Why top-line federal statistics miss the economic pain average Americans feel.
Ideas and Culture
Essays and criticism on ideas and culture: the history, arguments, and cultural shifts behind American politics and public life. Includes our Books coverage, with reviews and essays on the new books shaping debates over policy, history, and democracy.
Posted inBooks
The Eternal Social Justice Summer
A much-maligned new book asks a fair question: Why do the excesses of the left offend voters more than those of the right?
Posted inBooks
The 2025 Kukula Award Winners
The Washington Monthly’s annual award celebrates the best in nonfiction book reviewing and honors the memory of Kukula Kapoor Glastris, the magazine’s beloved books editor.
Posted inBooks
Can America Build Ships Again?
The U.S. builds less than 1 percent of the world’s ships and relies on foreign vessels for military supplies. A new book about the last time we dominated shipbuilding suggests Trump’s approach of tariffs and port fees won’t cut it.
Posted inBooks
The Power Brokers
Jonathan Mahler’s portrait of four crucial years in 1980s New York City shows a volatile and divided city in crisis, with loudmouths from Al Sharpton to Rudy Giuliani to Donald Trump accumulating power.
Posted inBooks
In Zohran Mamdani’s New York
Journalist Ross Barkan once ran for the New York statehouse with Mamdani as his campaign manager.
Posted inBooks
How the Left Lost the Working Class—and How to Win Them Back
To avoid becoming the foil for Right Populism, Left Populists need to respect working-class values of work, family, community, patriotism, and the aspiration for stability and security.
Posted inHigher Education
Student Loan Debt: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It
Student Loan Debt: From Educational Opportunity to Generational Grievance: The history of student loan debt shows how noble programs and soaring tuition have often left too many students underwater. Fortunately, there are ways to fix the problem.
Posted inBooks
God and Man at Sea
William F. Buckley Jr. spent a lifetime trying to make a coherent intellectual case for conservatism but could never articulate what it was supposed to consist of apart from owning the libs.
Posted inBooks
What Hungary Lost When It Obeyed in Advance
The country’s leaders thought they could restore the nation’s lost glory through alliance with Hitler. By 1945, Budapest lay in ruins and 550,000 Hungarian Jews were dead.
