Portside

As with many epic fantasies, the show’s heroes are framed as liberators and defenders of the common people—despite holding absolute power.

The son of Mexican immigrants, the poet José Olivarez explores the ambiguities (and realities) that determine who labels whom in the discourse of ethnic identity.

A look at the state of investigative reporting and long form journalism, a former New York Times editor details threats to an informed public coming from the decline of newspapers and the rise of social media gimmicks that beggar fact-based writing.

The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), by Hannah Arendt, has much to teach us in our troubled times. In this essay, Lyndsey Stonebridge offers a fine overview of Arendt's life and times, and puts her classic study in its proper context.

Carlo Levi’s memoir, “Christ Stopped at Eboli,” was a literary sensation in post-Fascist Italy. Three decades later Francesco Rosi's film enshrined the book's neorealist credo--giving voice to the voiceless.

At the close of 2018, the White Earth band of Ojibwe passed a law formally recognizing the rights of wild rice "to provide a legal basis to protect wild rice and fresh water resources as part of our primary treaty foods for future generations.”

At its best, crime drama does not simply try to terrify us with pure unblinking evil but gives us studies of dysfunctional human beings mangled by capitalism, argues Sofie Mason

Poet Joseph Zaccardi, Laureate of Marin County, explores the local chit-chat, reminding us it’s also about what folks don’t want to say or hear.

Carrying on from Raymond Williams' Keywords, the classic study of capital's appropriation of words for its own ends, the book under review looks at contemporary linguistic usage that serves and reinforces dominant class interests.

"For Mills," writes reviewer Lancaster, "the best corrective for the historical shortcomings of political liberalism is a healthy infusion of critical race theory."