I owe you nothing. Not a penny. Not for the sins of slavery or white supremacy or “structural racism” or Jim Crow or redlining or police brutality. Certainly not for the existence of racism, real or imagined. The idea of reimbursing contemporary black citizens for the sin of slavery is one of the most corrosive, […]
Over the past decade or so, a notable trend among American historians, particularly those prioritizing social justice in their research, has been to frame the unsavory facets of United States history as the defining features of the society. One useful way to think of this is as a version of the American exceptionalism the same […]
More than six decades after Norgestrel was patented, the progestin-only birth control pill has debuted on drug store shelves and online as Opill. It’s the first oral contraceptive in the country granted nationwide over-the-counter status by the Food and Drug Administration. Already, retailers such as Amazon, Target, CVS, and Walmart have listed a three-month supply […]
In his new book, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, bestselling narrative historian Hampton Sides tells the story of one of the greatest explorers ever to live, James Cook. Tales of Cook’s exploits have fallen out of favor. The once-celebrated explorer has become the […]
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israeli civilians, President Joe Biden showed sympathy and support for Israel. Even as news of that day’s horrors, including the death of 30 Americans, continued to come out, Biden’s sympathy and support was not shared across his administration. As the war reaches its six-month […]
There are few occasions in popular entertainment that are more promising, or more perilous, than the finale of a great television series. When done well, it provides resolution and closure. We understand that the characters have accomplished worthwhile things and built solid relationships but still have fresh opportunities before them — a new romance, a […]
It is difficult, 20 years on, to say which is more unlikely: that flip-flopping, wind-surfing, “Jinjis” Khan-pronouncing John Kerry came within an Ohio whisper of the White House or that Kerry’s rebuke proceeded in large part from a bevy of cheesed-off veterans. Politics change in two decades, of course, and my guess is that the […]
The journey begins with sweet-and-sour pork balls. A staple of Chinese take-away restaurants in 1970s England, these were school-age Fuchsia Dunlop’s introduction to the cuisine that would change her life. Or, more accurately, one of the cuisines. For in her new book, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, Dunlop dispels the notion […]
Alex Garland’s Civil War isn’t the movie you might expect from its trailers, which portray the film as an action blockbuster set amid an apocalyptic near-future conflict between a loose confederation of Western states and the federal government in Washington, D.C. Don’t expect massive battles over American cities. The violence is brutal but mostly brief. […]
When asked to rank different forms of popular entertainment, modern culture critics might put professional wrestling somewhere between amateur pornography and dogfighting. Enjoyment of this grand tradition is liable to get you marked as a hopeless rube or even a symptom of malignant cultural pathologies. Right now, this takes the form of the analysis that […]