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books

Is a Civil War Ahead?

David Remnick The New Yorker
A year after the attack on the Capitol, the country is suspended between democracy and autocracy. That sense of uncertainty radically heightens the likelihood of episodic bloodletting in America, and even the risk of civil war.

books

Thomas Piketty: The Making of a Socialist

Robert Kuttner The New York Times
What makes this noteworthy is that it comes from an economist who gained his reputation as a researcher with vaguely left-of-center sensibilities but was far from a radical. The times are such that even honest moderates are driven to radical remedies

film

It’s a Wonderful Life vs. the FBI

Rhys Handley Jacobin
Amid Cold War paranoia, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI set its sights on a potential source of communist subversion: Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

food

The Great American Chestnut Tree Revival

Shea Swenson Modern Farmer
More than a century ago, billions of American chestnuts were wiped out by an invasive fungus. Scientists are working to restore the tree to its former glory.

poetry

We See You

Angela Decker Rattle
Oregon poet Angela Decker speaks calmly but insistently—“We see you”—to the “plague” of race murders.

books

To Beat the Right, We Have to Understand Their Arguments

Matt McManus Jacobin
Since the French Revolution, the Right has deployed a common set of arguments to resist the drive to democratize economic and political power. The Left will only win if we analyze their rhetoric — and counter it.
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