Boston Review
@bostonreview.bsky.social
A magazine of ideas, politics, and culture, committed to the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world. Independent & nonprofit since 1975. Newsletter: bostonreview.net/newsletter Subscribe: bostonreview.net/memberships
"In many ways, Donald Trump is the ghost haunting the Center—the emblem of political realities that Obama still refuses to name." -- Benjamin Balthaser www.bostonreview.net/articles/in-...
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
www.bostonreview.net/articles/fre... Note that this isn't, as the article makes clear, an embrace of the pre-2016 status quo
Freeing Free Trade
Is there anything left to anti-imperial visions of global commerce?
bostonreview.net
Joey Politano🏳️🌈@josephpolitano.bsky.social · yesterdayDSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...
bring back shame www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together?
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
bostonreview.net
A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social · yesterdayEverywhere should be a hostile place for Republicans. They should not be able to find a friend anywhere. They should lose all their professional and familial relationships. They should be blocked from signing up to social media platforms, clubs, and yard sales. They should be ejected from fairs.
#longread #mustread #bestread #history An article from years back written by the indispensable G M Tamas. It's also probably one of the most comprehensive articles I've read about nationalism, modernisation, centralisation and Habsburg multiculturalism. www.bostonreview.net/articles/g-m...
The Two Hundred Years War
The origins of conflict in Yugoslavia.
bostonreview.net
Read @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social on "Disputed Pasts" - "the warning we should take from [Brazil's] situation is the one about the dangers of being stopped short on the road toward memory, truth, and justice—not a lesson about the dangers of traveling that road at all."
Truth Without Reconciliation
Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?
bostonreview.net
“Henri Poincaré, the great French mathematician, called mathematics a ‘free creative art’—one of the rare remaining examples of unalienated labor. For how much longer?” From our summer issue, mathematician Michael Harris on the future of the field in the age of AI:
Knowledge Collapse
AI companies are racing to mechanize mathematics. Where does that leave human understanding?
bostonreview.net
"Our time will come, and when it does: no amnesty." Great, important piece from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/tru...
Truth Without Reconciliation
Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?
bostonreview.net
Our new issue closes soon, featuring — Zeynep Pamuk on science under fire — @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social & Omer Bartov on memory politics, in Brazil & Israel — Paul Hockenos reports from occupied Ukraine — Aslı Ü. Bâli on the future of U.S. power — @markbould.bsky.social talks with China Miéville
Our new issue closes soon, featuring — Zeynep Pamuk on science under fire — @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social & Omer Bartov on memory politics, in Brazil & Israel — Paul Hockenos reports from occupied Ukraine — Aslı Ü. Bâli on the future of U.S. power — @markbould.bsky.social talks with China Miéville
“There is no denying the counterrevolution; as former Fox News host–turned-podcaster Megyn Kelly put it last September, ‘We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama,’ and Trump ‘was the antidote.’ But Obama’s presidency was hardly revolutionary in the first place.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
on the myth that anti-trans bigotry is actually winning democrats votes www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
Trans rights aren’t tanking the Democrats.
Julia Serano responds in a forum on “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism.”
bostonreview.net
Lobby-ing — "The building is not all that different from what many feel about Obama himself: gravity defying, seemingly impossible, yet also a real, apparently indomitable force in American liberalism." www.bostonreview.net/articles/in-...
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
“There is no denying the counterrevolution; as former Fox News host–turned-podcaster Megyn Kelly put it last September, ‘We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama,’ and Trump ‘was the antidote.’ But Obama’s presidency was hardly revolutionary in the first place.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
I’ve found a good amount to chew on in Alberto Toscano’s drawing on the Davis/Marcuse idea of US fascism as an “incipient fascism,” “a preventative counter-revolution to a revolution which hasn’t taken place”: www.bostonreview.net/articles/lon...
The Long Shadow of Racial Fascism
A debate is roiling about the aptness of comparing Trump to European fascists. But radical Black thinkers have long argued that racial slavery created its own unique form of American fascism.
bostonreview.net
“I asked my friend to sit down. I was feeling amazed, in both the common and the old sense of the word. Climbing up this narrative staircase felt like wandering through a maze of passageways only to arrive at a cul-de-sac of light.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social tours the Obama Presidential Center:
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
“People believe in this program because it clearly seeks to dismantle imperial neoliberalism, not to rescue and stabilize it. While they may have walked out from the obelisk of Obama’s party, they are, in another sense, the true heirs of his promise.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social on “hope and change“:
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
In my piece in BR, I tried to think of Obama's presidency as neither wholly a failure of neoliberalism nor success of liberal multiculturalism (& now white backlash), but rather a dialectical moment that contains both: a way fwd for a new kind of left politics, out of the obelisk of Obama's party
Boston Review@bostonreview.bsky.social · last wk.“People believe in this program because it clearly seeks to dismantle imperial neoliberalism, not to rescue and stabilize it. While they may have walked out from the obelisk of Obama’s party, they are, in another sense, the true heirs of his promise.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social on “hope and change“:
“People believe in this program because it clearly seeks to dismantle imperial neoliberalism, not to rescue and stabilize it. While they may have walked out from the obelisk of Obama’s party, they are, in another sense, the true heirs of his promise.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social on “hope and change“:
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
Hey, I published a story at Boston Review in 2011 based on a similar conceit! www.bostonreview.net/articles/joh...
