Why the humanities cannot and should not abandon their critical role
Michael Stern
Michael Stern has been a newspaper reporter, English professor, Silicon Valley lawyer, and independent documentary producer, and is a member of the Prospect’s board of directors.
Posted inCoronavirus
Premonitions of Disaster
How science fiction writers and movies of the late 20th century anticipated Trump, the coronavirus, and American dystopia
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
‘We Can Change the World. Let Me Show You How.’
A tale of technological utopianism versus movement politics
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report from the Field: The Rust Belt’s Blues Turn It Red
In one Ohio Rust Belt town, energy flagged among Hillary Clinton volunteers in the weeks leading up to Election Day, offering a glimpse into the enthusiasm gap that did her in.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Like Being “Buried Alive”: Charles Dickens on Solitary Confinement in America’s Prisons
In 1842 Dickens wrote a scathing critique of solitary confinement in America. Nearly two centuries later, little has changed.