An Activist’s Fight for Citizenship
In the summer of 1902, a 20-year-old Puerto Rican woman named Isabel Gonzalez set sail for New York City from San Juan. She was pregnant, a recent widow, and had few economic options in Puerto Rico....
View ArticleThe Missing Black Millennial
On a cold winter morning this year, I stepped on a downtown 6 train in New York City. I had just come from a grueling workout, and I was tired and hungry. Bundled up in my coat, with a pocketbook and...
View ArticleTwo Traditions
Herbert CrolyNew Republic ArchiveA former editor of this publication, Franklin Foer, has asserted that The New Republic “invented modern liberalism.” Another ex-editor, Hendrik Hertzberg, has...
View ArticleAt Last, a Bipartisan Argument Against the Death Penalty
When the Wyoming Senate rejected a bill last week that would abolish the state’s death penalty, most of the national attention focused on comments by a single lawmaker. “The greatest man who ever lived...
View ArticleThe Glaring Hole in Elizabeth Warren’s Childcare Plan
This week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate, did something extraordinary: She laid out a plan for universal, affordable, high-quality childcare for all American families. It’s a...
View ArticleRachel Weisz’s Perfect Queer Turn
Rachel Weisz’s two recent performances as a queer woman—in Disobedience and in The Favourite—have cemented her new status as a powerful creative force in the industry. Disobedience was the first movie...
View ArticleAmerican Democracy Is on the Supreme Court Docket
The Supreme Court’s current term may have started with a whimper, but it will end with a bang. In recent weeks, the justices added three cases related to electoral power and influence in the United...
View ArticleWill the Democrats Kill the Green Party by Stealing Its Best Idea?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the wunderkind congresswoman from New York, has been getting most of the credit for the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to fight global warming that has become increasingly...
View ArticleFormer New York Times Executive Kerrie Gillis Joins The New Republic as...
New York, NY—(February 22, 2019)— The New Republic today announced Kerrie Gillis as its new publisher, effective February 20. Gillis will report to Win McCormack, The New Republic’s owner and editor in...
View ArticlePoem on a Stair
On every stairway with the kite-shaped stepI stop on that step one secondto commemorate one particular step in the shape of a kite I’ll never again be able to step onI’ll never...
View ArticleHoms
Wind this morning so strong the borrowed Florida house shakes on its stilts over water.White pelicans, which do not resemble the spirit, write their single sentencestraight through it, unhindered.Their...
View ArticleSouth Huntington Apartments
And you were breathless in the laundry room.Hiding behind a closet door, ajar. Listeningfor him to take the cellar stairs. Is it possible he was frightenedhe might kill you? You could see his shoes...
View Article“Socialism” Has Lost All Meaning in American Politics
On Monday, during a visit to New Hampshire, California Senator Kamala Harris was asked by a reporter if she considered herself a democratic socialist—just as Bernie Sanders, an independent who won the...
View ArticleThe Jussie Smollett Smokescreen
There were plenty of contenders for the biggest news story this week. North Carolina officials ordered a new election on Thursday in the state’s 9th congressional district after hearing testimony about...
View ArticleIs It Cruel to Have Kids in the Era of Climate Change?
In one of his early works, the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche relayed an Ancient Greek legend about King Midas pursuing the satyr Silenus, a wise companion of the god...
View ArticleThe Crime of Parenting While Poor
One morning in May, on the fifth floor of an office building in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, five mothers and seven small children sat in a circle, singing a song to the tune...
View ArticleDid Trump Win His War on the Russia Investigation?
The Russia investigation may be drawing to a close. According to multiple news organizations, special counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to report his findings to Attorney General Bill Barr in the...
View ArticleAn Engineer of Subversive Ideas
The early months of 1743 brought Denis Diderot’s career as a con artist and freeloader to a shameful end. His own father committed him as a prisoner to the Carmelite monastery in his hometown of...
View ArticleAge of Anxiety
Authors have many images to describe distorted mental states, but that of a glass enclosure, which warps vision and sound, is among the most common. In his searing essay on the loss of his daughter,...
View ArticleDianne Feinstein Is a Bigger Climate Threat Than Trump
As climate change worsens, so does President Donald Trump’s denial. On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that his administration is assembling a panel of fringe, industry-funded scientists who...
View Article