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It’s a Wonderful Life vs. the FBI

Rhys Handley Jacobin
Amid Cold War paranoia, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI set its sights on a potential source of communist subversion: Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

The Great American Chestnut Tree Revival

Shea Swenson Modern Farmer
More than a century ago, billions of American chestnuts were wiped out by an invasive fungus. Scientists are working to restore the tree to its former glory.

Christmas Comes

Peter Neil Carroll New Verse News
For Pagans and other Non-Christians, the holiday spirit can mean helping the hungry and homeless, and remember to wear a mask.

Has the Myth of the ‘Good War’ Done Us Lasting Harm?

Ben Rhodes The New York Times
“Has the prevailing memory of the ‘Good War,’ shaped as it has been by nostalgia, sentimentality and jingoism, done more harm than good to Americans’ sense of themselves and their country’s place in the world?”

To Beat the Right, We Have to Understand Their Arguments

Matt McManus Jacobin
Since the French Revolution, the Right has deployed a common set of arguments to resist the drive to democratize economic and political power. The Left will only win if we analyze their rhetoric — and counter it.

In HBO’s Sex and the City Reboot, the Thrill Is Gone

Marianela D’Aprile Jacobin
At its best, the original Sex and the City took the romantic lives of its characters seriously while presenting them hilariously. But its reboot, And Just Like That…, has sucked all the fun out of its stories.

Radicals Go Caroling: The Untold Story of Progressive Choirs

Annie Levin Yes! Magazine
The power of song to literally transform the brain and move people to action has given it a place of privilege in mass political actions. Almost every revolutionary movement in modern history has had an accompanying singing culture.