David Marcus
@davidmarcus.bsky.social
Literary Editor @TheNation. Working on a history of socialism in the United States. Essays and more: http://linktr.ee/davidimarcus
"The social contract is no longer working: Going to college does not ensure anything other than...often low-paying work."
@alexnpress.bsky.social in Fall Books on @noamscheiber.bsky.social's new book and the making of the millennial working class www.thenation.com/article/soci...
@alexnpress.bsky.social in Fall Books on @noamscheiber.bsky.social's new book and the making of the millennial working class www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The Making of the Millennial Working Class
A new book follows a rising generation of labor organizers as they attempt to unionize their workplaces.
www.thenation.com
September 14, 2026 at 3:05 PM
"The social contract is no longer working: Going to college does not ensure anything other than...often low-paying work."
@alexnpress.bsky.social in Fall Books on @noamscheiber.bsky.social's new book and the making of the millennial working class www.thenation.com/article/soci...
@alexnpress.bsky.social in Fall Books on @noamscheiber.bsky.social's new book and the making of the millennial working class www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
Fall Books Is here—Vivian Gornick on love and death in fiction, Osita Nwanevu on saving democracy, @lailalalami.com on Soraya Antonius's Palestine, @brucerobbins.bsky.social on the Bund, @alexnpress.bsky.social on millennial workers, Edna Bonhomme on Imani Thompson www.thenation.com/issue/octobe...
October 2026 Issue
The Nation Magazine
www.thenation.com
September 8, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Fall Books Is here—Vivian Gornick on love and death in fiction, Osita Nwanevu on saving democracy, @lailalalami.com on Soraya Antonius's Palestine, @brucerobbins.bsky.social on the Bund, @alexnpress.bsky.social on millennial workers, Edna Bonhomme on Imani Thompson www.thenation.com/issue/octobe...
Reposted by David Marcus
I wrote about the Obama Presidential Center for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Nostalgic Architecture of the Obama Presidential Center
Where hope even has a gift shop.
www.thenation.com
August 12, 2026 at 8:27 AM
I wrote about the Obama Presidential Center for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
"A hallmark of Lerner’s fiction is the very particular way that politics encroaches, or rather doesn’t, on the life of the protagonist: It is there as a backdrop, a marker of time and place but not much else." Tara Menon in @thenation.com's Spring Books www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Ben Lerner’s Novel of Fathers and Sons
His most experimental and unsettling book, Transcription as us whether art is futile or the most important weapon we have.
www.thenation.com
April 7, 2026 at 5:50 PM
"A hallmark of Lerner’s fiction is the very particular way that politics encroaches, or rather doesn’t, on the life of the protagonist: It is there as a backdrop, a marker of time and place but not much else." Tara Menon in @thenation.com's Spring Books www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
Tucker: the man and his dream My latest for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
What Happened to Tucker Carlson?
The transformation of a once promising, if conservative, magazine journalist into a conspiracy-minded talking head.
www.thenation.com
April 7, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Tucker: the man and his dream My latest for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
What happened to Tucker Carlson?
https://bit.ly/4c5PB1f
https://bit.ly/4c5PB1f
What Happened to Tucker Carlson?
The transformation of a once promising, if conservative, magazine journalist into a conspiracy-minded talking head.
bit.ly
April 7, 2026 at 3:40 PM
What happened to Tucker Carlson?
https://bit.ly/4c5PB1f
https://bit.ly/4c5PB1f
Reposted by David Marcus
I wrote about the life of Harry Haywood and his newly republished book, Negro Liberation, for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Harry Haywood and the Radical Politics of Black Communism
For Haywood, a truly radical working-class politics in the United States also required a program of self-determination.
www.thenation.com
April 7, 2026 at 1:51 PM
I wrote about the life of Harry Haywood and his newly republished book, Negro Liberation, for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
My review of Alyssa Battistoni's Free Gift in The Nation:
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
How Capitalism Transformed the Natural World
In her new book, Alyssa Battistoni explores how nature came to be treated as a supposedly cost-free supplement of capital accumulation.
www.thenation.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:19 PM
My review of Alyssa Battistoni's Free Gift in The Nation:
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
@kunktation.bsky.social is right
"Something of the same redemptive delight in language [in Yeats] is also going on in Pynchon, whose characters don’t seem quite capable of misery so long as history affords them jokes to make, slang to sling, and songs to join" www.thenation.com/article/cult...
"Something of the same redemptive delight in language [in Yeats] is also going on in Pynchon, whose characters don’t seem quite capable of misery so long as history affords them jokes to make, slang to sling, and songs to join" www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Riotous Worlds of Thomas Pynchon
From “The Crying Lot of 49” to his latest noirs, the American novelist has always proceeded along a track strangely parallel to our own.
www.thenation.com
February 16, 2026 at 9:16 PM
@kunktation.bsky.social is right
"Something of the same redemptive delight in language [in Yeats] is also going on in Pynchon, whose characters don’t seem quite capable of misery so long as history affords them jokes to make, slang to sling, and songs to join" www.thenation.com/article/cult...
