In the early nineteen sixties, Irving Howe and Ralph Ellison crossed swords in an exchange of vehemently argued essays. Ellison’s half of the exchange remains handily available, “The World and the Jug,” reprinted in his now canonical essay collection Shadow …
Three years ago, Jay Hammond figured his time was nearly up. At least he’d led a full life: Marine Corps fighter pilot in the Second World War; bush pilot in Alaska; master hunter and fisher with the U.S. Fish and …
Central Park is in full bloom as I write this; the orange Gates that lit up the park in the gloom of February are a faint after-image. The grand achievement of Christo and Jeanne Claude is overshadowed by the changing …
Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays by Christopher Hitchens Nation Books, 2004, 475 pp., $16.95 Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, an unsettling matter has roiled certain precincts of the left: Christopher Hitchens’s zealous support of the Bush …
There are ominous signs that new versions of biological determinism have returned, with the claim that women are not meant, by nature or by psyche, for achievement. Myths about gender difference now “prove” that women should be confined to jobs …
Readers of small left-wing magazines will no doubt be surprised to learn of dramatic growth in economic inequality and the mounting impact of social class in America. Readers of larger, not-so-left sources may be really surprised. The New York Times, …
Though no one realizes it, Israel may be a linchpin in this year’s historic push for change at the United Nations. Israel’s tortured history at the UN is emblematic of much (though by no means all) of what is wrong …
Ellen Schrecker on Jennifer Washburn’s University, Inc.
I am grateful to Leo Casey for his detailed response to my article. It allows me to explore some of the stereotypes about Chávez and Venezuela that I lamented in my article. There is no doubt in my mind that …
Jim Rule has provided a textbook example of what I called in the last issue of Dissent “the great crossover” (“All God’s Children Got Values,” Spring 2005). The political projects that he rejects—”schemes involving vast short-term suffering on behalf of …
Mexican Factory Workers’ Dream Dies on Altar of Free Trade
Nicholaus Mills defends confidentiality for journalists
Why Don’t American Parents Protest?
Linda Gordon on Jon Wiener’s Historians in Trouble
Recently, a PBS Frontline documentary called “The New Asylum” showed how our jails and prisons have become, by default, the nation’s mental hospitals. This wasn’t an exposé. The prison under examination didn’t seem particularly bad. The staff seemed to be …
