Review of Jonathan Katz, “Gangsters of Capitalism”
I have a review in the January/February issue of The New Republic of Jonathan Katz’s biography/travelogue of Smedley Butler, a figure of long fascination to many and totally obscure to […]
Tag Archives: reviews
A review of Spencer Ackerman’s “Reign of Terror”
I have a new review of Ackerman’s Reign of Terror in the New Republic. Here’s the beginning: On September 5, 2016, two months before the Electoral College victory of Donald […]
Review in the AHR of two books on history education
In the December 2020 issue of the American Historical Review, I have a review of two books on history education (Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson’s The Case for Contention and […]
Review of Rick Perlstein’s Reaganland
Update: this review was a finalist for the Washington Monthly’s Kukula Prize for excellence in book reviewing in 2021. I have a review of Rick Perlstein’s new book Reaganland, the […]
No Room
I wrote a review of John Bolton’s The Room Where it Happened. It’s a bad book, which is convincing in its condemnation of Trump but also reveals the limitations of […]
“The World The Economist Made,” a review of Alexander Zevin’s Liberalism at Large
I have a review in The New Republic (where I am now a contributing editor), of Alexander Zevin’s Liberalism at Large. In it, I both assess the book and try to engage […]
Pioneers of Cultural Relativism, a review of Charles King’s “Gods of the Upper Air”
I’ve written a review of Charles King’s Gods of the Upper Air for The New Republic, examining the ways that the idea of “cultural relativism” has been used and abused in public culture […]
The Metamorphosis: A Review of Mario Vargas Llosa in The Nation
A review of Sabers and Utopias, an essay collection by Mario Vargas Llosa, in The Nation. I must say I’m proud of this lede (and the conclusion to the piece […]
Review of Wolfe, “Freedom’s Laboratory”
My review of Audra Wolfe’s “Freedom’s Laboratory,” up now at The New Republic. The book extends out understanding of the Cultural Cold War into the world of science. A sample: The […]
Review of Immerwahr, “How to Hide an Empire”
I have reviewed Daniel Immerwahr’s How to Hide an Empire for The New Republic. Good book, surprising controversy, even-more-surprising quantity of guano islands. In February 2003, Al Jazeera broadcast an interview with Donald […]
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