Best of the Nation, 1990-2000 : Selections from the Independent Magazine of Politics and Culture

by Vanden Heuvel, Katrina

• ISBN13: 9781560252672
• ISBN10: 1560252677
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-05
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

For 135 years The Nation magazine has embodied the critical spirit of dissenting journalism, giving voice to the passionate witnesses whose engagement with today's controversies has startled, provoked, and entertained. As E. L. Doctorow wrote of The Nation, "The editors never published anything less than what was urgently on their minds." Here is Patricia Williams on the Million Man March; Tony Kushner on gay liberation; William Styron on Prozac and Halcion; Susan Sontag on Bosnia; Jonathan Schell on the case for abolishing nuclear weapons; and Erica Jong's response to the Modern Library's list of the past century's 100 greatest books -- a list of her own. Finally, Michael Moore asks, "Is the Left Nuts? Or Is It Me?"

Author Biography

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xvii
Gore Vidal
Editors' Note	xxi
1990
Prez V. Uptight Re: Boldness Gap 1/1/90	1	(5)
Douglas McGrath
Michael Harrington, Socialist 1/8--15/90	6	(6)
Cornel West
Time for Our Sinatra Doctrine 2/12/90	12	(7)
Carlos Fuentes
Out of the Mouth of Babes: Child Abuse and the Abuse of Adults 2/12/90	19	(5)
Alexander Cockburn
Bad Day in Pleasantville 5/7/90	24	(7)
Benjamin H. Cheever
Break up the Blocs in Europe 8/13--20/90	31	(8)
E.P. Thompson
Notes on Our Patriarchal State 8/27/90--9/3/90	39	(8)
Gore Vidal
Let `Em Vote for ``None of the Above'' 9/10/90	47	(6)
Micah L. Sifry
Embargoed Literature 9/17/90	53	(6)
Edward W. Said
Wild at Heart 9/17/90	59	(6)
Stuart Klawans
High and Low at Moma 11/26/90	65	(9)
Arthur C. Danto
The Priest and His People 12/24/90	74	(4)
Amy Wilentz
1991
The Rise of Louis Farrakhan Part one All for One and None for All: The Rise of Louis Farrakhan Part two: 1/21--28/91	78	(22)
Adolph Reed, Jr.
Beating About Executive Privilege 2/25/91	100	(2)
Richard Howard
Choice Can Save Public Education 3/4/91	102	(8)
Deborah W. Meier
Taking the Democratic Way 4/22/91	110	(7)
Mary Kaldor
The Loss 7/15--22/91	117	(2)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Three Days That Shook the Kremlin 9/9/91	119	(3)
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Canon to the Right of Me... 9/23/91	122	(8)
Katha Pollitt
The Paperbacking of Publishing 10/7/91	130	(9)
Ted Solotaroff
The Perils of the New Nationalism 11/4/91	139	(4)
Eric Hobsbawm
1992
Clinton and Rickey Ray Rector 3/2/92	143	(3)
Christopher Hitchens
Pearl 3/30/92	146	(2)
James Merrill
The Gulf War as Total Television 5/11/92	148	(8)
Tom Engelhardt
The Karma Ran over My Dogma 5/18/92	156	(4)
Clancy Sigal
Bad Bears News---Exchange 5/25/92	160	(3)
William Seagraves
Andrew Kopkind
In La, Burning All Illusions 6/1/92	163	(9)
Mike Davis
Emergency Room (Turnpike, Anywhere, U.S.A.) 6/15/92	172	(2)
Mona Van Duyn
A Few Kind Words for Liberalism 9/28/92	174	(9)
Philip Green
Notes from Another Country 9/14/92	183	(5)
Molly Ivins
The Character of Presidents 11/9/92	188	(7)
E.L. Doctorow
1993
November First 2/22/93	195	(1)
Charles Simic
Women Hide Behind a Wall of Silence 3/1/93	196	(7)
Slavenka Drakulic
Sisters under the Skin---Exchange 3/8/93	203	(7)
Jan Clausen
Barrie Karp
Ynestra King
Jane Lazarre
Grace Paley
Suzanne Gordon
Katha Pollitt
A Guide to the Ghettos 3/15/93	210	(7)
Camilo Jose Vergara
Trouble Still in Forrest City 3/22/93	217	(7)
Robert Scheer
The Gay Moment 5/3/93	224	(16)
Andrew Kopkind
