The Best of The Nation
10+ most popular The Nation articles, as voted by our community.
Founded by abolitionists in 1865. Committed to progressive journalism. Subscribe: http://subscriptions.thenation.com.
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Influence and the Rise of Digital Celebrity
A history of social media from the perspective of the poster, Taylor Lorenz’s Extremely Online examines the roots and rise of our sponsorship-saturated ecosystem.
The Nation on Books
Let Kids Read Roald Dahl’s Books the Way He Wrote Them
The beloved author’s books are being edited by their publisher to suit contemporary sensibilities. That robs us of the author’s vision—and any sense of history.
The Nation on Consulting
Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower
Inside the soul-crushing, morally bankrupt, top-secret world of our most powerful consulting firm.
The Nation on Culture
The Mind-Bending Fiction of Mircea Cărtărescu
In his postmodern epic Solenoid, the Romanian novelist offers us an extraordinary and baroque elaboration of a subjectivity less than ordinary.
«he doesn’t live his life but rather “constructed” it.»
The Rise and Fall of the Mall
Alexandra Lange's Meet Me by the Fountain recovers the forgotten past and the still hopeful future of the American shopping mall.
The Nation on Long Covid
The Long Covid Revolution
Millions of American adults are impaired by long Covid. They have a vision for what our society owes to chronically ill and disabled people.
The Nation on Music
The End of the Music Business
A century of recorded music has culminated in the infinite archive of streaming platforms. But is it really better for listeners?
Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong
For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.
The Nation on Politics
Why These Leftists Oppose Free Money
A conversation with Daniel Zamora Vargas and Anton Jäger about why a “basic income” isn't such a progressive welfare idea.
It’s Time to Repeal—and Replace—the Second Amendment
The meaning of the amendment has been so badly mangled that our only choice is to start over with something that allows for real gun control.
The Nation on Self Help
The Radical Origins of Self-Help Literature
How did the genre of self-help go from one focused on collective empowerment to one serving the class hierarchy as it stands?
The Nation on Transgender
Pakistan's Transgender Community Rises Up
In the wake of changing legal standards recognizing the self-determination of gender identity, transgender Pakistanis are taking steps to live openly.
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Stewart Brand’s Dubious Futurism
What did the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog stand for?
I.B. Singer’s Language of Everyday Life
By choosing to write in Yiddish rather than Hebrew, the young Singer declared his allegiance to the here and now rather than a biblical past or a Zionist future.
The Rise of Bad Art and the Decline of Political Candor
Though the language of cliché has switched from the middle-class respectability of the 1950s to our current obsessions with “inclusion” and concern for the marginalized, the practice of washing our…
The World John von Neumann Built
Game theory, computers, the atom bomb—these are just a few of things von Neumann played a role in developing, changing the 20th century for better and worse.
«“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”»
What Happened to Newspaper Book Reviewing?
As a mode of recommendation, the newspaper fiction review has less to recommend it than ever before.
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