Why Conservatives Can’t Govern

Alan Wolfe, Professor of Political Science at Boston College and author of the forthcoming Does American Democracy Still Work? (Yale University Press; available September 4, 2006), has written the cover story for the July/August issue of Washington Monthly, entitled “Why Conservatives Can’t Govern.” The article, which has attracted significant attention

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The Artist’s Best Friend

It may be, as Alexander Pope once said, that “The proper study of mankind is man,” but, as is shown by an exhibition now on display at Greenwich’s Bruce Museum, an equally charming subject is man’s best friend. Best in Show: The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today

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“Le Tour de Bicycle”

The 93rd edition of the world’s premier cycling event, Le Tour de France, began last Saturday, July 1. Running until July 23, this year’s Tour will cover 20 stages (including a prologue) and more than 3,600 kilometers until, for the first time since 1999, a rider other than Lance Armstrong

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Mark Rothko in His Own Words

“I hate and distrust all art historians, experts, and critics,” Mark Rothko fulminated in 1959. “They are a bunch of parasites, feeding on the body of art. Their work not only is useless, it is misleading. They can say nothing worth listening to about art or the artist, aside from

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“The Recording Angel” Named One of 50 Greatest Music Books Ever

The Observer Music Monthly has just released its list of the 50 greatest music books ever, formed through consultation with its world-class music experts and readers. Included prominently on the list is Evan Eisenberg’s The Recording Angel: Music, Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa, with the following description: “How

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Palladio’s Rome

“With [Thomas] Jefferson I conversed at length on the subject of architecture — Palladio, he said, ‘was the Bible — you should get it and stick close to it.’” – Colonel Isaac A. Coles, 1816 Andrea di Pietro della Gondola (1508-1580)–better known by the name Palladio, after the Greek goddess

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Publishing Gone Digital

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

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Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist

“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,

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Proustmania

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

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