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Poem on the Murders

Anita Barrows Tikkun
After the murders, poet Anita Barrows addresses this elegy to a survivor, Diamond Lavish Reynolds, asking "how can we make your tears not/another deleted narrative?"

Wall Street's Foreign Policy Wizards

Dominic Alexander Counterfire
The Council on Foreign Relations is a supercharged, highly connected establishment think tank. While producing reports and staffing varied policy working-groups, its recommendations are invariably market-based. CFR leaders and members pass through the revolving door of the federal government to high positions of authority, no matter which party holds power. The book under review, Wall Street's Think Tank, charts the council's key links to US imperial policy.

Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914-1945

Alan Wald Solidarity
This new book by Enzo Traverso is "a master class in historical analysis," writes reviewer Alan Wald. This "full-on riveting reconceptualization of 1914-1945 as a 'European Civil War,"' he adds, "is a benchmark achievement in the flowering of socialist scholarship by the generation identifying with May 1968."

Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Mark Boal Sues U.S. Government Over Bowe Bergdahl Interview Tapes

Dave McNary Variety
Boal’s litigation is supported by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “We firmly stand with Mr. Boal in his effort to protect these tapes,” says the organization’s executive director Bruce Brown. “Well-established law recognizes that journalists cannot do their jobs to keep the public informed if they cannot work free from government interference.”

Plant-Based Meat? Really?

Jillian D'Onfro Business Insider
Can plant-based burgers really replace the real thing, especially for someone who enjoys meat? Here's what Ione author found in serious taste tests.

Jon Stewart's Well-Timed Comeback

Spencer Kornhaber The Atlantic
Taking over Stephen Colbert’s Late Show to blast Fox News, the former ‘Daily Show’ host was unapologetically partisan while also seeking to build bridges.

A Black Man in Chicago Celebrates Emmett Till's Birthday

Philip C. Kolin Emmett Till in Different States: Poems
Emmett Till, a 14-year old murdered in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955, would be celebrating his 75th birthday on Tuesday, July 25. The writer Philip C. Kolin, like Till a native of Chicago, and professor English in Mississippi, has recently published a book, Emmett Till in Different States: Poems (Third World Press) that traces both the historical significance and contemporary legacy of Till’s brief life.

Terry Eagleton: Still the most Formidable Critic of Populist Late-Capitalism

Melanie McDonagh New Statesman
Both analytical and droll, Terry Eagleton's Culture explores how culture evolved from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism's encroaches to present-day capitalism's most profitable export. Eagleton both illuminates culture's collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, the rise of and rule over the "uncultured" masses, as well a means for cultivating social life and social change.

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

Justin Campbell Los Angeles Review of Books
"Can there be Black liberation in the United States as the country is currently constituted?" asks Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in her new book. "No. Capitalism is contingent on the absence of freedom and liberation for Black people and anyone else who does not directly benefit from its economic disorder." Justin Campbell, in this review, surveys Taylor's analysis of the roots, present status, and future prospects of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Free State of Jones: Two Views

Charles M. Blow; Mark Lause
The question is whether good film presents us a prettified view of the past or challenges us to realize that we are yet living with that past—and that, however comforting the desire to ignore it, we continue to pay a price for failing to own it. We owe the makers Free State of Jones a serious debt for giving us the opportunity to do that.