The New Yorker

"A negotiating process that started eighteen months ago with talk of trillions of dollars in deficit reduction ended in an agreement that will hardly reduce the deficit at all. From a historical perspective, indeed, the overall impact of the compromise is to bestow another big and costly tax cut on the American populace."

— John Cassidy on the fiscal-cliff deal as a tax cut for all: http://nyr.kr/YQZssI

4 months ago

So You Think You Know the Second Amendment?

Jeffrey Toobin looks at the changing interpretation of the Second Amendment through history, and the invention of gun rights: Conservatives “mock the so-called liberal idea of a ‘living’ constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century.” Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/YfUc6s

Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty.

5 months ago

Group portrait at Mark Twain’s seventieth-birthday party.

There are several indicators one might use to judge the level of one’s fame. One is being the highest-paid writer in the history of the world. Another is not being dissuaded by anyone from writing over two thousand pages of autobiography. And another is feeling comfortable asking the President of the United States to move Thanksgiving for your birthday celebration…

Macy Halford on the time Mark Twain tried to move Thanksgiving.

And, for those who are interested, see the menu from Twain’s seventieth-birthday bash.

6 months ago

From Harvey Milk to Prop 8, in this week’s issue Alex Ross traces the history of the gay-rights movement, interlacing the movement’s milestones with his own memories and experiences as a gay man in America. Ross writes, “I am forty-four years old, and I have lived through a startling transformation in the status of gay men and women in the United States… Around the time I was born, homosexual acts were illegal in every state but Illinois. Lesbians and gays were barred from serving in the federal government. There were no openly gay politicians. A few closeted homosexuals occupied positions of power, but they tended to make things more miserable for their kind.” But, he writes, “Today, gay people of a certain age may feel as though they had stepped out of a lavender time machine…. Gay rights have made such rapid progress that there is an urge to look back and assess what has happened.”

Continue reading Ross on the past and future of gay rights.

6 months ago

It’s no coincidence that “Annie” is being revived on Broadway during election season. If you haven’t seen the musical since you yourself were a scrappy little ragamuffin, you may not remember how pointedly political it is. Based on Harold Gray’s syndicated comic strip, the show (written in 1976) is set in the pits of Depression-era New York City, and it captures an American moment not unlike our own.

- Michael Schulman on the politics of Annie. Continue reading.

It’s no coincidence that “Annie” is being revived on Broadway during election season. If you haven’t seen the musical since you yourself were a scrappy little ragamuffin, you may not remember how pointedly political it is. Based on Harold Gray’s syndicated comic strip, the show (written in 1976) is set in the pits of Depression-era New York City, and it captures an American moment not unlike our own.

- Michael Schulman on the politics of Annie. Continue reading.

7 months ago

"I’m not a reënactor, I’m not a trained historian, and I’m not a trained cook,” Lohman said. “I see it as an elaborate form of performance art."

—

Foodie-historian Sarah Lohman “has built a career revisiting long-forgotten recipes from the nineteenth and early twentieth century.”

Union Man→

How William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln worked together: Dorothy Wickenden looks at a new biography of an unlikely American statesman: http://nyr.kr/OGbSz9

8 months ago

In this week’s issue, Adam Gopnik traces the origin of Mormonism and its meanings, and considers what the religion can all tell us about Mitt Romney: http://nyr.kr/OLJr5B

9 months ago

In the magazine this week, Louis Menand reviews “Cronkite,” Douglas Brinkley’s new biography of longtime CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, and examines the events and myths that established the newscaster as the so-called “most trusted man in America.”

In the video above, we’ve collected moments from Cronkite’s years at CBS. It’s a survey of his career but also a survey of men’s fashion, microphone technology, TV production values—and, of course, American history. Watch the video, and click-through for more: http://nyr.kr/O101tV

10 months ago