Books
He's not a bleeding heart, but... Ailes suffered from hemophilia and almost died after he bit his tongue as a pre-schooler. His father rushed him to a hospital sixty miles away. Chafets writes: "Bob Ailes’s coworkers from Packard came to the clinic to donate blood. 'Always remember,' Bob Ailes told his son, 'you’ve got blue collar in your veins.'" (page 9) READ MORE >>
Anatole Deibler, France’s official executioner from 1899 to 1939, once remarked, “To kill in the name of one’s country is a glorious feat, one rewarded by medals. But to kill in the name of the law, that is a gruesome, horrible function, rewarded with scorn, contempt, and loathing.” Deibler not only knew his craft—he took part in 395 executions and trained his favorite nephew to follow in his footsteps—he also knew that modern society needed and even wanted torturers and executioners, but that it did not like to talk about them. READ MORE >>
In the 1980s, in the faculty-filled suburbs west of Boston, the historian Howard Zinn was something of a folk hero. The Boston Globe, where Zinn published a column, ran stories of his battles with the dictatorial John Silber, the president of Boston University, who cracked down on unions, censored student protests, and denied pay raises to enemies such as Zinn. READ MORE >>
There was big news yesterday out of the financial-crisis book industry: Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has inked a deal with the Crown imprint of Random House. READ MORE >>
Touré has been frustrating me lately. READ MORE >>
The American Voices of the Islamist Regime in Iran
Two former U.S. officials make the case for accommodation
Two follies have long haunted American policy on Iran. Some critics and foes of the Islamic regime in Tehran have preferred “no negotiation with the regime” as the proper American policy. They have argued that even talking to the regime confers upon it a legitimacy that it does not possess and does not deserve to possess. The regime, this camp claims, is on the verge of collapse, and negotiating with it would only prolong its moribund life. READ MORE >>
Are you as stressed out as I am? I only ask because, frankly, you look a little stressed. It must be the job. Or maybe the marriage. I mean, there’s so much to be stressed out about. Just look at the newspaper. Look at your bank account. Is your blood pressure rising yet? Well, you need yoga. No, wait, you need a drink. You need to relax. Because, with the way things are going, this stress is going to kill you. READ MORE >>
In her 1883 memoir of the great American feminist intellectual Margaret Fuller, Julia Ward Howe acknowledged that she was already a late-comer to the haunting story. READ MORE >>
Hope Springs Eternal at the AWP Conference
The Writing Industry Is Booming, Even if the Book Industry Isn't
Years ago, one of the big New York slicks (I have no idea which one, though Esquire leaps to mind) ran a story purporting to represent the ranking of living American fiction writers. As I recall, it included a rather scary looking pyramid of scribbled names, topped by John Updike and Saul Bellow. There were no more than a few hundred names on the entire pyramid, all of which fit on a standard blackboard. READ MORE >>
Thank You to the Author's Many, Many Important Friends
How the acknowledgments page became the place to drop names
Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In hasn’t even been published yet, and already it’s sparked a national conversation about modern feminism. Though worthy, this has obscured the national conversation we should really be having. Lean In exposes a vein of something truly endemic and toxic in our culture. READ MORE >>
