David Marcus
@davidmarcus.bsky.social
Literary Editor @TheNation. Working on a history of socialism in the United States. Essays and more: http://linktr.ee/davidimarcus
Reposted by David Marcus
5. Over at The Nation, I write about Buckley's politics of friendship, how he creating a chummy world of insiders & those excluded from the club. I raise the question: sure, Buckley was fun company but would you want to marry one of his sisters? www.thenation.com/article/cult...
William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies
What was it about Buckley that made him so attractive to liberals—and what was it about liberals that caused them to be attracted to conservative figures like Buckley in the first place?
www.thenation.com
September 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
5. Over at The Nation, I write about Buckley's politics of friendship, how he creating a chummy world of insiders & those excluded from the club. I raise the question: sure, Buckley was fun company but would you want to marry one of his sisters? www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
Thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to my brilliant editor @davidmarcus.bsky.social, who commissioned me as well as another finalist, and who has made The Nation's @booksandthearts.bsky.social section such a vital space for book criticism.
The Washington Monthly proudly announces the finalists of the 2025 Kukula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing:
The Washington Monthly Announces Finalists for 2025 Kukula Award Book Review Prize | Washington Monthly
Kukula Award book review prize honors exemplary nonfiction book reviewing that elucidates key issues of our times.
washingtonmonthly.com
August 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to my brilliant editor @davidmarcus.bsky.social, who commissioned me as well as another finalist, and who has made The Nation's @booksandthearts.bsky.social section such a vital space for book criticism.
Is it that many New Yorkers find the field disappointing per NYT or rather NYT finds the preferences of many voting New Yorkers disappointing?
June 16, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Is it that many New Yorkers find the field disappointing per NYT or rather NYT finds the preferences of many voting New Yorkers disappointing?
Reposted by David Marcus
I reviewed Quentin Skinner’s new one www.thenation.com/article/arch...
What Is Freedom For?
Books & the Arts / June 9, 2025 Free From What? Quentin Skinner and the contested â¨history of liberty What Is Freedom For? Quentin Skinner and the contested
history of liberty. Samuel Moyn Share Co...
www.thenation.com
June 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I reviewed Quentin Skinner’s new one www.thenation.com/article/arch...
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Peter Linebaugh and I just published an essay about the life & work of Christopher Hill, one of the greatest historians of the 20c, in @thenation.com: “In 1965, [Hill] was elected master of Balliol College. History from below had arrived at the Oxford high table.”
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Christopher Hill’s Revolutions
The radical life and work of the historian.
www.thenation.com
May 14, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Peter Linebaugh and I just published an essay about the life & work of Christopher Hill, one of the greatest historians of the 20c, in @thenation.com: “In 1965, [Hill] was elected master of Balliol College. History from below had arrived at the Oxford high table.”
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
He’s got the grannies
May 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
He’s got the grannies
Why should we do close reading? @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social in @booksandthearts.bsky.social on the history and future of close reading www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The Invention of Close Reading
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to turn postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
www.thenation.com
May 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Why should we do close reading? @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social in @booksandthearts.bsky.social on the history and future of close reading www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
I wrote about close reading. What it is, why it matters, and what John Guillory gets right and wrong in his recent On Close Reading. Offers a sneak peek of a little of what @johannawinant.bsky.social and I are up to in our forthcoming Close Reading for the 21C
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
What is Close Reading?
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to transform postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
www.thenation.com
May 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I wrote about close reading. What it is, why it matters, and what John Guillory gets right and wrong in his recent On Close Reading. Offers a sneak peek of a little of what @johannawinant.bsky.social and I are up to in our forthcoming Close Reading for the 21C
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
Not a drill: *THE VIVIAN GORNICK* reviewed our new book “Going Around: Selected Journalism” by Murray Kempton, edited by Andrew Holter, for @thenation.com
Vivian Gornick in Spring Books on the many lives of Murray Kempton @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Rebellions of Murray Kempton
One of his generation’s most prolific journalists, Kempton never turned a blind eye to the inequalities all around him.
www.thenation.com
April 11, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Not a drill: *THE VIVIAN GORNICK* reviewed our new book “Going Around: Selected Journalism” by Murray Kempton, edited by Andrew Holter, for @thenation.com
Reposted by David Marcus
I would say more broadly that as policy you really shouldn’t allow government officials to accuse people of *terrorism* anonymously.
You’re not supposed to grant anonymity to liars. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
April 11, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I would say more broadly that as policy you really shouldn’t allow government officials to accuse people of *terrorism* anonymously.
Reposted by David Marcus
"The very first line of Open Socrates admonishes the reader, “There is a question you are avoiding.” For Callard, that question is: Why are you living this way? But this only points to a host of questions that Callard herself avoids..."
me for @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
me for @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Agnes Callard and the Examined Life
In her new book, Callard makes the case that we should all live more philosophically but where does politics fit in?
www.thenation.com
April 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM
"The very first line of Open Socrates admonishes the reader, “There is a question you are avoiding.” For Callard, that question is: Why are you living this way? But this only points to a host of questions that Callard herself avoids..."
me for @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
me for @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
"You could call the business model Trump developed a kind of personality arbitrage." @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in @thenation.com's Spring Books on how the 1980s and 90s made Trump www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Donald Trump’s Long Con
Trump’s “Art of” trilogy may be full of willful exaggeration but the books also reveal how the 1980s and 90s formed his dog-eat-dog worldview.
