FIELD NOTES
Exhibiting Whitman/Clawing at Eliot/Introducing the radical accountants, and more
BREAKTHROUGH BOOKS
China
INSIDE PUBLISHING
Slips of the face/Nixon on the couch/Up from Grub Street, and more
The American Earthquake
In 1990 Mike Davis published City of Quartz--a searing indictment of contemporary Los Angeles that combined street-smart reporting with apocalyptic bravado. But now, the man who took us down L.A.'s mean streets and blasted suburban escapism has turned his attention to the furies of nature. Will the fire next time come from the skies?
BY ADAM SHATZ
The Decline of the Campus Novel
In their well-regarded campus satires, Jane Smiley and Richard Russo treat faculty members and students as quaint, lovable souls. But an earlier generation of campus novelists wrote more harshly, and more deeply. What went wrong?
BY ADAM BEGLEY
Burning Down the House
The demise of Basic Books was a serious blow to the crossover dreams of academic writers everywhere. The inside story of a venerable (and profitable) imprint's fate in a publishing world desperate for overnight blockbusters and Hollywood tie-ins.
BY CHRIS LEHMANN
Citizens of the World, Unite!
In her new book, Cultivating Humanity, Martha Nussbaum offers an ardent cosmopolitan's defense of the multicultural university. But is she right to believe that she can win her case by reason alone?
BY MICHAEL BÉRUBÉ
