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Naming America's Own Genocide

Richard White The Nation
Between 1846 and 1873, California's Indian population plunged by some 80 percent. The book painstakingly recapitulates the systematic homicidal culling of the state's native American tribes . While not the final word on the ubiquity of the term genocide worldwide, it establishes that murder was the preferred and accepted method of social control for white settlers, gold miners. state militias and federal policy makers. The long-term consequences were staggering.

Patricide Deferred

Robert Minto Open Letters Monthly
The Frankfurt School produced some of the most noted Marxist intellectuals of the last century. Reviewer Robert Minto says this new group portrait offers an accessible entryway into the minds of these thinkers, whose work and ideas have often been labeled unnecessarily difficult and obscure.

Documentary: 'The Business of Amateurs'

Jake New Inside Higher Ed
Bob DeMars new documentary The Business of Amateurs about the National Collegiate Athletic Association argues that the organization places the profits of college sports programs ahead of the best interests of athletes. The documentary is billed as the first documentary that challenges the NCAA “from the perspective of former student-athletes.”

Unsaturated Fat Consumption Linked to Lower Mortality

Marge Dwyer Harvard Chan Newsletter
According to a report from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a large study of population followed for more than three decades, researchers found saturated fats with unsaturated fats conferred substantial health benefits.

POEM ABOUT FLOWERS

Cortney Lamar Charleston The The Poetry
This poem is about flowers. Or maybe not only about flowers. Or maybe not. But Cortney Lamar Charleston's poem will make you think twice or even more times if it's about flowers. Or not.

The Genius of James Brown

Geoffrey O'Brien New York Review of Books
Even in the era of the Beatles and Motown's roster of stars, the brilliant James Brown established a place that was his alone. His was not about magic, it was about power that could not be denied by anyone brought within its field of influence. What the book's author also finds is a wary solitariness that paradoxically found its fullest expression in Brown's ability to give himself so completely in performance to suggest a generosity approaching self-immolation.

Socialism in America

Harold Meyerson Dissent
The upsurge in interest in the ideas of Socialism also means a reassessment of its traditions. Jack Ross offers a new, ambitious attempt to come to terms with the history of the Socialist Party in the United States, an organization, and movement, whose story is one of this country's modern legends. In this review, Harold Meyerson, who, as he points out, was a part of this history, takes a look.

In Ixcanul, Guatemala’s First-Ever Oscar Entry

Nikola Grozdanovic Indiewire
Jayro Bustamante‘s debut feature “Ixcanul” generates its power from an intimate observance of the quotidian. As such, its titular volcano — the translation of Ixcanul in the Mayan K’iche’ dialect spoken in Guatemala — is the least volcanic thing in it. Steeped in a culture rarely observed on screen and filmed entirely in Kaqchikel, Bustamante’s film explores a clash between reproductive rights and tradition.