Thirty Seconds From Now
The future is messy. He’s learned to wander only a few seconds ahead.
bostonreview.net
kottke.org@kottke.org · last wk.Astronauts returning from long missions report a “jet lag of the self”: “a sense of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame”. [spacedaily.com]
“I asked my friend to sit down. I was feeling amazed, in both the common and the old sense of the word. Climbing up this narrative staircase felt like wandering through a maze of passageways only to arrive at a cul-de-sac of light.” @blbalthaser.bsky.social tours the Obama Presidential Center:
In the Lobby of Hope and Change
The Obama Presidential Center monumentalizes a liberalism still incapable of seeing its flaws.
bostonreview.net
it would appear that there is more memory politics ahead, so I am once again encouraging you to Read Theory www.bostonreview.net/articles/tru... bsky.app/profile/sale...
Truth Without Reconciliation
Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?
bostonreview.net
Will Saletan@saletan.bsky.social · 2w agoRemarkable that Trump issued this order for free. If I were in charge of PR for the Smithsonian, I would have paid him to do it. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/a...
Worth reading @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social in full. We hear about "truth and reconciliation," but if we want to prevent a return to fascism after we regain power, we need "memory, truth, and justice." We must build a political culture, a national mythos, oriented against MAGA crimes. No amnesty.
Truth Without Reconciliation
Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?
bostonreview.net
“Every month after this essay is published will bring its own lot of similar announcements.” Mathematician Michael Harris, member of the working group that drafted the Leiden Declaration, on AI and the future of mathematics:
Knowledge Collapse
AI companies are racing to mechanize mathematics. Where does that leave human understanding?
bostonreview.net
As an aside, I have written a lot on how to update the US S&T policy strategy, to center social priorities and needs (particularly equity and justice). In most ways, it's the opposite of the Kratsios proposal (hint: I don't think competitiveness is the sole problem). Here's one set of proposals.
Can Innovation Serve the Public Good?
Not as it’s traditionally done, but there are more equitable models.
bostonreview.net
“Climate hushing” is all the rage among Democrats. That’s a big mistake - Why Climate Politics Can’t Wait www.bostonreview.net/articles/why...
Why Climate Politics Can’t Wait
“Climate hushing” is all the rage among Democrats. That’s a big mistake.
bostonreview.net
“Clinton’s victory in 1992 probably had more to do with the recession of 1990–1991, & by ’96 he enjoyed the advantage of incumbency with falling unemployment,” while “poor people and minorities were among the most harmed by Clinton’s politics of moderation.” @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social explains:
Jesse Jackson’s campaigns point the way.
Danielle Wiggins responds in a forum on “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism.”
bostonreview.net
Stephen Robinson@playtyperguy.com · 2w agoI voted for the first time in 1992 so it annoys me when pundits like Yglesias urge a Clinton/Gore model for success. First off, while Clinton/Gore were more conservative on some key issues than Dukakis (death penalty, welfare) they didn't openly promote regressive views on culture.
Just come across this thanks to the research process of @jordantcamp.bsky.social consulting the Stuart Hall archive and discovering this speech of his on Walter Rodney from 1974. It is timely for me as I am about to embark on a second semester teaching a course "Race, Class, Gender" 1/
When We Are All Enemies of the State
A recently discovered 1974 speech by Stuart Hall on Walter Rodney—and why fascists fear ideas.
bostonreview.net
“Clinton’s victory in 1992 probably had more to do with the recession of 1990–1991, & by ’96 he enjoyed the advantage of incumbency with falling unemployment,” while “poor people and minorities were among the most harmed by Clinton’s politics of moderation.” @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social explains:
Jesse Jackson’s campaigns point the way.
Danielle Wiggins responds in a forum on “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism.”
bostonreview.net
Stephen Robinson@playtyperguy.com · 2w agoI voted for the first time in 1992 so it annoys me when pundits like Yglesias urge a Clinton/Gore model for success. First off, while Clinton/Gore were more conservative on some key issues than Dukakis (death penalty, welfare) they didn't openly promote regressive views on culture.