"Judith Butler confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization -- and even “man” himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine...

Common returns to his hometown of Chicago - a city on fire in the aftermath of the brutal police killing of teenager Laquan McDonald. With thousands of people in the streets, Chicago has become the epicenter of national debates around police violence, racism and accountability. Working with community activists and whistleblowers, Common discovers a decades-long pattern of police corruption and sophisticated cover-ups that stretch all the way to the...

Beginning with the emergence of the New Left out of the tumultuous 1960s, the first two installments of Tribulation Cult stretch over three generations, climaxing with the election of 2048. Center stage are four college friends who follow divergent life paths, two Christians who become ministers and their liberal counterparts who rise to the summit of world politics. The journeys of the four focus many interconnected themes in the lives of men and...

In this interview conducted shortly before his death in 2014, Stuart Hall, one of the seminal figures in cultural studies, talks about his classic work Policing the Crisis, describes the political, symbolic, and material concerns that animated cultural studies in the 1970s, and offers a critical assessment of the field today. He then turns his attention to the always shifting terrain of race and identity in the United States and Britain, offering...

Among politicians of national stature today, there is perhaps none more respected as a principled conservative than Rick Santorum. In “It Takes a Family: Conservatism” and the “Common Good”, Santorum articulates the humane vision that he believes must inform public policy if it is to be effective and just. An appreciation for the civic bonds that unite a community lies at the heart of genuine conservatism. Moreover, Santorum demonstrates...

"When a writer named Satya attends a prestigious artist retreat, he finds the pressures of the outside world won't let up: President Trump rages online; a dangerous virus envelopes the globe; and the 24-hour news cycle throws fuel on every fire. For mostof the retreat fellows, such stories are unbearable distractions; but for Satya, these Orwellian interruptions begin to crystalize into an idea for his new novel, Enemies of the People, about the lies...

In the aftermath of World War Two, Charlie Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal and internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold. Politics aside, Chaplin had another problem: his sexual interest in young women. He had been married three times and had had numerous affairs. In the 1940s he was the subject of a paternity...

"Here for the first time in a single authoritative annotated edition are two masterworks by one of America's greatest historians, Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970). In the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anti-intellectualism in American life (1963) and in The paranoid style in American politics (1965), Hofstadter offered groundbreaking and still urgent analyses of deep undercurrents in American life: a stubborn, irrepressible opposition to rationality, expertise,...

"In a world of sound bites, deliberate misinformation, and a political scene colored by the blue versus red partisan divide, how does the average educated American find a reliable source that's free of political spin? What You Should Know About Politics . . . But Don't breaks it all down, issue by issue, explaining who stands for what, and why-whether it's the economy, income inequality, Obamacare, foreign policy, education, immigration, or climate...

Gil Troy, a native of Queens, New York, is Professor of History at McGill University. He is the author of Mr. and Mrs. President: From the Trumans to the Clintons (Kansas), an updated, paperback edition of Affairs of State: The Rise and Rejection of the Presidential Couple Since World War II (Free Press); and of See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate (Free Press). Did America's fortieth president lead a conservative counterrevolution...