The Truth About the A.B.A. 6/7/93	240	(8)
Elisabeth Sifton
The Identity Politics in New York City 6/21/93	248	(9)
Michael Tomasky
Cesar's Ghost 7/26--8/2/93	257	(10)
Frank Bardacke
Giving The Devil His Due---Exchange 8/23--30/93	267	(4)
Salman Rushdie
Alexander Cockburn
Words Are All I Have---Exchange 12/27/93	271	(6)
Laura Flanders
Cass R. Sunstein
Lindsay Waters
Claire Silvers
Maria Eugenia Quintana
Paul Adams
Christopher Palmer
Stephanie Gouse
Aida Donald
Carlin Romano
1994
The Age of Reason, 1794--1994 2/21/94	277	(3)
Ring Lardner, Jr.
Zapatist A! The Phoenix Rises 3/28/94	280	(9)
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Land of the Dead 4/25/94	289	(7)
John Pilger
Confessions of a Tobacco Fiend 4/25/94	296	(5)
John Leonard
A Deserter from Death 6/20/94	301	(6)
Daniel Singer
A Socialism of the Skin 7/4/94	307	(9)
Tony Kushner
Battues 7/4/94	316	(1)
W.S. Merwin
Behind Haiti's Paramilitaries 10/24/94	317	(6)
Allan Nairn
1995
1953 1/2/95	323	(1)
Philip Levine
Character in Biography 2/13/95	324	(11)
Carol Brightman
Racism Has Its Privileges 3/27/95	335	(11)
Roger Wilkins
One Violent Crime 4/3/95	346	(13)
Bruce Shapiro
Allegory of the Cave---Exchange 4/24/95	359	(6)
Arthur C. Danto
Clayton Eshleman
Alexander Cockburn
Buying His Way to a Media Empire 5/29/95	365	(10)
Robert Sherrill
Hiring Quotas for White Males Only 6/26/95	375	(4)
Eric Foner
To Newt on Art 7/31--8/7/95	379	(3)
Arthur Miller
Is There Method in His Madness? 9/25/95	382	(10)
Kirkpatrick Sale
Different Drummer Please, Marchers! 10/30/95	392	(3)
Patricia J. Williams
The Ballad of the Skeletons 11/27/95	395	(5)
Allen Ginsberg
1996
Inside the Butts Box: The Cigarette Papers 1/1/96	400	(15)
Jon Wiener
Hip Is Dead 4/1/96	415	(4)
Tom Frank
Does Maureen Dowd Have an Opinion? 5/13/96	419	(3)
Susan Faludi
How News Becomes Opinion, And Opinion Off-Limits 6/24/96	422	(5)
Salman Rushdie
Centrism, Populist Style 10/7/96	427	(5)
Richard Parker
`Transition' or Tragedy? 12/30/96	432	(3)
Stephen F. Cohen
Hans Christian Ostro 12/30/96	435	(2)
Agha Shahid Ali
1997
Journals of the Plague Years 5/12/97	437	(9)
Edmund White
Heart of Whiteness 10/6/97	446	(12)
Eric Alterman
When Government Gets Mean: Confessions of a Recovering Statist 11/17/97	458	(9)
Barbara Ehrenreich
Is the Left Nuts? (Or Is It Me?) 11/17/97	467	(2)
Michael Moore
First Projects, Then Principles 12/22/97	469	(6)
Richard Rorty
1998
Michael Moore's Mailbag---Exchange 1/5/98	475	(7)
Kelly Candaele
Terence M. Ripmaster
Ellen Frank
Kenny Bruno
John Anner
Steve
Pat Gallagher
Robert T. Bowen
Lester Rodney
Mike Matejka
Peter W. Denzer
Michael Moore
``66 Things to Think About When Flying into Reagan National Airport'' 3/2/98	482	(2)
David Corn
General Pinochet Still Rules: 25 Years After Allende 3/23/98	484	(19)
Marc Cooper
Some People 3/23/98	503	(2)
Wislawa Szymborska
We Need a Radical Left 6/29/98	505	(7)
Ellen Willis
The Devil's Ball 7/8/98	512	(1)
Yusef Komunyakaa
Dialectical McCarthyism (s) 7/20/98	513	(8)
Victor Navasky
Unchained Melody 5/11/98	521	(10)
Marshall Berman
Performance and Reality: Race, Sports and the Modern World 8/10--17/98	531	(19)
Gerald Early
All the World's a Ball 8/10--17/98	550	(4)
Eduardo Galeano
Writing Robeson 12/28/98	554	(10)
Martin Duberman
1999
Historic Question Department, 11th Grade Division 1/11/99	564	(1)
Calvin Trillin
The False Dawn of Civil Society 2/22/99	565	(8)
David Rieff
Sextuple Jeopardy 2/22/99	573	(3)
Jonathan Schell
Nato: at 50, It's Time to Quit 5/10/99	576	(7)
Benjamin Schwarz
Christopher Layne
Unfinished Business: Clinton's Lost Presidency 2/14/2000	583
William Greider