Refusing Marcuse: 50 Years After One-Dimensional Man
In the decades following the New Left’s collapse, has the stature of any intellectual fallen more dramatically than that of Herbert Marcuse?
Fall 2025
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Candide’s Garden: A Parable
When changing the very mechanisms for change is off-limits . . .
Theses on the Feminist Novel
Not every novel that concerns itself with the lives of women is a feminist novel.
Passports for Sale
Until recently, becoming a citizen of a country has largely been regarded as priceless—a rare intangible privilege that can’t be bought or sold. This perception is starting to fade.
For Pleasure: A Letter
Difficulty is not an inherent virtue. A book must on some level give pleasure.
The Rise of Reagan’s America
In his latest book, Rick Perlstein tells lively stories at the expense of the political complexity.
Bartlebys All!
Few institutions have offered themselves as less promising for the novelist than the modern office. And yet…
Whose Moon Is It Anyway?
Managing the commons is fraught enough here on Earth, but decisions will be all the more complicated when dealing with the great commons of the sky.
Introduction: The Gunshot Concert
Introducing our special Fall edition on Politics and the Novel—with essays by Nikil Saval, Vivian Gornick, Benjamin Hale, Helen Dewitt, Nina Martyris, and Roxane Gay—David Marcus asks: what happened to the political novel?
Decline of the Strike 
A new edition of Jeremy Brecher’s classic Strike reminds readers of the sheer size, violence, and power of labor struggles now erased from American historical consciousness .
How the Right Gets Us Wrong
Because Dissent loves totalitarian politics.
Not an Option
The current state of American two-party politics is profoundly depressing—and shameful. In Congress, the Republicans rail against any program that helps workers and the poor, block any chance for undocumented women and men to become citizens, oppose every attempt to …
Bad Feminists
Women may be writing their own fantasies now, but these are still fantasies of conventionality.
How Capitalism Got Its Name
It was not until the late nineteenth century that the word “capitalism” acquired the meaning it has for us today.
Six Fables
Six fables by Syrian poet Osama Alomar.
