The Political Philosophy of Care
In Reckoning, Deva Woodly makes a case for radical Black feminist pragmatism, a philosophy “that takes lessons from many twentieth-century ideologies and forges them into a political ethic for our times.”
Winter 2024
- Subscribe
- Magazine
- Online
- Blog
- Podcasts
- Events
- Store
- Logout
- About Us
- Donate
- Contact
- Advertise
- Newsletter
The Catastrophe in New York City Jails
The survival of incarcerated people is dependent on slow-moving bureaucrats and the politically calculating whims of sadistic politicians.
The Rigorous Experimentalism of Ann Snitow, 1943–2019 
Ann demanded of us, and demands of us still, that we be as creative, relentless, and serious as she was in the pursuit of collective liberation.
Graceland
Marilynne Robinson’s latest essay collection What Are We Doing Here? reveals the limits of her restrained metaphysics.
What Nationalism Really Means
When American Affairs talks about nationalism, it’s a proxy for an imaginary white America they wish existed, but doesn’t.
Left Foot Forward
Building a left strong enough to finally send the zombie of neoliberalism to its grave, while holding off Trumpism with the other hand, is a daunting task. But it’s in the struggle that we know we’re the ones still living.
Good Jurors, Bad Laws
After convicting Occupy activist Cecily McMillan of felony assault on a police officer on May 5, twelve jurors walked into the light and discovered that they had, perhaps, condemned the twenty-five-year-old to turning thirty on Rikers Island. “Most just wanted …
Back to Utopia
From the beginning, Dissent has been a haven for utopian ideas. An early essay by Irving Howe and Lewis Coser declared that socialism was “the name of our desire,” paraphrasing what Tolstoy had written about God. In 1954 it was …
BDS at Brooklyn College
There’s been a great deal of controversy over the Brooklyn College Political Science Department’s sponsorship of a panel about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) — it’s now been largely resolved as progressive politicians have backpeddled their criticism. BDS …
Introduction: The New Feminism
The “end of men,” “having it all,” the “richer sex” — women, it would seem, have finally arrived. But this celebration is one part toast to the wealthy exceptions, and one part nonsense.
Introduction: Food and the Body Politic
Americans are in the midst of a food-consciousness revival: on television, in the mouth of the First Lady, in endless articles celebrating urban agriculture can be found a sudden enthusiasm for the politically and, perhaps, spiritually curated dinner table. In …
Nature as an Ally: An Interview with Wendell Berry
Each generational wave of environmental concern seems to lap at Wendell Berry’s doorstep. He gave up teaching and writing in New York in the sixties to return to Kentucky, establishing a small farm at Lanes Landing near Port Royal, and …
Occupy a Bank
Sarah Leonard: Occupy a Bank
Into the Ether
Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership by Lewis Hyde Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010, 306 pp. In 1983, Lewis Hyde published The Gift, a meditation on gift economies where art and ideas escaped the indignity of a market value. …
Ten Years Later: Self-Surveillance and Social Media
Sarah Leonard: Self-Surveillance
