FIELD NOTES
Who's Left?/Pure fluff/Tutor drama, and more
BREAKTHROUGH BOOKS
Suburbia
INSIDE PUBLISHING
The birth of silent reading/ A year to remember/The Great White Northrop,
and more
International Man of Mystery
In the West, Mikhail Bakhtin is celebrated for his pathbreaking notions
of "carnival" and "dialogism." But key questions about
the revered literary theorist remain unanswered. Did he secretly author
the definitive Marxist study of language? A transatlantic dispute over authorshipand
ideology.
BY MATT STEINGLASS
The Public Defender
In an age of widespread cynicism about the media, an ardent communitarian
is trying to rekindle faith in journalism. NYU's Jay Rosen is the chief
architect of the "public journalism" movementan effort to use
the press to improve civic life. The media is apoplectic. But can Citizen
Jay succeed?
BY SCOTT SHERMAN
The Archive Eaters
top-secret files has landed on the heads of scholars. The Cold War International
History Project has brought researchers from East and West together to debate
what the documents really mean.
What did Mao really think of Stalin? Why did the Cubans advise Alexander
Haig to read Hume? Since the end of the Cold War, an avalanche of once
BY EYAL PRESS
Liberté, Egalité, Parité!
The French republic is under siege. A group of feminists and intellectuals
want half the country's elected offices to go to womenand they're willing
to change the constitution to make it happen.
BY EMILY EAKIN
HYPOTHESES
Jim Holt on the funny side of life.
