The Brooklyn Rail

In Conversation

Inside the Tropic of Chaos: CHRISTIAN PARENTI with Theodore Hamm

Christian Parenti is a contributing editor of the Rail and the Nation and a visiting scholar at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. His latest book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (Nation Books) is based on more than six years of research and travel to war zones, slums, and failed states across the world.

After the Twister

By Brian Awehali

I was born in Joplin, but I've long since renounced any belief in theism or supernatural determinism, and don't believe that tornadoes or anything else for that matter are acts of God, unless you mean it metaphorically.

In Conversation

RED MEMORIES:
WALTER BERNSTEIN with Gregory Zucker and Molly Rose Ávila

Walter Bernstein is one of the most celebrated writers for film and television. His writing for television included shows like Danger and You Are There. Due to the blacklist, Bernstein received no credit for his work on films like The Magnificent Seven and The Train.

Red Legacies

By Michael Terry

In The “S” Word: A Short History of an American Tradition...Socialism, John Nichols begins with the story of an aging Walt Whitman and his daily meetings with a young writer named Horace Logo Traubel. In Camden, New Jersey, the two had a series of conversations that would lead to a book itself, detailing the thoughts of one of America’s great poets.

THE GOOD OLD ’70S: The End of the Amerian Century

By David Rosen

We live in the shadow of the 1970s. If at all, most Americans remember the “long decade,” the period from 1968 to 1981, by a scattering of historical occurances and a handful of iconic images. A careful reconsideration reveals a lot more.

LASTING IMPRESSIONS
Three Reviews

By Christopher Michel

One of the first questions that may be asked about a memoir is the degree to which it is true, backed up by outside corroboration. This is a property unique to the genre. In fiction, in poetry, in almost every other form of storytelling, readers may look for truth, but they look within the story.

Smoke and Mirrors in Pursuit of Suez’s Striking Workers

By Robert S. Eshelman

My visit to Suez, where I planned to interview striking Suez Canal workers, began as expected