Articles

What We're Reading:
The Spirit of Free Speech  

By Roger  Berkowitz
Jason Richwine takes on the  argument that free speech only applies to the government regulation of speech. Of course, legally it is true that only the Constitution only protects speech from governmental restraint. But Richwine rightly argues that there the culture of engagement requires a broader protection of free speech. 

What we are Reading: Black Americans

By Roger Berkowitz
Nikole Hannah-Jones is well aware that she is “part of the first generation of black Americans in the history of the United States to be born into a society in which black people had full rights of citizenship.” She writes that while “Black people suffered under slavery for 250 years; we have been legally “free” for just 50.” And she believes that “in that briefest of spans, despite continuing to face rampant discrimination...

The American Algerians
 

By Roger Berkowitz
It is well known  that Richard Wright found in Paris the freedom he  never found as a black man in America. Maybe less well  known is that that James Baldwin, in his essay, “Alas, Poor Richard,”  accused Wright, as Adam Shatz observes, “of celebrating Paris as a “city of refuge” while remaining silent about France’s oppressive treatment of its colonial subjects.”

What We're Reading:
Thinking

By Samantha Hill
Liane Carlson writes about thinking for The Revealer, and what happens when we lose faith in thinking as scholars. Echoing Hannah Arendt’s critique of academic thinking, and those who rank among the professional thinkers, Carlson emphasizes the communal nature of thinking as an activity that we engage in, while reflecting on the declining state of academia today.

Editing
 

By Samantha Hill
Magdalena Edwards offers a brilliant account of her experience translating Clarice By Lispector in the LA Review of Books. Navigating the unmarked side streets of publishing, Edwards walks readers through the process of translation while thinking about the gray line between editing and ideas, who gets credit for their work, and who gets thanked for devotion. 

What We're Reading
 

This week, we're reading Thomas Chatterton Williams on The Great Replacement

Authoritarianism Around the World

By Roger Berkowitz
With all the craziness going on here in the United States, it is sometimes hard to remember to pay attention to the world. But a number of essays this week remind us that the revolt against elite norms and elite institutions is a worldwide phenomenon. Siddhartha Deb writes about the decision of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in India to revoke the special status of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India.
 

What We're Reading

This week, we're reading tributes to Theodor Adorno and Toni Morrison

Gaffes on the Campaign Trail

By Roger Berkowitz

Joe Biden made news with another racial gaffe when he said  “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” John McWhorter argues that these gaffes, while problematic, are also indicative of a paradoxical tension around black achievement.