This 1,300-Page Anticapitalist History Gets a Few Things Wrong
Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History is...not a reliable history.
Book Reviews
Review: A Novel About Masculinity and Weightlifting
Muscle Man offers a subtler commentary than any thinkpiece about the bro-ification of the right.
How Robert Crumb Inspired the Underground Comix Movement
Crumb's work was called sexist, racist, and obscene, but even his critics often acknowledged that he was hilarious and original.
Would Star Trek's Transporter Destroy Cities or Save Them?
What a speculative technology can tell us about the demands for urban density and sprawl
Andor Creator Tony Gilroy on Bureaucracy and the Surveillance State
Tony Gilroy examines how Andor portrays authoritarian power as a bureaucratic system, the moral compromises of life under surveillance, and the role ordinary people play in enforcing oppressive systems.
Avatar: Fire and Ash Is Part Spectacle, Part Retread
An eco-action film that covers too much familiar ground.
Review: Tron: Ares Reminds Us That Artificial Intelligence Is Not the Enemy
It's the humans who develop and use AI for malicious ends, not the tech itself, who should worry us.
Review: When the CIA Tried To Unlock Mind Control
Project Mind Control tells the story of the federal government's failed MKUltra program.
Review: Progressive Myths Rebuts the Left's Histrionic Takes
The author argues America is still "among the freest, most egalitarian, and most open-to-progress societies in history."
Review: The British Spy Novelist Beloved by Fellow Spies
Tradecraft chronicles the career of John le Carré, intelligence officer turned author.
Can America Return to Neoconservatism Without the Same Results?
Shadi Hamid’s The Case for American Power implies that true interventionism hasn’t been tried.
Review: Quasi-Government Megacompanies Collide in Alien: Earth
The FX series is a direct prequel to the 1979 movie.
An Antidote to the FDR Cult
A new biography presents Franklin Roosevelt as one of the greatest scoundrels of American political history.
Review: Frank S. Meyer's Fusionism Melded Classical Liberalism With Traditional Religion
Biographer Daniel J. Flynn uncovered long forgotten documents in the conservative thinker's former home.
Review: Charting Jerry Garcia's Enormous Cultural Impact
Here Beside the Rising Tide tells the story of the Grateful Dead and the 1960s counterculture.
Declassified Documents Detail the FBI's Surveillance of a Libertarian Sci-Fi Author
Vernor Vinge, who mocked the surveillance state in his writing, was investigated for alleged connections to socialist Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
The Running Man Is a Shallow, Socialist Action Fantasy
A dystopian action cartoon for the Bernie bro set.
Review: 'The Greatest Songwriter of All Time' Finally Gets a Biography
Carole King became one of the most influential musicians in the '60s, '70s, and beyond.
Greta Rideout's Landmark Rape Case Against Her Husband: 'I Did It for My Daughter'
Author Sarah Weinman's Without Consent tells the story of the legal and political battles to outlaw spousal rape in the U.S.
In Predator: Badlands, the Predator Takes On Toxic Masculinity
Who knew that a Predator movie could be so cute?
In Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia, Elites Are Alien Creatures
A bleak, absurdist take on the gap between the world of HR corporate speak and ordinary Americans
A Nostalgic Read for Foreign Policy Elites
Michael McFaul's new book feels like it was written in 2015, not 2025.
Review: Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? A New Book Investigates Bitcoin's Creator
Author Benjamin Wallace explores several possibilities but admits the mystery remains unsolved.
Terence McKenna, the Would-Be Jesus of Psychedelics
A new biography explores the life and ideas of the man who founded the first primitive religion of the future.
Tron: Ares Is a Bad Movie, but a Great Nine Inch Nails Music Video
A pulsing electronic score turns a mediocre movie into a sick vibe.
Lindy-Hopping Nazis and Golems With Guns: The Return of Thomas Pynchon
In Shadow Ticket, characters are forever finding refuge in the folds of the map.
In 107 Days, Kamala Harris Unleashes Criticism on Biden. Honestly, It's Relatable.
The book offers ample reminders of what people find irritating about Harris. But she also comes across as relatable and even, occasionally, amusing.
Review: In Defense of Spotify
Liz Pelly's Mood Machine book bemoans the music giant but overlooks how useful it is for listeners.
Faerie Smut Is About More Than Bathtubs and Archery
Don't judge A Court of Thorns and Roses by its covers.
Review: Girl on Girl Explores the Dark Side of '90s Nostalgia
Author Sophie Gilbert's book dissects turn-of-the-century media and the role of women in it.
A Replacement for the Nation-State?
Two technologists argue that Web3 will allow new forms of organization to supplant traditional governments.
Reality Winner Got 5 Years in Federal Prison for Leaking 5-Page Document
In her memoir, the former NSA contractor details her journey from top secret security clearance to federal prison.
Desi Arnaz's Revolution Was Televised
How a risk-taking immigrant helped invent the three-camera sitcom
The Long Walk Is a Harrowing Take on State Power
It’s about an authoritarian government, not the demands of capitalism.
Review: Murderbot Is Part Frankenstein's Monster and Part C-3PO
The title character in this Apple TV+ series is both a menace and a friend.
Are Free Zones Really Free?
The Hidden Globe takes a skeptical but nuanced look at quasi-autonomous territories in the cracks of the map.
FBI Spied on Libertarian Sci-Fi Author Vernor Vinge In 'Espionage' Case
The late friend of Reason, who coined the term "technological singularity," landed on the feds' radar for his association with a foreign policy dissident.
How Civilizations Lose Their Spark—and How We Might Keep Ours
Golden ages teach us a lot about what makes civilizations rise and fall.
What Caused the Serial Killing Spike of the 1970s and '80s?
A new book draws a rich, informative, but not entirely convincing account of a crime wave.
How Elite Special Operations Troops Created a Drug Cartel
A bizarre criminal conspiracy in the ranks of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg
Tiny Nations in the Crack of the Map
You could travel to a foreign country, or you could create your own.
How 'National Security' Came Unmoored From Americans' Actual Security
The turning point was the New Deal.
Review: What Would Happen If the Modern-Day British Government Discovered Time Travel?
The Ministry of Time offers a world of romance, murder, blue sci-fi lasers, and lots of paperwork.
Mark Twain's Travel Log From the Holy Land
Christianity would be wonderful, Twain suggests in The Innocents Abroad, if it weren't for Christians.
