Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

Archives

For posts before June 2012, please follow these links to our archives.

The Man Who Came Back

J. L. L. Kroll Spillway
The casualties of a seemingly invisible war are brought home in J. L. L. Kroll’s poem about a single veteran.

Damn It All: A Meditation on Hell

Stephen Greenblatt New York Review of Books
Charting the origins of the Christian idea of a vast underground realm where the souls of sinners were hauled to suffer eternal punishments by fiends, the author walks readers through a panoply of sadistic fantasies long considered revealed truths.

Your Last Opportunity: Let's Make Waves Together

Portside moderators Portside
If you've meant to contribute to support Portside but haven't yet done so, this is a last opportunity for the season. Every year, we ask our readers to support Portside - from Thanksgiving until the end of January. So please act now.

For a Left Populism: A New Strategy for Democratic Socialism

Eoin Ó Broin The Irish Times
Despite its weaknesses, writes reviewer Ó Broin, this book "is an important contribution to the strategic debate for those of us committed to political and socio-economic alternatives based on principles of democracy, equality and social justice."

“Network” A Stunning Commentary on the Corrupt American System

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop
The politics of the theatrical adaptation of “Network” have not changed since the Chayefsky film was screened in 1976. The story is still based on the reality that a corrupt upper class screws the middle class and poor.

The Modern Dignity of an Uncontacted Tribe

Kanishk Tharoor The Atlantic
The documentary Piripkura explores the resolve of indigenous people who persist in the forests of Brazil despite shifting circumstance.