www.thenation.com
April 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM
"You could call the business model Trump developed a kind of personality arbitrage." @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in @thenation.com's Spring Books on how the 1980s and 90s made Trump www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
I read Donald Trump's books for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Donald Trump’s Long Con
Trump’s “Art of” trilogy may be full of willful exaggeration but the books also reveal how the 1980s and 90s formed his dog-eat-dog worldview.
www.thenation.com
April 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I read Donald Trump's books for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The making and remaking of Capital. Epic piece by Alyssa Battistoni in latest @booksandthearts.bsky.social / @thenation.com on Marx’s masterpiece, the history of its translations, and what it means to read it today www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The Making and Remaking of Karl Marx’s “Capital.”
www.thenation.com
February 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The making and remaking of Capital. Epic piece by Alyssa Battistoni in latest @booksandthearts.bsky.social / @thenation.com on Marx’s masterpiece, the history of its translations, and what it means to read it today www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
Daniel Bessner in the new @thenation.com on Chomsky and Nathan Robinson's The Myth of American Idealism and the politics of anti-imperialism www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.
www.thenation.com
January 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Daniel Bessner in the new @thenation.com on Chomsky and Nathan Robinson's The Myth of American Idealism and the politics of anti-imperialism www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
In "A Complete Unknown," James Mangold offers a faithful, reverent, and cautious account of a musician who always tried to be anything but these qualities.
What Do We Want From Bob Dylan’s Story?
In James Mangold's film A Complete Unknown, we get a cautious and reverent story of a musician who has always sought to transcend the limits imposed upon him.
www.thenation.com
January 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
In "A Complete Unknown," James Mangold offers a faithful, reverent, and cautious account of a musician who always tried to be anything but these qualities.
Daniel Bessner in the new @thenation.com on Chomsky and Nathan Robinson's The Myth of American Idealism and the politics of anti-imperialism www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.
www.thenation.com
January 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Daniel Bessner in the new @thenation.com on Chomsky and Nathan Robinson's The Myth of American Idealism and the politics of anti-imperialism www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
If the left ever hopes to change US foreign policy, it needs to move beyond the shibboleths of the past. We must stop fetishizing information politics and mass protests and instead must develop an institutionalist understanding of how state power functions.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.
www.thenation.com
January 14, 2025 at 10:45 AM
If the left ever hopes to change US foreign policy, it needs to move beyond the shibboleths of the past. We must stop fetishizing information politics and mass protests and instead must develop an institutionalist understanding of how state power functions.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
“The study of history is a collective and cooperative endeavor, not a competition for personal academic eminence.”
—David Montgomery
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
—David Montgomery
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History
From his first book to his landmark account of the politics of the pre-WWI labor movement, Montgomery explored how people’s experiences of work shaped their political horizons.
www.thenation.com
December 27, 2024 at 6:30 PM
“The study of history is a collective and cooperative endeavor, not a competition for personal academic eminence.”
—David Montgomery
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
—David Montgomery
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
Noam Chomsky is the most famous critic of US empire in the world. How have his views on empire and anti-imperialism change?
The Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.
www.thenation.com
January 13, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Noam Chomsky is the most famous critic of US empire in the world. How have his views on empire and anti-imperialism change?
"I write for the future / because my present is demolished. / I fly to the future / to retrieve my demolished present / as a legible past." Even in their silence, these poems call us to act. Hussein Omar in Books and the Arts @thenation.com on Fady Joudah www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Fady Joudah’s Poetry of Dislocation
In his new volume of poetry, […], the poet, translator, and ER doctor explores Palestinians’ experiences of exile and displacement as well as the difficulties of healing amid the protracted and ongoin...
www.thenation.com
January 14, 2025 at 2:48 PM
"I write for the future / because my present is demolished. / I fly to the future / to retrieve my demolished present / as a legible past." Even in their silence, these poems call us to act. Hussein Omar in Books and the Arts @thenation.com on Fady Joudah www.thenation.com/article/cult...
"The Brutalist provides its audience with a window onto a side of architecture that is always lurking in the shadows: who makes it, and for whom." The always great @katewagner.bsky.social in @BooksandtheArts on why The Brutalist might be the best film of the year www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Brutalist and the Hidden Work of Architecture
A film about survival, creativity, the hypocrisies of high art, The Brutalist tells a story about an architect who does not exploit and manipulate others to achieve his grand vision of the world but i...
www.thenation.com
December 18, 2024 at 4:33 PM
"The Brutalist provides its audience with a window onto a side of architecture that is always lurking in the shadows: who makes it, and for whom." The always great @katewagner.bsky.social in @BooksandtheArts on why The Brutalist might be the best film of the year www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Kim Phillips-Fein in latest @BooksandtheArts on the incredible David Montgomery--his early radicalization, his years as a UE worker, his time in the CP, and his histories of work and the vital message they still impart www.thenation.com/article/soci...
David Montgomery and the Vitality of Labor History
From his first book to his landmark account of the politics of the pre-WWI labor movement, Montgomery explored how people’s experiences of work shaped their political horizons.
www.thenation.com
December 18, 2024 at 12:49 PM
Kim Phillips-Fein in latest @BooksandtheArts on the incredible David Montgomery--his early radicalization, his years as a UE worker, his time in the CP, and his histories of work and the vital message they still impart www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
Where's the party? My latest (a review essay) for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...
What Happened to the Democratic Party?
The squalid state of our present political institutions points to a failure of not just individuals but the system as a whole.
www.thenation.com
December 16, 2024 at 1:22 PM
Where's the party? My latest (a review essay) for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...