AN INDEPENDENT mind, George Lichtheim was “the real thing, not the self-announced sort," writes Mitchell Cohen. "His histories of socialism and Marxism are among the most intelligent that we have....Even if you would dispute him on something or many things, you'll feel smarter for the disagreement.”

IN PUTIN'S Russia, many intellectuals have turned toward a new emotionalism--one that has "rejected the worst aspects of postmodernism," writes Kirill Medvedev. "But it has also rejected its undeniably positive qualities: its irrepressible critical outlook and its intellectual sophistication." (Photo: Mikhail Evstafiev/ Creative Commons)

OVER THE past eight years, American credibility as a promoter and protector of human rights has diminished, and "the United States," writes Suzanne Nossel, "needs a game plan for reestablishing its human rights leadership...both for the sake of the United States and for the sake of human rights." (Photo: Marcello Casal / Agência Brasil / CC)

WHILE GLOBAL financial markets rest tenuously in the balance, it is hard for Americans to think about what needs to be done to stabilize the economy in the long run. But, writes Marcellus Andrews, this is imperative in a time "of debt and foreclosure....Liberals [need to] describe a plausible path to prosperity and the good life for the future." (Photo: Shealah Craighead / White House / Wikimedia Commons)

OVER 118 million Americans voted on Tuesday in an election that made Barack Obama our nation's 44th president. Dissent editors and contributors reflect on his historic victory--and the challenges he will face in the months to come. David Bromwich, Mark Engler, Mark Greif, Michael Kazin, David Marcus, Nicolaus Mills, Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt, Jim Sleeper, Fred Smoler, Christine Stansell, and Michael Walzer. (Photo: Blaise T. Nutter / Creative Commons)

SURVEYING THE recent wave of "literary" science fiction, Benjamin Kunkel concludes that "when the contemporary novelist contemplates the future...he or she often...responds to political problems by rejecting politics for personal life....The result is political novels without politics." (Image: From the cover of Matthew Sharpe's Jamestown / Soft Skull Press)

UNTIL RECENTLY, many intellectuals on the left have suffered from "a fatal aversion to moral prescription." Reviewing Susan Neiman's Moral Clarity and Rob Riemen's The Nobility of Spirit, Richard Wolin explores two new arguments for a return to the moral and humanistic values of the past.

WITH UNIVERSITY endowments shrinking, tuition costs rising, and family savings depreciating, more and more undergraduates will be forced into debt. "College student-loan debt has revived the spirit of indenture," writes Jeffrey J. Williams. "The rising tide of student debt reinforces rather than dissolves the discriminations of class, counteracting the meritocracy." (Original Photo: Túrelio / Creative Commons Share Alike)

IT HAS been over a year since the United Nations Security Council authorized the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). But, writes Eric Reeves, "the UN/AU force, despite its unambiguous mandate, is doing almost nothing to protect Darfuris and humanitarian aid workers." (Photo: African Union Troops / Patrick André Perron/ Creative Commons)

SINCE ABU Ghraib, torture has undermined both the U.S.'s war effort in Iraq and its public image as a bastion of liberal democracy. But, according to Gary Bass, democratic torture is regrettably common. "Democracies torture," he writes in his review of Darius Rejali's Torture and Democracy. "They just do it evasively."

ON THE same day that Obama easily won California, residents across the state voted yes to Proposition 8--a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. "It was Barack Obama's victory," writes Lillian B. Rubin, "for which so many gays and lesbians had fought and worked, that led to their defeat." (Photo: Ingrid Taylar / Creative Commons)

WITH THE Russian invasion of Georgia, realists (as well as some leftists) have eagerly embraced Russia's right to a "sphere of influence." But while realists define influence as "a function only of military power," writes Michael Walzer,"we liberals and leftists cannot accept this as morally right or politically conclusive." (Photo: Eric Draper / White House / Wikimedia Commons)

THE CANADIAN government recently announced the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine the country's notorious Indian residential schools--the last of which closed in 1996. For Feisal G. Mohamed, these commissions "are always exercises in addled justice." (Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons)

FRANCE HAS one of the lowest percentages of union membership in Western Europe and yet, as Martin A. Schain finds, its labor strikes are some of the most effective. "As long as unions can claim support in public opinion during strike movements and can act as good brokers to end strikes..., they can continue to maintain their legitimate role in the French system of labor and industrial relations."

OVER THE past three years there has been a steady output of Iraq War films--Home of the Brave (2006), In the Valley of Elah (2007), Redacted (2007), Grace Is Gone (2007), A Mighty Heart (2007), Badland (2007). "What is most striking about many of [these] current films," writes Jeanie Elenor Gosline, "is their reliance on characterizations we've seen before-in The Deer Hunter and Coming Home, and also in Taxi Driver."

FREE-MARKET conservatives have frequently invoked Thomas Jefferson when arguing for an increase of economic deregulation. But, writes Lew Daly, "the New Right's 'Jeffersonian philosophy' of limited government ignores the most basic historical element of laissez-faire thinking in early America: the direct, radical purpose of disabling the political power of the aristocracy." (Image: Thomas Jefferson, 1791 by Charles Willson Peale, Library of Congress)

OVER THE past decade, the EU has moved significantly to the right. In 2000, 11 EU countries had social democratic or center-left leaders--now there are only four. "The emergence of divergent and often conflicting interests and values have made it much harder to develop a new form of social democratic politics," writes Robert Taylor. (Photo: Aleph / Creative Commons)

RUSSIA'S UNIMPEDED seizure of South Ossetia and Abkhazia proved disastrous for Georgia and its Western allies, demonstrating that "[the U.S. and EU] are unable to defend the...physical security of democratic Georgia," writes Michael Walzer. (Photo: Eric Draper / White House / Wikimedia Commons)

THIS YEAR'S protracted primary season left many wondering if the Democratic Party could transcend its divisions in Denver. Reporting from the Pepsi Center, David Greenberg examined the 'tsuris' over unity, rubbed shoulders with Pat Buchanan, and crashed a fundraising party attended by the DNC's guests of honor--Barack and Michelle Obama. (Photo: Onetwo1 / Wikicommons / CC)

FOR MANY, the fiscal policies of Bill Clinton were an overall success. But, according to Timothy A. Canova, "history should deal harshly with Bill Clinton. Throughout his terms, real wages stagnated, manufacturing and service jobs moved overseas...and the middle class was squeezed." (Photo: Justin Lane / The New York Times / Redux)