‘We’re Not Here to Entertain’ Is Not Here to Break the Cycle of Punk’s Failures
Even as it irritates me, Kevin Mattson's We're Not Here to Entertain is worth reading because it has so much direct relevance to American punks operating today.
oxford university press
Wendy Carlos: Musical Pioneer, Reluctant Icon
Amanda Sewell's vastly informative new biography on musical trailblazer Wendy Carlos is both reverent and honest.
Love Songs: The Hidden History (Excerpt)
What do evolutionary biology and its founding father, Charles Darwin, have to do with love songs? As it turns out, quite a lot. Enjoy this excerpt of Ted Gioia's Love Songs: The Hidden History, courtesy of Oxford University Press.
‘Switched on Pop’ Schools the Academy
The first book from Switched on Pop hosts Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan leans into the podcast's academic tendencies, as it makes the case for music fans to take all music a bit more seriously.
Was the Great War a Supernatural War?
The memoirs of WWI soldiers are filled with references to seeing things that could not have been there. They knew that it was the war itself that haunted them, the war that became almost anthropomorphic, a self-conscious thing out to murder them.
How, in These Times, Can We Reconcile ‘Anger and Forgiveness’?
There's a lot of anger in the ugly, infuriatingly stupid, and implacable discourses of our political culture, to say nothing of the distorting, amplifying, and accelerating effects new media has for our anger. Perhaps it's time to revisit Martha Nussbaum's Anger and Forgiveness.
‘Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs’ Doth Protest Too Little
Ironically, James Sullivan's liberalism is fundamental to what's wrong with Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs.
When Rationalism Tangled with Magic: ‘A Supernatural War’
Exploring the charms and rituals believed to safeguard WWI soldiers makes A Supernatural War a fascinating read.
Is There Hope for Knowledge? On Robert Pasnau’s ‘After Certainty’
In After Certainty, philosopher Robert Pasnau constructs a history of knowledge and concludes that most theories of knowledge aren’t up to par.
What Are You So Damned Happy About?
Daniel Horowitz's Happier? tells the story of how happiness became such a hot topic, and it shows us — at least in part — why that is such a problem.
In ‘The End of Outrage’ An Historian Peers into His Ancestral Irish Shadows
Culling local storytellers' accounts, land valuation records, field maps and more, Mac Suibhne exposes the clash between the secret society of the "Molly Maguires" in their homeland with the forces of law and order in this history of Ireland.
On Chasing an Enemy That’s Too Small to See
Confronting Contagion tries to capture the 3,000-year history behind a modern scientific breakthrough: the discovery that tiny organisms invade our bodies and make us sick.