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.

POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN AMERICA, 2018

Charlotte Muse
It’s the opposite of attention deficit disorder, observes poet Charlotte Muse; we inhabit “a cloud of mosquitoes,” while the other guy gets richer, stronger.

Looking Back at the 2016 Campaign

Christian Lorentzen Bookforum
Ben Fountain's "Beautiful Country Burn Again" revisits (and tries to make historical sense of) the convulsions of the 2016 election as prelude to--and forewarning of--the perfervid run-up in Trump country to the 2018 midterm contests.

America: The Farewell Tour

Tony Weller Tony's Blog: Weller Book Works
"Hedges’ assessment of the sickness of our times is searing in its directness," writes reviewer Weller. "His rage is palpable in his scolding of the system we take for granted, one we preserve at our own peril."

Rice: a primer

Harvard T. H. Chan Harvard T. H. Chan newsletter
Rice is a main staple in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Thousands of types of rice are cooked throughout the world in more than 100 countries.

The Romanoffs Defends the Men of #MeToo

Sophie Gilbert The Atlantic
“Bearing false witness is the worst crime that you can commit,” says a character in the most recent episode of the Amazon series "The Romanoffs".

Selected Notes on Beauty

H.C. Palmer Feet of the Messenger
On this Veterans Day weekend, Kansas poet H.C. Palmer, a combat surgeon during the Vietnam war, offers the wisdom of a peacetime soldier.

Fighting to Vote

Michael Tomasky The New York Review of Books
As results from the recent midterm elections show and the book under review chronicles, restrictive voter identification laws, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement and voter purges still deny millions access to the ballot box.

The Last Man to Know Everything

Troy Vettese Boston Review
This new collection of essays by a highly regarded radical intellectual receives a mixed, but engaging review.