In Praise of Integrity
In this season of politics, the Persian exile Majid Naficy speaks on behalf of principles and integrity.
Archives
For posts before June 2012, please follow these links to our archives.
- Portside list: Visit the archives
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You’re Tearing Me Apart: On William L. Barney’s “Rebels in the Making: The Secession Crisis and the Birth of the Confederacy”
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Enlightenment and other liberation ideologies had put slavery under fire. “This was the international context of insurgent liberalism that the Confederacy sought to reverse with its bid for a reactionary slaveholders’ republic..
The Relevance of Marxist Critique
Against the Current
In this book, writes reviewer Beeber, the author "unapologetically asserts the continued relevance of Marxism, and in particular the continued necessity for a class-based critical approach to literature."
Why the Alt-right’s Real Power Is In the Narrative It Sells
Vox
“They’re hucksters,” says the director of White Noise, a new doc that focuses on three prominent right-wing figures: Richard Spencer, Mike Cernovich, and Lauren Southern.
Chefs Are Helping Hungry Voters Waiting in Line at the Polls
Smithsonian Magazine
One clear winner this election season? Everything from empanadas to barbecue, courtesy of star chef José Andrés and his partners
HBO's 'The Undoing,' Starring Nicole Kidman, is a Cliffhanger-filled Ode to Rich White People
NBC News
"The Undoing" goes to great lengths to get us to empathize with the travails, the struggles, the sadness, the moral failings and even the sheer tediousness of wealthy white people.
Election Day, 1884
The great American Bard Walt Whitman (1819-1892) celebrates what all citizens must do next Tuesday: VOTE!!
Where are the Social Movements in Fiction
Protect our Activists
Ten guesses why social justice activism rarely appears in our novels and movies. In the midst of major popular uprising, where are the lists of stories that would draw us into the heads and hearts of activist characters taking on injustices they face
In Defense of Knowledge
The Critic
This new book, by the head of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, is a timely warning. "Its tone is set early on, with an epigraph from Heinrich Heine," writes reviewer Larman: “Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
The New Borat Movie’s Best Moments Mock a Trump-era Fixation on a Particular Female Aesthetic
Vox
The true star of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” is Borat’s daughter, played by Maria Bakalova. She’s also the source of its most incisive critique.
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