Museum of the Future? 
By any comparison with the old Whitney, the new museum is a triumph. But can the interest shown by the wealthy in paying for museums be shifted elsewhere?
Spring 2025
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Museum of the Future?
Reorganizing Labor
Only a mass movement by union members and sympathetic workers will transform organized labor into the bold agent of change it once was.
Surreality TV
In his new book, Peter Pomerantsev depicts Russia as a place that has descended into a madness fed by the television programs that it itself inspires. But a crucial element is missing.
The Fictions of Finance
As the divide between finance and everyday life yawns ever wider, fiction has stepped into the gap.
“Coates Isn’t Hopeful”: Melvin Rogers Responds to Lester Spence
Why is Ta-Nehisi Coates unable to comfort his son in the face of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson? This is the central problem of Between the World and Me.
“Coates Is a Realist, Not a Pessimist”: Lester Spence Responds to Melvin Rogers
Rather than taking a pessimist’s approach with his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates is taking a realistic approach, grounded in American history.
Tell It to Polaris
An excerpt from Joshua Cohen’s new novel Book of Numbers.
Where’s the Outrage?
As historian Steve Fraser sees it, we should look toward the “long nineteenth century” for inspiration in constructing a new, lasting American resistance to capitalism.
The Story of My Teeth: An Excerpt
“I lined my pockets swindling millionaires with a tap of the gavel…”
The Story of My Teeth begins.
Dangling Man
“What is man?” In his ambitious new book, Mark Greif assures us this is a valid question that we shouldn’t be ashamed to ask.
Tyranny of Democracy
In 1861 Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, gave a legalistic account of why he must leave slavery untouched. By 1865 he was an impassioned evangelist for freedom. What prompted his dramatic transformation?
The Weimar Mind: A Prehistory of the Surveillance State?
In its account of the intellectual foundations of the Cold War, Udi Greenberg’s The Weimar Century offers an unlikely origin story for our post-9/11 order.
What Happened to the Rock Critic?
Did Robert Christgau, the self-proclaimed “Dean of Rock Critics,” help kill off his own project?
Close Encounters
How can widespread inequality progress alongside widespread concern about its ill effects?
Why Feminism Needs Punk
Taking a cue from punk icon Viv Albertine, today’s feminists should dare to want more—and forget about asking for it nicely.
