Digital publishing is much on the minds of publishers, authors, and readers these days, since Yale law professor Yochai Benkler came out with his new book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet, Benkler describes how patterns of
“The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he.” – Karl Kraus If you’ve never heard of Karl Kraus, the Austrian satirist who inflicted withering and witty critiques on the mass media, the military-industrial complex,
The Summer issue of BookForum features a number of new titles on Marcel Proust, including two by the acclaimed Proust biographer William C. Carter, whose Marcel Proust: A Life was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2000. Carter’s new Proust in Love portrays Proust’s amorous adventures and misadventures
On Thursday last week, after a trial stretching four months and jury deliberations spanning six days, former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of fraud and conspiracy, crimes for which they could face life sentences in prison. “The jury sent an unmistakable message,” prosecutor Sean Berkowitz said.
On Monday, May 29, Americans will observe Memorial Day, commemorating the U.S. men and women whose lives were lost, and continue to be lost, in military service for their country. The day marks a fitting occasion to look back at the wars which have defined our nation’s history and the
“I would like the work to be non-work….It is my main concern to go beyond what I know and what I can know.” – Eva Hesse The work of Eva Hesse (1936-1970), one of the greatest American artists of the 1960s, continues to inspire and to endure in large part
What do The Godfather, The Cat in the Hat, and Machiavelli’s The Prince have in common? According to Stanley Bing in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, they are among the five books that offer the soundest advice for proper business etiquette. Before your eyes roll too far into the back
“Does anybody really need to read another book about Hitler or Stalin?” asks Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times.”If you think not, spend a few engrossingly profitable hours with John Lukacs’ new book, June 1941, and you’ll be reminded that the one thing history does not admit is a
The foursquare view from the top of the Empire State, even more than the sweep of Manhattan that was available from the summit of the twin towers, is one of life’s great vistas. It may not quite be, as the building’s primary booster and moving force, Al Smith, argued, better
Tomorrow, the 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day is set aside each year to remember the approximately six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, since, as Elie Wiesel said, “For us, forgetting was never an option. Remembering is a