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Andrew Butterfield on the dazzlingly inventive painters of fourteenth-century Siena
24/01/2025

Andrew Butterfield on the dazzlingly inventive painters of fourteenth-century Siena

For two generations Sienese painters and sculptors engaged in a nonstop flurry of experimentation and innovation.

Robyn Creswell on translating the Qur’an
24/01/2025

Robyn Creswell on translating the Qur’an

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph and conqueror of Jerusalem, was initially one of the prophet Muhammad’s fiercest enemies. According to early

The cast of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths “hardly seems to be living in Leigh’s usual noisy democracy,” writes Andrew Katzens...
23/01/2025

The cast of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths “hardly seems to be living in Leigh’s usual noisy democracy,” writes Andrew Katzenstein. “This may be the chilliest, sparest film he has ever made.”

At eighty-one, the British filmmaker Mike Leigh shows few signs of wanting to retire so long as he can find funding for his projects. This has always been

Caitlin Zaloom on the repressive dominance of the austerity economists
23/01/2025

Caitlin Zaloom on the repressive dominance of the austerity economists

Why are economists are in the US today uniquely able to exercise such sway over the state?

Daniel J. Kevles on George Washington, agronomist and slaveholder
23/01/2025

Daniel J. Kevles on George Washington, agronomist and slaveholder

Bruce Ragsdale’s Washington at the Plow examines the connections between the first president’s commitment to agricultural innovation and his evolving attitudes toward his enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon.

Our February 13 issue is now online, with Deborah Eisenberg on Kafka’s ephemera, Blair McClendon on irrepressible Alvin ...
23/01/2025

Our February 13 issue is now online, with Deborah Eisenberg on Kafka’s ephemera, Blair McClendon on irrepressible Alvin Ailey, Daniel J. Kevles on the human cost of Washington’s Mount Vernon, Giles Harvey on Colm Tóibín, Jessica Riskin on the stubborn determinists, Robert O. Paxton on Charles de Gaulle’s sonorous memoirs, Jé Wilson on the enchantments of La Chimera, Gary Saul Morson on the failures of liberalism in Russia, Caitlin Zaloom on the dominance of economic thinking, poems by Maria Galina and Aaron Poochigian, and much more.

Table of Contents

“Slow Horses may be catching a wave in history,” writes Nawal Arjini, “but it’s not the churn of geopolitics. It is the ...
22/01/2025

“Slow Horses may be catching a wave in history,” writes Nawal Arjini, “but it’s not the churn of geopolitics. It is the cruel optimism of the underemployed.”

“Even the best spies have their time in the cold,” an old secret agent tells his grandson. They’re sitting by the fire in an episode of Apple

“The stench in our cell was unrelenting. A blend of human waste, sweat, and rancid towels greeted us each morning, staye...
21/01/2025

“The stench in our cell was unrelenting. A blend of human waste, sweat, and rancid towels greeted us each morning, stayed there when we sat cross-legged on the floor to eat, followed us into our sleep.” —Uyghur linguist Abduweli Ayup on his time in China’s prisons

Abduweli Ayup was born in 1973 in Upal, a town close to the city of Kashgar in the far west of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—or East Turkestan, as

“[The] ‘duel’ between men and women...always contains a dangerous animal to be dealt with somehow. [Balzac’s] The Lily i...
20/01/2025

“[The] ‘duel’ between men and women...always contains a dangerous animal to be dealt with somehow. [Balzac’s] The Lily in the Valley both unleashes and ironizes romantic passion, but it offers no way out.” —Peter Brooks

Balzac’s The Lily in the Valley gives full-throated voice to romantic passion and at the same time contains it, inflating its rhetoric while ironizing it.

The director Mike Leigh’s unusual working process, writes Andrew Katzenstein, “allows him to fill his movies with the qu...
20/01/2025

The director Mike Leigh’s unusual working process, writes Andrew Katzenstein, “allows him to fill his movies with the quirks, distractions, and small devastations that make up daily life.”

At eighty-one, the British filmmaker Mike Leigh shows few signs of wanting to retire so long as he can find funding for his projects. This has always been

Aryeh Neier and Amrit Singh on the imminent threat to democracy in Guatemala
19/01/2025

Aryeh Neier and Amrit Singh on the imminent threat to democracy in Guatemala

Bernardo Arévalo’s inauguration last year as president of Guatemala symbolized the revival of democracy in a notoriously corrupt country. A concerted effort by obstructionist elites now threatens to oust him on specious grounds—and bring repression back.

“One rationale for public schools has long been that students benefit from learning alongside classmates from different ...
19/01/2025

“One rationale for public schools has long been that students benefit from learning alongside classmates from different backgrounds,” writes Diane Ravitch. “But this is precisely what the parents’ rights movement rejects.”

