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books

Inquisition Mode: Victor Serge’s Final Notebooks

Tariq Ali London Review of Books
A defender of the Bolshevik revolution and a decades-long critic of Stalinism, Serge in his final notebook details the fight against fascism, capital and the Soviet bureaucracy by a not uncritical intimate of Trotsky who remained a lifelong Marxist.

books

On Tyranny

Ken Early The Irish Times
This is a moment to revisit this important book. "Snyder is calling for moral courage," writers reviewer Early. "Don’t be afraid to stand out. Don’t obey immoral orders. Don’t abandon professional ethics. Don’t forget to vote."

books

The Southern Key: Class, Race, & Radicalism in the 1930s & 1940s

Janet Wells Greene New York Labor History Association
The Southern Key argues that much of what is important in politics and society today was largely shaped by the successes and failures of the labor movements of the 30s and 40s, notably the failures of southern labor organizing during this period.

music

Why the Chicks Dropped Their "Dixie"

Amanda Petrusich The New Yorker
The all-female country band, formerly "The Dixie Chicks," which survived an instance of proto-cancel culture for its politics in the past, again wants to meet the current moment.

books

Unsteady Work

Laura Marsh Dissent
"'Temporary' is the rare novel that reckons with unsteady work," says reviewer Marsh. "If the book is a surreal, absurd, sometimes self-defeating entry in the office genre, that is because temporary work is all those things."

film

'John Lewis: Good Trouble’ A Portrait of an American Hero

David Fear Rolling Stone
John Lewis declares that, during the 1960s, he was arrested “a few times.” Then the elder statesman and éminence grise of the civil rights movement pauses before correcting himself in front of the large Dallas crowd he’s addressing: “40 times…"

tv

It Happened Here

Alisa Solomon Jewish Currents
The Plot Against America—Philip Roth’s 2004 novel, as well as David Simon and Ed Burns’s recent television adaptation—imagines what might have transpired if the fascist tendency in the United States had gained power.

food

How the Ice Cream Truck Made Summer Cool

Colin Dickey New Yorker
Harry Burt became the frst ice cream vendor to move from pushcart to truck, a move that changed how countless Americans eat—and how they experience summer.
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