Critics read Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription, as a commentary on smartphones. But with gothic style and a Victorian temperament, it meditates on a much older technology — the spectral quality of disembodied speech introduced at the dawn of telephonics.
How, in an age in which “the fast eat the slow,” has Thomas Friedman not been gobbled up?
Few universities have embraced the corporatization of higher education with arms as wide as the University of Chicago.
Whether because of Trump fatigue or COVID or both, the Biden years have been defined by a kind of anti-politics. Many fewer Americans are now paying politics much attention at all.
The latest film adaptation of Dune, Frank Herbert’s cult sci-fi novel series, is out next month. With its often-reactionary mix of political cynicism, ecological catastrophism, and lurid orientalism, Dune remains oddly attractive to left-wing audiences.
One year ago today, novelist John le Carré died at age eighty-nine. His talent for turning spy novels into great literature was unmatched.
The melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner” came from the anthem of the Anacreontic Society, a gentleman’s club formed by amateur musicians in 18th-century London. Francis Scott Key wasn’t the first to set different lyrics to the tune, and he wouldn’t be the last.
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are producing a new TV series about female Kurdish fighters. We can expect a sanitized production that somehow fails to mention that YPJ forces in Rojava are leftists who oppose everything the Clintons represent.
Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling was a win for reproductive rights. But the fight continues for unrestricted access to abortion.
The Dominican Republic is preparing to deport hundreds of thousands of people to Haiti. What's behind the mass expulsion?
Despite sixty years of US blockade, Cuba continues its impressive medical research and development.
Modern European history is sometimes told as a story of growing secularization. But the Catholic Church played a central role in 20th-century Europe as one of the main purveyors of anti-communism and a frequent ally of far-right reaction.
The labor theory of value is one of Marxism’s most contested ideas. Both critics and supporters of socialism have labeled it inconsistent and outdated. In an interview with Jacobin, economist Duncan Foley offers a full-throated defense.
Mike Gravel's hellraising efforts against US imperialism have had real, lasting effects. The public should get to hear his views in the 2020 Democratic primary debates.
Here at Jacobin, we don’t just offer you radical political dispatches — we give you practical advice on how to improve your summer. Here are our top beach reads for the sweltering summer months.
For four decades, Billy Bragg’s music has been a soundtrack to the British workers’ movement, enriching its long tradition of political songwriting. In an interview with Jacobin, he explains why his songs about socialism are also love songs.
The first season of The Wire began 20 years ago this month. It remains one of this century's great television shows — both stylish and smart, with unforgettable characters woven into a striking portrait of the depredations of capitalism in one US city.
In a leftward-moving region, the iron fist of Honduras’ Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo makes him Obama’s sort of "democrat."
The German socialist thinker Erich Fromm developed a powerful critique of authoritarian culture in response to the rise of Nazism. Today’s Left has much to learn from that critique, and from his defiant political optimism in the face of dark times.
Karl Marx is often understood to have dismissed morality as bourgeois ideology. But Vanessa Wills, author of the new book Marx’s Ethical Vision, argues that his account of class exploitation sought to explain injustice, not sideline it.