood-for-oil/
10 days ago
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“Because oil fixers play such an important and sensitive role, they can accumulate extraordinary power with heads of state, who often bestow on them the title of presidential adviser and grant them use of a diplomatic passport.” – Ken Silverstein (March 2009)
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Invisible Hands, by Ken Silverstein
The secret world of the oil fixer
https://buff.ly/bDxPSS1
11 days ago
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From the January Harper’s Index.
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11 days ago
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“Nguyen loves games. Their goals and scoring mechanisms can reorient him so completely that he likens the feeling to wholesale reinvention.” Dan Piepenbring on C. Thi Nguyen’s The Score.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
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New Books, by Dan Piepenbring
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https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/new-books-dan-piepenbring/
11 days ago
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“A database of books printed in English, in England, in 1609. Large spreadsheet; on completion, all sense of purpose evaporated. What is the point of this? Dormant file on desktop. (2010)” From a list of projects undertaken and abandoned by Adam Smyth.
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Wealth of Creations, by Adam Smyth
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11 days ago
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“Oh, Little Debbie, do you know? How we dispose ourselves toward such an apprehension? How we lean out to it.” From “Aliens in Mingus,” a new story by David Searcy.
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Aliens in Mingus, by David Searcy
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11 days ago
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“In slot-machine experiments, we identified cognitive features of human gambling addiction, such as illusion of control, gambler’s fallacy, and loss chasing.” From a preprint study conducted by the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
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Slot-Machine Learning, by Harper’s Magazine
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12 days ago
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“Museum growth seems to enjoy something like the benefit of the clergy. An expanding American art museum—a sacred space where many have the closest thing to a religious experience they will ever feel—is still innocent until proven guilty.” —Jackson Arn
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State of the Art, by Jackson Arn
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12 days ago
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“There’s a quietly growing body of evidence showing that for years electric and gas utilities have been taking in more profits than they need to cover their costs and keep investors happy, at great consequence to Americans.” —
@nickbowlin.bsky.social
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Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin
What’s really behind your soaring utility bills
https://buff.ly/JaftY8B
12 days ago
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“She asks me to use my fingers on her, but I plead with her otherwise. She sighs and reads a book about medieval punishments on peasants.” From Are People Out There, by Shane Kowalski
@dieddisappointed.bsky.social
.
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To Be Frank, by Shane Kowalski
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12 days ago
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“Wonkish blindness to the power of MAGA is a direct result of neglecting the art of interpretation.” Jason Blakely on political science’s failure to grasp Trumpism.
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In the Land of the Data Blind, by Jason Blakely
Why political science can’t grasp Trumpism
https://buff.ly/4Acjerg
12 days ago
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“Such times can be piled high and arranged like flavored ice cream in a fancy dish, and these were.” From Diane Williams, originally published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern
@mcsweeneys.net
.
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Someone Else’s Story, by Diane Williams
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13 days ago
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“Like an anti-LBJ, Trump reminds the world every day what presidential power can do—the institutions it can wreck—when it is administered resolutely and with a little bit of daring.” Thomas Frank on liberal despair in Trump’s second term.
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Liberal Despair, by Thomas Frank
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13 days ago
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“Given the public fervor about the case, the state’s decision about how to handle it should not have been a surprise. I was, nevertheless, surprised.” Rosa Lyster on the trial of the Sycamore Gap killers.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
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If a Tree Falls, by Rosa Lyster
The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/if-a-tree-falls-rosa-lyster-sycamore-gap/
13 days ago
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“Given what life is like now for serious writers in America, feeling a certain soul-soreness on looking back is difficult to avoid.” Vince Passaro on Gerald Howard’s The Insider, Malcolm Cowley, and the the American canon.
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In the Aftermath of Victory, by Vince Passaro
Malcolm Cowley and the dream of the American canon
https://buff.ly/XeB6yCQ
13 days ago
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“‘All the polling I’ve seen,’ Jonathan Greenblatt, current head of the ADL, says, ‘suggests this is not a left–right gap, folks . . . it’s young and old. . . . We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem.’” On Charlie Kirk and the GOP’s cracked consensus on Israel.
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Turning Point, by Andrew Cockburn
How the GOP consensus on Israel cracked
https://buff.ly/iw0DZjK
14 days ago
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“Chaos reigns. A churning vastness beyond immense. A void beyond empty. Beyond filling. No progress therein. No matter what he thinks, wishes, or pretends.” Adapted from Slaveroad, by John Edgar Wideman.
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Life Sentences, by John Edgar Wideman
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14 days ago
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