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The New York Review of Books

@nybooks

Jun 4

Our 6/25 issue is now online, with @dchiasso on writing away from AI, Meghan O’Gieblyn on raising AI, Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Labour’s losses, @mmschwartz on the purloined papyrus, @fotoole on the president’s “greatness,” and much more. go.nybooks.com/3RN4NZf

June 25, 2026 Issue

Table of Contents

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The New York Review of Books

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The “genius” of Abdullah Ibrahim, writes Sean Jacobs, “has been to imbibe the musical cultures of South Africa in general and his home city in particular, give them a cutting-edge form, and translate them to the broader world.” go.nybooks.com/445gBJ2

Songs of Liberation | Sean Jacobs

In 1960 the writer Bessie Head—yet to publish the novels that would make her a leading figure in South African and Batswana literature—interviewed a young

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“From Sykes–Picot, the secret 1916 Anglo-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces…, to Eisenhower’s scheming against Nasser and Mossadegh, Western interference has created…a ‘toxic legacy’ of authoritarianism.” —Andrew Arsan go.nybooks.com/4vHLm2J

Unmaking the Middle East | Andrew Arsan

In two recent books the scholar and commentator Fawaz Gerges asks why the region remains a bastion of authoritarian government, prone to conflict and instability, instead of becoming an economic...

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Steve Hilton “helped to make democracy laughable—and Trump knew how to convert that ridicule into power.” —@fotoole go.nybooks.com/4vTqeGW

Cloudbusting in California | Fintan O’Toole

Just over twenty years ago, in April 2006, British media gave generous space to film and photographs of a sled hauled over a vast expanse of snow by a

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“I went a different way in life after college than Hegseth did, but I know what kind of worldview, and what kind of inferiority complex, that upbringing can produce.” —an interview with @suzyhans go.nybooks.com/4uILi1U

The Innocents Abroad | Suzy Hansen, Dahlia Krutkovich

“One of my guiding principles as a white American writing about the US is that it’s important to include yourself in your analysis, to acknowledge your own complicity or at least involvement in the...

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“One of the truly astonishing things about this moment is the fact that so many people are perfectly happy to know so little.” —@dchiasso go.nybooks.com/3QgnqV5

Think for Yourself | Dan Chiasson

One of the most dehumanizing effects of AI is the short cuts it offers through the gaps and impasses intrinsic to the act of writing.

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“If powerful liberals don’t hold Republicans accountable, what chance do ordinary citizens and officials have if they are maliciously accused of being Chinese agents or election fraudsters or domestic terrorists?” —@JosephONeillx go.nybooks.com/4eNMWdy

If I Were Chuck Schumer | Joseph O’Neill, Daniel Drake

With about four months still to go until the midterm elections, the Trump administration remains largely unchecked by Congress in its exercises and abuses

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Nic Johnson on the UFC and the rise of the “nationalist international” go.nybooks.com/4fP01Vd

Planet UFC | Nic Johnson

For decades it has been White House tradition to invite Ireland's prime minister, the Taoiseach, to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with a ceremonial

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“Is the Middle East’s dire predicament fundamentally the outcome of ill-judged Western intervention?” Andrew Arsan writes. “Or must [the West] be seen…as just one half of a ‘partnership between local autocrats and foreign patrons’?” go.nybooks.com/4eJFcJG

Unmaking the Middle East | Andrew Arsan

In two recent books the scholar and commentator Fawaz Gerges asks why the region remains a bastion of authoritarian government, prone to conflict and instability, instead of becoming an economic...

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The New York Review of Books retweeted

Alina Stefanescu @aliner

20h

One of the most fabulous essays I’ve read this month. Still smarting from it. 🫶

The New York Review of Books

@nybooks

Jun 15

For the premodern men “who debated the finer points of apples and asses and desire and shame in apothecary shops and tobacconists and cloisters, sexual pleasure led them to their own theology—albeit a deeply heretical one.” —@erinmaglaque go.nybooks.com/49RfQqE

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12h

Joe Dunthorne on the perpetual allure of the New York School poets go.nybooks.com/4v4ZeUK

When the Rents Were Low | Joe Dunthorne

An oral history of the New York School Poets suggests how its successive cohorts have changed over the years.

