The New Republic

Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling Edited by Linda Greenhouse and Reva B. Siegel (Kaplan Publishing, 335 pp., $26) America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril and Liberation By Elaine Tyler May (Basic Books, 214 pp., $25.95) Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America By Sara Dubow (Oxford University Press, 308 pp., $29.95)  READ MORE >>

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Kawasaki’s Rose Menemsha Films Tiny Furniture IFC Films READ MORE >>

The Girl Olive Films Heartbreaker IFC Films A film about a child that is not intended to charm us is brave. The Girl, from Sweden, scorns the idea of charm and bravely concentrates on the life of a nine-year-old simply as a life. (We don’t even learn her name.) We are left at the end with a sense of experience, not some sort of benevolence. READ MORE >>

This is one of those slightly hokey surveys that measures the happiness of nations. Done by the Gallup World Poll and written up for Forbes by Francesca Levy, its results are not entirely surprising. READ MORE >>

Ezra Klein has been doing some great blogging from the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is indeed full of ideas--some good, some not so good. Into the latter category I would put some remarks by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, as relayed by Ezra today: READ MORE >>

To anticipate Argentina versus Germany or Brazil versus Holland is to again hear World Cup history whisper ever more urgently as the tournament approaches its conclusion. The coaches and players will insist that such talk is nonsense; a distraction. The game must be won on the pitch in South Africa. Eleven against eleven. The future scripts are yet to be written. What's past is irrelevant. So said the English, to a man, on the eve of being knocked out by Germany yet again. READ MORE >>

A good question! Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski suggest not. Their argument, summarised by Tim Harford, runs more or less like this: - England do about as well as you’d expect, given their size, economic power, proximity to football’s “core” in Western Europe, and footballing history. That is, you’d expect them to usually make the last 16, sometimes make the last 8, occasionally make the last 4 and make the final very rarely. And they do. READ MORE >>

Mademoiselle Chambon Lorber Films The Father of My children IFC Films READ MORE >>

Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It By Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake (Ecco Press, 290 pp., $25.99) I. READ MORE >>