An academic’s doomed attempt to explain why there are no good right-wing comedians.
Books
Book reviews and essays from the Washington Monthly on the new books shaping debates over politics, policy, history, and American democracy.
Posted inBooks, Law and Justice, Magazine, September/October 2012
Broken in Hoboken
How the poor used to live.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, Politics, September/October 2012
Identity Politics Revisited
By most accounts, economic issues are the real core of politics, and social issues are a distraction. A historian begs to differ.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, Politics, September/October 2012
A Malevolent Forrest Gump
Strom Thurmond’s loathsomeness on race obscures his larger role: he was there at all the major choke points of modern conservative history.
Posted inBooks, July/August 2012, Magazine, Politics
The Ascent of Chris Christie
George W. Bush nicknamed him “Big Boy.” Will Mitt Romney call him “my running mate”?
Posted inBooks, July/August 2012, Magazine, Politics
Tempting but Insane
Should the South just be its own country?
Posted inBooks, Government, July/August 2012, Magazine
Young Guns
Obama’s surprisingly strong national security record owes much to a group of youthful aides few Americans have heard of.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, May/June 2012, Politics
The New Nixon
How it took a novelist to make Richard Nixon seem human.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, May/June 2012, Politics
Peaced Out
Peter Beinart warns that American Jews must refocus on the democratic and humanitarian principles of Zionism before Israel becomes simply another despotic Middle Eastern state.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, May/June 2011, Politics
Arab Springboard
American democracy promotion didn’t spark the Arab uprisings, but a shared hatred of our Middle East policies sure helped them spread.
