Theo Baker’s debut book is a film-worthy investigation of Stanford’s culture of fraud. But his disdain for the tech bros keeps him from understanding them.
Books
Book reviews and essays from the Washington Monthly on the new books shaping debates over politics, policy, history, and American democracy.
Posted inBooks
The Last Man Comes Full Circle
From Allan Bloom’s lecture halls to the Iraq War’s intellectual wreckage, a memoir of how a neoconservative movement insider became a dissenter.
Posted inBooks
Death by a Thousand Papercuts
Annie Lowrey explains how the largely hidden “Time Tax,” built on government parsimony and bureaucratic hurdles, screws the poor and working class.
Posted inBooks
Dead Reckoning
A veteran Times obituarist lifts the lid on the death desk. But in an age when anyone can publish a life, who still needs the Gray Lady’s last word?
Posted inNewsletter
Get Smart: Our Summer Reading Roundup
Here are some of our editors’ and reviewers’ top picks so far this year for policy and political nonfiction.
Posted inBooks
Evan Barker’s Magical Mystery Tour
The ex-operative exposes progressive follies, but her account of moving from Bernie supporter to Trump voter is dazed and confused.
Posted inBooks
Blood on the U.S. Senate Floor
The 1856 caning of Senator Charles Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, by a pro-slavery U.S. Representative Preston Brooks was a step on the road to the Civil War and has echoes in our own violent times.
Posted inBooks
The UFC Cage Match Theory of Democracy
From plantation apologists to Silicon Valley’s philosopher-kings, a new book tracks how the case for a natural ruling class keeps coming back.
Posted inBooks
Cory Doctorow Is Making Peace with AI
The tech maven is hip to the manic circular financing behind AI but isn’t freaked out about it being an existential threat.
Posted inBooks
What Makes Sam Alito So Angry?
Irked by liberals from Princeton to Yale and the Justice Department to the Supreme Court, the conservative jurist finishes another term unbowed.
