Allies (Fall 2019) | Boston Review

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Politics, Science & Nature

What the Health Care Debate Still Gets Wrong

A decade ago, Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande helped popularize the idea that health care spending is high because we use too much medicine. He was wrong: it’s the prices, and who pays them.

Adam Gaffney

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Politics

Politics

Atone—But Not Because It Will Save Democracy

Germany’s official policy of shame about its past is a model the United States should adopt. But it won’t protect either country from far-right extremism.

Samuel Clowes Huneke

Politics

How Not to Do Activism

The calculus of power isn’t defined by hits or clicks or tweets. It is measured in relationships and meaningful reactions over time.

Michael Gecan

Politics

Loving Latin at the End of the World

Many revere Latin as the soul of Western civilization. But its beauty should not keep us from reckoning with its history.

Joel Christensen

Politics

It's No Secret Why Republicans Win

The right’s success in media is not a shadowy conspiracy; it has been achieved out in the open, largely through ordinary politics. Much of it can be countered the same way.

Nicole Hemmer

Class & Inequality, Politics

The Long History of Debt Cancellation

Moral thinking about debt has fluctuated throughout U.S. history. Today’s calls for cancellation suggest it may be poised for transformation once again.

Olivia Schwob

Politics

Fascism in Translation

Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language. At the same time, they have always been good at using translation to spread their politics.

Yuliya Komska

Politics

Politics is for Power, Not Consumption

Political hobbyism takes well-meaning citizens away from pursuing power.

Eitan Hersh

Politics, Reading Lists

Is Populism a Problem?

A bumper crop of brilliant essays on why populism isn't “anti-elite”, Trump isn’t a populist, and more. 

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Politics, Race

The Fragile Patriotism of the American Conservative

The New York Times’s new 1619 Project argues fiercely for a new understanding of what it means to believe in America—and it is cracking the very foundations of conservatism.

David Walsh

Politics, Race

The Armed and Anxious White Psyche

Contemporary gun violence is not so much terrorism as tradition. It is deeply intertwined with the white supremacist foundations of the United States.

Mark Tseng-Putterman

Politics

The Liberal Who Told Reagan’s Favorite Joke

When Democratic senator Edmund Muskie made a quip about the government being “here to help you,” he surely didn’t know it marked the death of the New Deal.

Lawrence B. Glickman

Politics, Race

Solid Trumpism

Donald Trump has the most stable approval rating of any president since Harry Truman. As we gear up for the 2020 election, the challenge we now face is the remarkable stability of his support.

Ronald Aronson

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