Fall 2024

The Hungarians arrived among us, not in a trickle but all at once. In the space of two months, May and June 1944, they invaded the Lager, convoy after convoy, filling the void that the Germans had not neglected to …

Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah is more than nine hours long; but long before you understand what is present in this visual account of Auschwitz you understand what is missing from all the others. The others—all the sickening photographs of the living …

The massive resistance to apartheid in South Africa shows few, if any, signs of abating. From the state of emergency declaration of July 20, 1985 (exempting all security forces from legal responsibility for acts of brutality) until mid-October approximately 250 …

Mainstream capitalist economics has become, among other things, a language. I do not mean simply that economists employ a professional jar- gon. How could they not? Between Economese and ordinary English there are more than differences of vocabulary; there are …

In this short and very readable book Ryszard Kapuściński offers us lively, snapshot descriptions of scenes from the life and 37-year reign of the last King of Kings together with a dramaturgical perspective on the revolution that put an end …

Anybody inquiring about Freud’s attitude to homosexuality will soon come across a letter he wrote in April 1935. The letter is now almost famous. It was first printed in 1951; it has been reprinted since many times; and it is …

The White House euphoria over the drop in the poverty rate to 14.4 percent in 1984 is deeply disturbing. In celebrating a statistical “triumph,” President Reagan and his staff have obscured a larger injustice. Any reduction in the number of …

Patriotism, in conservative periods like our own, is a tool used by the right to bludgeon labor and the left. In the 1980s, corporations are said to represent the essence of American civilization—unions its denial. Such ideological attacks on the …

On July 17, 1936, the Spanish army under General Franco revolted against the Spanish Republic. Franco envisaged only a short resistance on the part of the Republic and expected to be installed in power within a few days. His expectations …

The debacle of the 1848 revolution was a severe shock to most European radicals of that period. The resilience of the anciens regimes proved that, contrary to revolutionary prophecies, the millennium was not around the corner. If the powers-that-be withstood …

Drive down Route 49 as it takes you through the coalfields of southern West Virginia and into Kentucky, and what catches your eye before anything else is the beauty of the land. Even in the late summer the trees are …

New York Times employees of every rank and station formed lines outside Sydney Schanberg’s tenth-floor office for several days after his “New York” column was unceremoniously discontinued early last fall. They weren’t all there in support of Schanberg’s liberal-progressive positions …

Labor unions, most progressives believe, are essential institutions of a democratic industrial society. Particularly in the social democratic model that emerged after World War II unions played a crucial, dual role. First, of course, unions served as direct instruments of …

Any period of rapid change presents society with unexpected opportunities as well as unforeseen problems. The emergence of the brave new workplace is no exception. The very economic and technological forces that are the harbingers of potential disruption for many …

The Montgomery bus boycott began in December 1955 when Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. For a full year after her arrest blacks in …