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War & Security

The President and the Blob

The barrage of attacks that followed Trump’s decision to reduce the U.S. military presence in Syria obscures the decades-long bankruptcy of the U.S. foreign policy establishment.

Andrew J. Bacevich, Rajan Menon

Arts in Society

Rap on Trial

Prosecutors use defendants’ rap lyrics to win cases despite the flimsiest evidence. Behind this rests a unique paranoia around hip hop and a long history of criminalizing black art.

Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis

Philosophy & Religion, Science & Nature

What Makes Science Trustworthy

The “scientific method” of high school textbooks does not exist. But there are scientific methods, and they play an essential role in making scientific knowledge reliable.

Arts in Society, Class & Inequality

Zero Hour: The First Days of New Berlin

30 years after the Wall, the story of Berlin's anarchist utopia.

Politics

Politics is for Power, Not Consumption

Political hobbyism takes well-meaning citizens away from pursuing power.

Politics

Fascism in Translation

Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language. At the same time, they have always been good at using translation to spread their politics.

Race

The Greensboro Massacre at 40

On November 3, 1979, members of the KKK and American Nazi Party murdered five labor organizers in broad daylight. Forty years later, massacre survivor Rosalyn Pelles talks about that day, and why organized workers are such a threat to the powerful.

Rosalyn Pelles, Jordan T. Camp

Law & Justice

Halloween and Stranger Danger

Bizarre restrictions are levied against people on the sex offense registry on Halloween. But do they actually make children safer or simply reveal what we fear?

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

How Not to Argue for Tax Justice

Economists are taking aim at the unfairness of the U.S. tax system. But a just society won’t be won by arguing about taxes alone.

Class & Inequality, Philosophy & Religion

Bad Romance

Capitalism hasn’t disenchanted the world, a new book argues. Like a bad lover, it beguiles us into spiritual desolation—and only the most utopian politics will break its spell.

James G. Chappel

Race

The Revolutionary and the Historian

Harvard professor Walter Johnson and rapper Tef Poe reflect on their shared activism, and the place they see for allies—accomplices, even—in the long struggle for racial justice.

Walter Johnson, Tef Poe, Mordecai Lyon

Law & Justice

How Not to Argue for Tax Justice

Halloween and Stranger Danger

‘Flexible’ Family Leave Is Lousy Feminism

Rethinking Birthright

Stephanie DeGooyer

How Cars Transformed Policing

The Metastasis of the Misdemeanor System

Brandon L. Garrett

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

The Legality and Reality of Torture

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

U.S. Judges Admit Enhanced Interrogation Is Torture

Joseph Margulies

Arts in Society

Just Grab

From the Editors: Allies

Adam McGee, Ed Pavlić, Evie Shockley

Announcing the Fall 2019 Aura Estrada Short Story Contest Winner and Finalists

Rap on Trial

Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis

Surely, Not

Zero Hour: The First Days of New Berlin

Announcing the 2019 Boston Review Annual Poetry Contest Winner and Finalists

Abdel Halim Performs a Private Concert for My Mother

Sultan of Hearts

Matthew Jeffrey Vegari

READING LISTS

Veterans Day 2019

READING LIST

From PTSD to dissenting.

Is Populism a Problem?

READING LIST

A bumper crop of brilliant essays on why populism isn't “anti-elite”, Trump isn’t a populist, and more.

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