Culture

Hulu’s Brilliant Adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Says More About Our Present Than Our Future

For many marginalized women, dystopia is already here.

Jessica Stites

The Elusive Emily Dickinson

A new film explores the poet's restless mind and lonely life.

Michael Atkinson

Our New Philanthropic Overlords

Why the donor class loves charter schools—and themselves.

Chris Lehmann

To Form a More Corporate Union

The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States shows that Trump's greed is no aberration.

Chris Lehmann

Toward a Real-Life Zootopia

How a fuller conception of freedom can help humans and others coexist.

Dayton Martindale

View of the Swamp from Across the Pond

As the U.K. barrels toward Brexit, Trump provides Britain with another bizarre spectacle.

Jane Miller

The Best Police Money Can Buy

In the Fox series APB, police misconduct doesn't exist, and privatization and technology can fix any problem.

Kristian Williams

Girl, You’ll Be a Cannibal Soon

A new French horror film explores identity, coming of age and the various temptations of the flesh.

Michael Atkinson

Brexit From the Side of a Volcano

Contemplating capitalism and democracy in the Canary Islands.

Jane Miller

How Today’s White Middle Class Was Made Possible By Welfare

Whites, angered at blacks and immigrants receiving "government handouts," forget they were lifted out of poverty through racially exclusive welfare programs in the 30s.

Margaret Garb

George Saunders’ New Novel Follows Abraham Lincoln’s Son to a Buddhist Afterlife

In his first full-length novel, the short story virtuoso weaves U.S. history with the otherworldly.

Chris Lehmann

Don’t Be Fooled By the Trump Spat—The CIA Is Not Your Friend

A new book reminds us that the CIA is one of history's great purveyors of fake news.

Branko Marcetic

Meet the Folkestones

A small British town that voted for Brexit.

Jane Miller

Asghar Farhadi Is One of the Most Important Directors Working Today—And Trump Has Banned Him

The Iranian filmmaker's masterful, Oscar-nominated The Salesman shows the futility of progressives trying to tolerantly endure repressive regimes.

Michael Atkinson

Neoliberalism, Cranked up to 11

Jonathan Coe's Number 11 offers a bleak portrait of what Britain has become.

Chris Lehmann

Reflections on Barack Obama: A Great and Disappointing President

Hope, change and the limits of the office.

Salim Muwakkil

What We Can Learn From the Pacifist Movement Against World War I

Although they failed to keep us out of the war, they organized effectively in conditions frighteningly similar to our own.

Theo Anderson

We Hunted Down the 10 Best Films of 2016

From the Iranian mystery Fireworks Wednesday to the German black comedy Toni Erdmann, this year's stand-out films were far off the beaten path.

Michael Atkinson