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13h

“Richard Nixon became a Mets fan when he moved to New York after his resignation. No doubt he too saw himself in those perpetual underdogs abused by fate.” —Andrew Katzenstein go.nybooks.com/4uGd9j4

‘Metsochism’ | Andrew Katzenstein

A new history of the Mets tries to turn the pain of losing into the struggle of class politics.

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“Later composers accumulate sound to simulate intensity; Bellini removes it, trusting the human voice—and the listener—to bear the weight of its absence.” —Arya Roshanian go.nybooks.com/43vAyIW

Nowhere to Hide | Arya Roshanian

The languid melodies of Vincenzo Bellini’s operas look simple and spare on the page, but they are exacting, even merciless for singers.

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Adam Kirsch on Thomas Mann finding the cure in The Magic Mountain go.nybooks.com/3Q6GgOr

The Siren Song of Illness | Adam Kirsch

In writing The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann struggled to free himself from his artistic preoccupation with sickness and death.

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“While the Tories are being outflanked on the right by Reform, Labour is being outflanked on the left by the Greens, and the two-party system that had for so long seemed a fact of life is dissolving before our eyes.” —Geoffrey Wheatcroft go.nybooks.com/43qvC8c

Labour’s Love Lost | Geoffrey Wheatcroft

With Keir Starmer’s and his party’s future in doubt after local elections in May, there is a paucity of talent among his rivals.

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“According to the Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, ‘[The company’s guidelines for Claude have] the vibe of a letter from a deceased parent sealed until adulthood.’ It’s an unsettling analogy considering that the dead parent, in this case, is the human race.” —Meghan O’Gieblyn go.nybooks.com/4e1lRDF

‘We Did Our Best!’ | Meghan O’Gieblyn

Metaphors of parenting have defined our understanding of AI, but lately the parent-child relationship between creator and machine is becoming reversed.

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The New York Review of Books retweeted

The New York Review of Books

@nybooks

Jun 8

Sean Jacobs on the life and music of Abdullah Ibrahim go.nybooks.com/4vBFacw

Songs of Liberation | Sean Jacobs

In 1960 the writer Bessie Head—yet to publish the novels that would make her a leading figure in South African and Batswana literature—interviewed a young

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The New York Review of Books retweeted

Drake Motel @drakemotel

Jun 14

One good point among many nybooks.com/online/2026/06/0…

If I Were Chuck Schumer | Joseph O’Neill, Daniel Drake

With about four months still to go until the midterm elections, the Trump administration remains largely unchecked by Congress in its exercises and abuses

Joseph O'Neill @JosephONeillx

Jun 13

I wrote in @nybooks about the importance of civil litigation as an unused political tool against the GOP and its allies:

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The New York Review of Books retweeted

Caroline Tracey @ce_tracey

Jun 14

In 2024 I spent a month doing archival research in Utah. What I found surprised me: again and again, from the 1930s to the 1980s, state leaders made plans to drain much of Great Salt Lake. Happy to tell the tale in a new article in @nybooks: nybooks.com/online/2026/06/1…

Putting the Lake to Work | Caroline Tracey

In November 2022, the Great Salt Lake dropped to a record-low water level. That winter, dust blew off newly exposed patches of the lakebed, clouding the

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The New York Review of Books

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Jun 15

Read the full article here: go.nybooks.com/3S8SmqW

Planet UFC | Nic Johnson

For decades it has been White House tradition to invite Ireland's prime minister, the Taoiseach, to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with a ceremonial

npj

@TiltingatM3

Jun 13

For @nybooks, I wrote about the UFC > All this testifies to how thoroughly the UFC has become the lingua franca of a strange new twenty-first-century formation: the nationalist international.

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“At his concerts, his unhurried tempo, his decision not to announce or explain songs, and his deliberate touch at the piano created a devotional atmosphere, as if each note carried some universal secret.” —Sean Jacobs go.nybooks.com/4xgxYnI

Songs of Liberation | Sean Jacobs

In 1960 the writer Bessie Head—yet to publish the novels that would make her a leading figure in South African and Batswana literature—interviewed a young

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