The Book | The New Republic

The Duty of Harsh Criticism

by Rebecca West

The New Republic | November 7, 1914

September 02, 2010

Warriors, Hot and Cold

by Barron YoungSmith

The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War

by Nicholas Thompson

Foreign policy hands generally aspire to be one of three people. The first is George Kennan, who managed to acquire the status of sage and prophet by writing the most prescient Foreign Affairs article ever written. Another is Dean Acheson, the mustachioed Secretary of State and architect of the post-World War II international order, whose picture Condoleezza Rice kept on her office wall. And the third is Paul Nitze, Acheson’s onetime deputy, who managed to work for every presidential >>> Full Review

September 01, 2010

#@&%*!

Susan Herbst believes that bad manners in the public square are not all bad. Instead of defining civility as a static “set of norms and practices” and wringing our hands over the sorry state of those norms today, she thinks we should focus on the “strategic uses of civility and incivility” in politics.

by Molly Worthen

August 31, 2010

Fudging Holly Golightly

This book is such a swift, sweet, smart stroll through the making of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s that it takes a little while for one to realize how slick, undemanding, adorable, and unintelligent it really is. The penny doesn’t drop until 5:10 at least.

by David Thomson

August 30, 2010

Guidance Counselors

Higher Education? is brilliantly timed for the spirit of the Great Recession, but the book itself is highly uneven. It is rather reminiscent of a freshman bull session.

by Richard D. Kahlenberg

August 27, 2010

Hareloom

In his absorbing new book, Edmund de Waal, a British artist and potter, tells the story of his discovery of his own family’s part in the tragic 20th century history of Jews in Europe. The story begins, oddly enough, with a collection of Japanese figurines—small lifelike carvings in wood or ivory, known as netsuke, which served to fasten the cords of a pouch to a man’s belt.

by Adam Kirsch

August 26, 2010

Change Agent

Sinclair McKay’s new book is one of the very best attempts to take stock of the Bond films. It has its share of quirks, and is by no means appropriate for someone with a minimal interest in the series. But his analysis of the movies is smart and unexpected, and his grasp of Bond is obviously the result of thought and study.

by Isaac Chotiner

August 25, 2010

Hope and Play

Readers of history should be grateful for the appearance of this short book. Natalie Zemon Davis is not only one of the greatest living historians—the author of classics such as The Return of Martin Guerre and Women on the Margins—but also one of the most interestingly introspective.

by David A. Bell

August 24, 2010

Forever Young

The pursuit of immortality is an old ancient longing, of course. It traces its origins back to the earliest days of scientific inquiry, and despite an unbroken history of failure, it has managed to survive into the twenty-first century.

by Jessica Loudis

August 23, 2010

The Bright and the Restless

In his new book, Sebastian Mallaby suggests there’s something in the DNA of hedge funds that confers such powers of foresight and cognition, or at least draws them out. So convinced is Mallaby of the social utility of hedge funds that he favors actively encouraging the industry’s growth as a way to avert future financial crises.

by Noam Scheiber

August 19, 2010

Sex for Beginners

Robie Harris’s fine book on sexuality has been updated and reworked for the fifteenth anniversary of its publication. It actually lives up to its promise and delivers “honest, reliable, accurate, and accessible information” about human sexuality and reproduction.

by Ellen Handler Spitz

August 18, 2010

Dangling Man

If ever a writer fully embraced Baudelaire’s ideal of flaneurie, it is Per Petterson. His characters perch on windy beaches, lean out over the rails of ferries, idly ride subway cars, lie in the bottom of docked rowboats.

by Hillary Kelly

July 12, 1943

Not Heat or Cold

by Isaac Rosenfeld

A novelist’s short stories often stand in a revealing relation to his major work. The scale is reduced, the writer practises an economy wherein he is forced to proceed without cover, exposing himself at every turn. Thus his method, which in a larger work is often obscured by space and time, here plays a distinctive role—in Nancy Hale’s stories, the dominant role. Her stories are all method. Reading “Between the Dark and the Daylight,” you will understand precisely where and why her best selling novel, “The Prodigal Women,” failed. Read More

March 21, 1928

Modernist Furniture

by Lewis Mumford

The exhibition of modern French decorative art at Lord and Taylor’s has breadth, sweep, élan. The space has been generously disposed: the furniture and textiles are arranged in rooms and alcoves: and the large room that contains the glass, silverware, stoneware, sculpture, is in itself a contribution to what a modern room in a museum might be It is a very good show indeed, for it gives a sense of the unity and interdependence of all the arts: but one can scarcely see the spectacle because of the spectators. They have come in thousands to this exhibit. Read More