basic books

Shahidha Bari’s ‘Dressed’ Is a Well-packed Suitcase

Shahidha Bari’s ‘Dressed’ Is a Well-packed Suitcase

Reading Dressed is rather like the experience of wandering through a department store or a friend's well-curated closet.

Music History, the Conspiracy Theory: On Ted Gioia’s Music: A Subversive History

Music History, the Conspiracy Theory: On Ted Gioia’s Music: A Subversive History

Although enjoyable in that sweeping big picture kind of way, there is nothing subversive to be found in Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History.

Ted Gioia’s ‘Music: A Subversive History’ (By the Book)

Ted Gioia’s ‘Music: A Subversive History’ (By the Book)

"Sound," writes musician, author, and historian Ted Gioia in Music: A Subversive History, "is the ultimate source of genesis... A song can contain a cataclysm." In this beguiling excerpt, Gioia leads us to the sound of the universe itself.

Will a New Form of Socialism Rise? On Bhaskar Sunkara’s ‘The Socialist Manifesto’

Will a New Form of Socialism Rise? On Bhaskar Sunkara’s ‘The Socialist Manifesto’

Socialists need to do better in fighting against identity-based discrimination, as editor of Jacobin Bhaskar Sunkara notes in The Socialist Manifesto, but that struggle will only be effective if waged as part of a larger struggle against neoliberal capitalism.

‘War in 140 Characters’ Is to the Point

‘War in 140 Characters’ Is to the Point

David Patrikarakos has written an engaging narrative that covers the activities and surroundings of eight 21st century social media crusaders.

The Rationality of Violence: The Kerner Commission and the Riots of 1967

The Rationality of Violence: The Kerner Commission and the Riots of 1967

Separate and Unequal provides a riveting account of a crucial moment in US history. It offers a penetrating insight into the manner in which good intentions and just causes necessarily confront the mechanisms of governmental bureaucracy.