A new book shows how policy choices have made some people more vulnerable than others.
Books
Book reviews and essays from the Washington Monthly on the new books shaping debates over politics, policy, history, and American democracy.
Posted inBooks, July/August 2020, Magazine
Can Anything Dislodge the Electoral College?
Today’s reformers join a long history of groups that have tried, and failed, to eliminate the institution.
Posted inBooks, July/August 2020, Magazine
The Unfulfilled Promise of the Public Defender
Despite a century of progress, the poor still don’t get a fair day in court.
Posted inMagazine
The Benefits of Boredom
COVID-19 is going to last a long while. Here’s the psychology behind making the best of it.
Posted inBooks, Featured, July/August 2020, Magazine
Watching Rachel Maddow Is Not Enough
Obsessively following the news but doing nothing to help your side gain power is less than useful.
Posted inBooks, Featured, Political Animal
Will COVID-19 Get Policymakers To Start Taking Loneliness Seriously?
A new book makes the case for why a public health crisis merits a public health response.
Posted inBooks, Featured, Political Animal
Did Lincoln Take his Cues From Congress?
A new book argues boldly—though not altogether convincingly—that Republican lawmakers had a bigger role in ending slavery than the Great Emancipator himself.
Posted inApril/May/June 2020, Books, Magazine
What’s Killing the White Working Class?
The GOP continues to supply more of the policies that are destroying its base.
Posted inApril/May/June 2020, Books, Magazine
When Environmentalists Won Over the Supreme Court
How one improbable legal case drove the federal government to regulate greenhouse gases.
Posted inApril/May/June 2020, Books
Inside the Chaotic, Underfunded World of Probation and Parole
The system is failing the people it supervises—and we all pay the cost.
