Portside

During the Depression, a loose coalition of Progressives set out to remake the American diet. Milk was regarded as the perfect food. This tension between scientific advice and traditional preferences can be traced back to the Great Depression, suggest Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe in “A Square Meal.”

Taboo is about the return of the repressed, but also the suppressed, with the protagonist serving as a vessel for social commentary about the species-wide violence and corruption wrought by imperialism, racism, and capitalism.

Tongue-in-cheek, Marin poet Rebecca Foust offers a sonnet about the seven deadly sins, and rich people who have their trickle-down rationalizations.

Much Orwell criticism centers on his politics, not surprising given how it was his predominant subject. The books under review take a slight detour, viewing his work as he frequently judged others. Orwell's writing is chockablock with sensuous material, such as how class discriminations determine not just life chances but personal hygiene, or how bathos in an otherwise serious tract humanizes the literature and guards against "perfect" politics.

Rafia Zakaria shows us how Roxane Gay, in this new collection of short stories, explores interconnections between racism, work, love, violence, and sex.

Steve Bannon's 2009 film, 'Generation Zero', shows a hellishly bleak vision of our past, present, and future, driven by a magical belief in historical determinism.

Gendered beliefs about food choices affect men and women’s health habits, including the types of foods they actually eat. Socially influenced eating patterns could in part help explain why men are at a higher risk of heart disease and some cancers. Are our ideas about masculinity and femininity negatively affecting our health?

In its sixth and final season, the HBO show seems to be considering its deeper purpose.

For Valentine's Day, Philadelphia poet David Moolten's poem--for better or worse--says it all.

Forget that Donald Trump said something commendable about Frederick Douglass--perhaps a first for Trump--the autobiography of Douglass is a classic, and reading it again is a fit way to commemorate Black History Month. Washington Post book editor Ron Charles gives ample reason why.