Donald Trump and his supporters have hardly been shy about his ambitions for education. They can be found laid out concisely in three documents: the

“Democratic market-making has in fact thinned the relationship between citizens and the state, which has come to depend ...
19/01/2025

“Democratic market-making has in fact thinned the relationship between citizens and the state, which has come to depend on the interests and whims of capital to actually deliver social progress.” —Brent Cebul on Bidenomics

As the Democratic Party reckons with another loss to Donald Trump, no issue looms larger than its continued hemorrhaging of working-class voters. It’s not

Nawal Arjini on the cruel optimism of Slow Horses
18/01/2025

Nawal Arjini on the cruel optimism of Slow Horses

“Even the best spies have their time in the cold,” an old secret agent tells his grandson. They’re sitting by the fire in an episode of Apple

Andrew Katzenstein on Mike Leigh's Hard Truths
18/01/2025

Andrew Katzenstein on Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

At eighty-one, the British filmmaker Mike Leigh shows few signs of wanting to retire so long as he can find funding for his projects. This has always been

“Alexei Ratmansky inherited an agile body from his father, a former gymnast, and music fueled his desire to move. He mad...
18/01/2025

“Alexei Ratmansky inherited an agile body from his father, a former gymnast, and music fueled his desire to move. He made up dances before he ever took a dance class, casting the children in his Kyiv neighborhood in the performances.” —Sarah Kaufman

When the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky first saw a tape of Balanchine’s Apollo, he watched in disbelief. Here was elegance without exaggeration, tension and beauty without stagy excess.

“He represents a force within us both monstrous and indispensable: a will to life, a boundless self-assertion whose triu...
18/01/2025

“He represents a force within us both monstrous and indispensable: a will to life, a boundless self-assertion whose triumph and extinction alike would leave us less than human.” —Nathan Shields on Mozart’s Don Giovanni

“With blondes, he praises their gentleness; with brunettes, their faithfulness.... The large ones he calls majestic, the little ones charming.” So Don

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Videos

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

One man's quest to find his son within the labyrinth of Israeli rule. Read the article by Nathan Thrall at nybooks.com/daily/2021/03/19/a-day-in-the-life-of-abed-salama/ Video Credits Director: Animoshe, Yair Moss Producer: Yair Moss Script: Danielle Zini, Animoshe, Yair Moss Animation: Animoshe Design: Dafi Ben Ami, Dafna Englander, Shahaf Ram, Animoshe Storyboard: Stav Levy, Animosh, Shahaf Ram Reference Videography: Ihab Jadallah, Gitai Silver Soundtrack: Itamar Ziegler Sound Design: Ori Kadishay Post Production: Ido Katsiri

Podcast Clip: Simon Callow
Podcast Clip: Simon Callow

Hear all of our audio Pandemic Journal entries in one place with a special 40-minute podcast episode: https://apple.co/2xCrzdD

Pandemic Journal: Michael S. Roth, Middletown
Pandemic Journal: Michael S. Roth, Middletown

Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth reads his Pandemic Journal entry from Middletown, Connecticut: https://bit.ly/2XIGoGn

Pandemic Journal: Adam Foulds, Toronto
Pandemic Journal: Adam Foulds, Toronto

“I attend a Zen meditation via Zoom. Sittings are suspended. The sounds of the wooden mallet and bells are flat, compressed through my laptop speakers.” Listen to Adam Foulds read his Pandemic Journal entry from Toronto: https://bit.ly/3c6KhJ0

Pandemic Journal: Minae Mizumura, Tokyo
Pandemic Journal: Minae Mizumura, Tokyo

“I thought about the role of literature, how it can make us appreciate our ordinary lives as if they were a miracle…” Minae Mizumura reads her Pandemic Journal entry from Tokyo: https://bit.ly/2XqzaX

Pandemic Journal: Hari Kunzru, Brooklyn, New York
Pandemic Journal: Hari Kunzru, Brooklyn, New York

“I began writing about the strangeness of trying to prepare for something completely invisible…” Hari Kunzru reads his Pandemic Journal entry from Brooklyn: https://bit.ly/2xYbjDA

Pandemic Journal: Alma Guillermoprieto, Bogotá
Pandemic Journal: Alma Guillermoprieto, Bogotá

Alma Guillermoprieto reads her Pandemic Journal entry from Bogotá: https://bit.ly/3bZ7ooI

Pandemic Journal: Anne Enright, Dublin
Pandemic Journal: Anne Enright, Dublin

“I deal in words for a living, but I have had difficulty forming them.” Listen to Anne Enright read her Pandemic Journal from Dublin: https://bit.ly/2Vc04PM

Pandemic Journal: Lucy Jakub, Northampton
Pandemic Journal: Lucy Jakub, Northampton

“My science journalism program will continue remotely, though the syllabus has unraveled.” Lucy Jakub reads her Pandemic Journal entry from Northampton, Massachusetts: https://bit.ly/3bXp97M

Pandemic Journal: Joshua Hunt, Busan
Pandemic Journal: Joshua Hunt, Busan

Listen to Joshua Hunt’s Pandemic Journal entry from Busan, South Korea: https://bit.ly/2JHZcwU

Pandemic Journal: Mark Gevisser, Cape Town
Pandemic Journal: Mark Gevisser, Cape Town

Hear Mark Gevisser read his Pandemic Journal entry from Cape Town, South Africa: https://bit.ly/3bH3ctI

Pandemic Journal: Simon Callow, London
Pandemic Journal: Simon Callow, London

“One’s every instinct as an actor is to provide relief.” Listen to Simon Callow read his Pandemic Journal entry from London: https://bit.ly/2UCJN7t

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