The New York Review of Books

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Between the “war on terror” and Covid lockdowns, Giorgio Agamben “had said all along that when governments take charge o...
11/21/2025

Between the “war on terror” and Covid lockdowns, Giorgio Agamben “had said all along that when governments take charge of matters of health, reproduction, and bodily autonomy, they will ultimately exercise power over life and death.” —Adam Kirsch

The philosopher Giorgio Agamben exalts an ideal of what he calls “inoperativity”--a kind of passivity as an antidote to the West's politics of power and domination.

Ferdinand Mount on how conservative politicians in interwar Britain laid the foundations for Labour’s postwar reforms
11/21/2025

Ferdinand Mount on how conservative politicians in interwar Britain laid the foundations for Labour’s postwar reforms

Understanding Britain's postwar reforms like the National Health Service requires peering into the ‘lost world' of wartime conservatism.

“Filmed by Alex Ashe on gorgeous, grainy 16mm film, the movie is [presented as] an analog artifact, like a photograph pr...
11/21/2025

“Filmed by Alex Ashe on gorgeous, grainy 16mm film, the movie is [presented as] an analog artifact, like a photograph printed in a darkroom: this may have been life, but it is only an image, a fiction, now.” —Andrew Durbin on Peter Hujar’s Day

There are only a few surviving recordings of the photographer Peter Hujar's voice. In the portion of his archive at the Morgan Library in New York, a

“One course Trump might pursue is dropping MAGA-minded American colonists into one of [Greenland’s] vast uninhabited spa...
11/21/2025

“One course Trump might pursue is dropping MAGA-minded American colonists into one of [Greenland’s] vast uninhabited spaces, on the order of the demented American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project of the 1930s.” —an interview with Gordon F. Sander

President Donald Trump's threat to annex Greenland has by now been buried under dozens of new headlines about the depraved exploits of his second

The latest dispatch from our Art Editor, Leanne Shapton
11/20/2025

The latest dispatch from our Art Editor, Leanne Shapton

A dispatch from the Art Editor

Anna Shechtman and D.A. Miller on the gross, long, sh*tty, and brilliant films of Radu Jude
11/20/2025

Anna Shechtman and D.A. Miller on the gross, long, sh*tty, and brilliant films of Radu Jude

In Radu Jude's Romania, people don't have a good word to say about the country or its citizens; on the contrary, they curse the place with a vehemence as

“Franco’s regime…was far more hospitable to fascist refugees than it ever was to Jewish ones. Despite this history, or p...
11/20/2025

“Franco’s regime…was far more hospitable to fascist refugees than it ever was to Jewish ones. Despite this history, or perhaps because of it, Franco’s reputation continues to grow on the American far right.” —Dan Kaufman

As Francisco Franco's reputation grows on the far right, a new history of his regime reminds us of its unrelenting violence toward Jews.

Anthony Domestico on Amy Clampitt’s pleasure-giving poetry
11/20/2025

Anthony Domestico on Amy Clampitt’s pleasure-giving poetry

A biography of the poet Amy Clampitt shows how poetry germinated throughout her life and blossomed in a late-career flourishing.

Robert Sullivan on Native American tribal sovereignty and stewardship of the earth
11/20/2025

Robert Sullivan on Native American tribal sovereignty and stewardship of the earth

If there is hope for the earth, it will depend in part on acknowledging indigenous sovereignty in the face of insatiable resource extraction.

“[Miaow] happens to have been my introduction to Galdós some thirty years ago,” Natasha Wimmer writes. “The reality of t...
11/20/2025

“[Miaow] happens to have been my introduction to Galdós some thirty years ago,” Natasha Wimmer writes. “The reality of the novel is livelier and stranger than [my] memories would suggest.”

Benito Pérez Galdós's mid-career novel Miaow sketches the absurd tribulations of a laid-off civil servant.

“[Vigdis Hjorth’s] If Only is an anti-love story, a reverse romance: instead of hoping and waiting for the lovers to get...
11/20/2025

“[Vigdis Hjorth’s] If Only is an anti-love story, a reverse romance: instead of hoping and waiting for the lovers to get together, you dread their being finally united.” —Ursula Lindsey

The Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth has a gift for depicting painful, confusing, and mortifying relationships.

“One doubts that Trump expected to act as a force for Nordic or European unity when he decided he needed to ‘get’ Greenl...
11/19/2025

“One doubts that Trump expected to act as a force for Nordic or European unity when he decided he needed to ‘get’ Greenland.” —Gordon F. Sander

President Trump's threats to seize Greenland have caused consternation and fear among Danes and Greenlanders alike.

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