By Robert Darnton November 9 is one of those strange dates haunted by history. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, signaling the collapse of the Soviet empire. The Nazis organized Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, beginning their all-out

By Malise RuthvenReflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the Westby Christopher CaldwellWhat I Believeby Tariq Ramadan In April 1968, two weeks after the riots that devastated US cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the

By John RichardsonFrancis Bacon: A Centenary Exhibitionan exhibition at Tate Britain, London, September 11, 2008-January 4, 2009, the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 3-April 19, 2009, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, May 20-August 16, 2009

Václav Havel and other members of Charter 77 addressing a crowd of demonstrators marking the fortieth anniversary of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, Prague, December 10, 1988 (Lumbomir Kotek-Joel/AFP/Getty Images) It can't happen often that citizens of one country

Charles Simic Eddie Collmar pulling his belongings across Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., 1983; the US Treasury Department is in the background. Later, Collmar and two others built a makeshift shelter outside the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Marcy Nighswander/AP Images) "Drop

A refugee camp in Gori, Georgia, 2009; photograph by Alex Majoli from , to be published by Magnum Photos and Chris Boot in December More than fifteen months have passed since war broke out between Georgia and Russia. The war

The three gossips from The Ghosts of Versailles at the Wexford Opera Festival, Ireland, 2009 () Wexford is a small town on the sea in the south-east of Ireland and an unlikely place to host an . Yet since 1951

Obama as Chairman Mao Some China watchers believe that China's dramatically rising prosperity will inevitably make the country more open and democratic. President Barack Obama's this week provided little to support that claim. As The Washington Post , in contrast

Joost Hiltermann speaks with Nathan Thrall about the political crisis facing Iraq as it prepares for parliamentary elections in 2010 and the departure of American troops the following year. To read Hiltermann's article, "Iraq on the Edge," please visit nybooks.com,

Oliver amazed at the Dodger's mode of 'going to work'; etching by George Cruikshank from Oliver Twist An American archaeologist friend here in Rome, where I'm spending my sabbatical, was working for a time in Salerno, in the south of

Detained Palestinians near an IDF post in Hebron, photographed by an Israeli soldier () Questions of human rights abuses in Israel and the charges of war crimes put forward by the UN's Goldstone report have produced little more than the

Caribou migration, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 2002;photograph by from his series 'Oil and the Caribou' It is often argued that cap and trade legislation requires too many compromises with—and give-aways to—polluting corporations to pass the House and Senate, and that

David Park: Boston Street Scene, 1954; paintings from Helen Park Bigelow's David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back, just published by Hudson Hills Press David Park (1911-1960) is one of those artists who isn't widely known but whose work inspires a

By Paula FoxA Meaningful Lifeby L.J. Davis, with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem One Manhattan mid-morning in the spring of 1967, I heard the crack of a gun going off below, along the broad reach of Central Park West. I

By Ingrid D. Rowland It is a measure of the ineptitude--or is it a death wish?--of Italy's major opposition party, the Partito Democratico (Democratic Party), that it has spent the entire season of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's discontent wrangling over

By Claire MessudMy Prison, My Home: One Woman's Story of Captivity in Iranby Haleh Esfandiari Extraordinary events in Iran over the past six months have brought us images, voices, and narratives until recently unimaginable; they reveal, among other things, how

By Garry Wills I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan without becoming a one-term president. I think that may be true. The charges from various quarters would be toxic--that

By Elaine BlairThe Humblingby Philip Roth One of the rare funny moments in Philip Roth's recent novel Everyman (2006) takes place when the unnamed hero visits his parents' graves in Newark. His health has been poor, his colleagues and friends

Sue Halpern and Nicholas Kristof A marketing image from the microfinace organization Kiva, featuring Truphena Anyango, 29, in her pharmacy, Mikindani, Kenya, 2009 (kiva.org) Sue Halpern and Nicholas Kristof have been engaged in an exchange about microfinance, following her recent

Michael Tomasky Canine checkup () So what did the House Blue Dogs do on the health care vote last Saturday? They were more supportive than one might think: Of the fifty-two-member coalition, twenty-eight voted yea and twenty-four nay. Jim Cooper