The Brooklyn Rail

Why I Am Going To Iran

But it is a question that has different intent depending on whether they are friend, foe, or loved ones. My foes, with whom I admittedly do not spend a lot of time, say I am naive.

A Day at the Races
The Belmont

A Day at the Races

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Why I am going to Iran

Bloomberg’s Blockin’ Out the Sun

“It’s gonna hafta be a city-wide rent strike man. That’s what it looks like. Bloomberg puttin’ the rent up. People can’t pay,” explains Marvin Edgerton, 44, of Crown Heights, three days after the Rent Guidelines Board voted in favor of the largest rent increase since 1989 for the city’s rent-stabilized apartments.

Inside the American Ruling Class: John Kirby And Libby Handros in conversation with Williams Cole

The American Ruling Class is a self-proclaimed “dramatic-documentary-musical” featuring ex-Harper’s editor Lewis Lapham as guide on a voyage of discovery into what is America’s “ruling class.” Part of the conceit involves following two Yale grads, one coming from a wealthy family and the other coming from more modest means, as they consider their career choices or “inevitabilities.” The film not only dives into a daunting and complex subject but its style is also highly experimental. For example, one memorable segment has Lapham bring the guys into a diner where, lo and behold, the immersion journalist Barbara Ehrenreich is waiting the tables, thus starting a musical number called “Nickel and Dimed that various low-wage workers sing in their real places of employment.” The Rail’s Williams Cole sat down with the film’s director, John Kirby, and its producer, Libby Handros, to discuss power, wealth, and happiness, and how Obama might not actually offer that much change.

Gonzo: The Life and Death of the Last American Patriot

The Edge...there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. —Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

South America's China Syndrome

"Right now South America is trying to recover from the social catastrophe of the past twenty years and sees China as a convenient market for its raw resources."

The Deal That Wasn’t

The Indian government is in crisis because of a civil nuclear deal that it can’t seem to sign with the United States. The battle to sign this agreement not only reveals flaws and fissures in India itself but also the fact that the world views the u.s. with distrusting eyes.

Inside India

The cover features a crinkly-skinned man in a saffron turban, a slim cell phone clasped to his ear: the perfect image of the two Indias, ancient and modern, colliding. Right, I thought when I saw it, another one of those books.

Hope Amidst the Rubble

Inside the ancient gates of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher sits tucked away among stone paths worn smooth by thousands of years of footsteps and towering walls that shade the city from the sweltering Middle Eastern sun.

The Right to a Fair Trial

Of all the bedrock founding principles of this country, the idea of a fair and truly just judiciary has always held its place as the central underpinning of the American experiment. The judiciary branch provides needed checks and balances on the legislative and executive branches.

2009 is Not the End

After nearly eight seemingly interminable years, we are finally coming to the end. In six months, President Bush and his entire administration will leave office. And even if the next president has the last name McCain and not Obama, many American liberals will most likely feel some cause for celebration when George, Dick, and Condoleezza finally depart the White House for good.

Art and Lies

Few symbols grab and hold our attention like the swastika.