obituary - Dissent Magazine

John Prine’s Poetry of Human Connection

Matthew Sitman ▪ April 10, 2020

Prine was a friend of those left behind by progress and put down by other people. But his songs were all part of a larger universe where laughter and joy prevailed.

Ross Perot, Populist Harbinger

Jacqueline Brandon ▪ July 10, 2019

Views that were fringe in Perot’s day have taken center stage in national politics.

The Mind of Paul Booth, 1943–2018

Todd Gitlin ▪ January 23, 2018

First in SDS, then in the labor movement, Paul Booth embodied that remarkable, and rare, combination of ideals and strategy. A left that hopes to win has much to learn from his example.

Judith Stein, 1940–2017

Nelson Lichtenstein ▪ May 12, 2017

Judith Stein was a tough and determined inspiration to multiple generations of scholars and activists.

Fidel Castro cloaked himself in protean myths. But learning from his life and the Cuba he governed requires looking past the mythologies to squarely face both the powers arrayed against him and the costs of the decisions he made to confront them.

Bogdan the Speaker

Harold Meyerson ▪ April 4, 2016

The first time I heard Bogdan Denitch speak, he intimidated the hell out of me. That wasn’t, I hasten to explain, his intent. Far from it. The occasion was a national board meeting of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee in …

Memories of Bogdan Denitch

Jo-Ann Mort ▪ April 4, 2016

The man whom the folk-singer legend Dave Van Ronk, Bogdan’s old friend, called “the mad Montenegrin” was a larger-than-life figure with a uniformly kind heart that he often tried to mask.

David Bowie Was Our Mirror

Sarah Jaffe ▪ January 11, 2016

David Bowie’s lyrics were hard to mine for political content, but his songs will continue to suit moments they were never written for.

Into the Cave: Sheldon Wolin’s Search for Democracy

David Marcus ▪ November 2, 2015

Sheldon Wolin dedicated his career to championing not just a new politics but a new kind of politics—one that refused to substitute top-down administration for the messy uncertainties of democracy.