The leftist writer Fredrik DeBoer’s new book is an entreaty to white, college-educated progressives: Stop obsessing over identity and language and start fighting for working people.
Books
Book reviews and essays from the Washington Monthly on the new books shaping debates over politics, policy, history, and American democracy.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
Private Inequity
The Harvard economist John Coates argues that the growth of two types of investment companies—private equity firms and index funds—has concentrated power and imperiled democracy. But one of these things is not like the other.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
Nancy Pelosi’s Big Stick
An insider account of the Californian’s first four years as House speaker reveals how she prodded Washington’s more timid male leaders to do big things.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
Info Wars
The global financial system runs on a network of undersea fiber optic cables built and operated by the United States. Control of this data stream gives America incredible—and insufficiently discussed—power.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
Indian Country
A new history shows how the interactions between European colonists and Native peoples helped shape the foundations of American government.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
The Appalachian Trail
In the first half of the 20th century, 8 million poor rural whites fled the border states for Great Lakes cities. Brash and suspicious of government, they played an underappreciated role in the collapse of the New Deal order.
Posted inSeptember/October 2023
Can Aristopopulism Save Us?
Patrick Deneen wants to replace corrupt “structurally liberal” elites with a new elect of moral guardians.
Posted inJuly/August 2023
The Provocations of Martin Peretz
The legendary editor shook up the political-media power axis. Was he a free-thinking iconoclast or an irredeemable bigot?
Posted inJuly/August 2023
Chamber of Secrets
The Supreme Court’s habit of deciding hugely important cases without briefings, arguments, or even a word of explanation threatens democracy.
Posted inJuly/August 2023
Why Did Mike Pompeo Write This Book?
“Never Give an Inch” had been perceived as a precursor to a presidential bid. Now, it looks like a vice presidential job application submitted to Donald Trump.
