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Ian Johnson
Lessons of the Father

New biographies of Xi Zhongxun and Hu Yaobang provide insights into the opaque culture of the Chinese Communist Party and the political ascent of Xi’s son, Xi Jinping.

Anahid Nersessian
How Can I Help You?

The hypocrisies of our social contract are exposed in John Tottenham’s hilarious debut novel about a wage worker in a bookstore.

Randi Weingarten, interviewed by Daniel Drake
A Lesson for Democrats

“We—not just Democrats who are running for office, but the DNC—should learn from Mamdani’s campaign. Don’t just talk about what we stand for, act on what we stand for.”

Free from the Archives

Today is Wole Soyinka’s ninety-first birthday. In the Review’s March 21, 2019, issue, we published a conversation between Soyinka and Henry Louis Gates Jr. in which the two discussed Trump—then still in his first term—racism in America, Nigeria, literature, and more.

Wole Soyinka and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
‘There’s One Humanity or There Isn’t’: A Conversation

Gates: Is it accurate to say that Donald Trump’s a racist?

Soyinka: Oh, yes, I believe so. I know that politicians can say or do anything, but at the same time, I find it totally diabolical that a dangerous weapon like racism can be used to ascend to office. Political racism is divisive. It’s used as a weapon deliberately to set one side against the other. Any head of state, even a minor elected officer, who can make statements about “shithole countries”—and actually name them!—and who says, “But on the other hand, get me the blue-eyed Norwegians. I don’t mind them coming into the country.” [Laughter] How much more racist can you get? How close to the pernicious doctrine of the blue-eyed Aryan ideal of humanity?

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