"Something of the same redemptive delight in language [in Yeats] is also going on in Pynchon, whose characters don’t seem quite capable of misery so long as history affords them jokes to make, slang to sling, and songs to join" www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
Sure, you were sick of reading about Pynchon a few months ago—but now don't you miss it? Me on the new one @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Riotous Worlds of Thomas Pynchon
From “The Crying Lot of 49” to his latest noirs, the American novelist has always proceeded along a track strangely parallel to our own.
www.thenation.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Sure, you were sick of reading about Pynchon a few months ago—but now don't you miss it? Me on the new one @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
Reposted by David Marcus
Reviewed a new book about AI for @thenation.com
April 6, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Reviewed a new book about AI for @thenation.com
Reposted by David Marcus
Deeply gratified to see this rich and surpassingly engaging essay/review of my The Second Emancipation, by the estmable Adom Getachew. www.thenation.com/article/worl...
The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
Through Nkrumah’s story, Howard French charts the history of African decolonization and the American civil rights movement.
www.thenation.com
March 12, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Deeply gratified to see this rich and surpassingly engaging essay/review of my The Second Emancipation, by the estmable Adom Getachew. www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Reposted by David Marcus
Amidst the fixation with semiconductors and geopolitics, how did Taiwan become a center of global electronics? Who were the people that powered its rise, and what happens when the tinkerer becomes the tycoon?
I review Honghong Tinn's Island Tinkerers @thenation.com:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
I review Honghong Tinn's Island Tinkerers @thenation.com:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
How Taiwan Became the Chipmaker for the World
A new book tells the story of the island-nation’s transformation into a central hub for technological development and manufacturing.
www.thenation.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Amidst the fixation with semiconductors and geopolitics, how did Taiwan become a center of global electronics? Who were the people that powered its rise, and what happens when the tinkerer becomes the tycoon?
I review Honghong Tinn's Island Tinkerers @thenation.com:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
I review Honghong Tinn's Island Tinkerers @thenation.com:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Reposted by David Marcus
Grateful to be a finalist for the Nona Balakian Award for @bookcritics.bsky.social. This would not be possible without the commissions from my editors at @thenation.com @davidmarcus.bsky.social & @newrepublic.com. Congrats to Rhoda Feng (the winner) & the other finalists. www.bookcritics.org/awards/
The National Book Critics Circle Awards - National Book Critics Circle
Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. In additi...
www.bookcritics.org
January 21, 2026 at 7:09 PM
Grateful to be a finalist for the Nona Balakian Award for @bookcritics.bsky.social. This would not be possible without the commissions from my editors at @thenation.com @davidmarcus.bsky.social & @newrepublic.com. Congrats to Rhoda Feng (the winner) & the other finalists. www.bookcritics.org/awards/
"Your Name Here asks how literature should respond to a reality that is equal parts vapid and violent, where the celebration of mediocrity is correlated with an utter disregard for human life." Jess Bergman in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel
Your Name Here dramatizes the tensions and possibilities of political art.
www.thenation.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"Your Name Here asks how literature should respond to a reality that is equal parts vapid and violent, where the celebration of mediocrity is correlated with an utter disregard for human life." Jess Bergman in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...
@hofrench.bsky.social in a wonderful piece for @thenation.com on Mahmood Mamdani's Uganda www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda
In his new book Slow Poison, the accomplished anthropologist revisits the Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni years.
www.thenation.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM
@hofrench.bsky.social in a wonderful piece for @thenation.com on Mahmood Mamdani's Uganda www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Reposted by David Marcus
5. Over at The Nation, I write about Buckley's politics of friendship, how he creating a chummy world of insiders & those excluded from the club. I raise the question: sure, Buckley was fun company but would you want to marry one of his sisters? www.thenation.com/article/cult...
William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies
What was it about Buckley that made him so attractive to liberals—and what was it about liberals that caused them to be attracted to conservative figures like Buckley in the first place?
www.thenation.com
September 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
5. Over at The Nation, I write about Buckley's politics of friendship, how he creating a chummy world of insiders & those excluded from the club. I raise the question: sure, Buckley was fun company but would you want to marry one of his sisters? www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by David Marcus
Thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to my brilliant editor @davidmarcus.bsky.social, who commissioned me as well as another finalist, and who has made The Nation's @booksandthearts.bsky.social section such a vital space for book criticism.
The Washington Monthly proudly announces the finalists of the 2025 Kukula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing:
The Washington Monthly Announces Finalists for 2025 Kukula Award Book Review Prize | Washington Monthly
Kukula Award book review prize honors exemplary nonfiction book reviewing that elucidates key issues of our times.
washingtonmonthly.com
August 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to my brilliant editor @davidmarcus.bsky.social, who commissioned me as well as another finalist, and who has made The Nation's @booksandthearts.bsky.social section such a vital space for book criticism.
Is it that many New Yorkers find the field disappointing per NYT or rather NYT finds the preferences of many voting New Yorkers disappointing?
June 16, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Is it that many New Yorkers find the field disappointing per NYT or rather NYT finds the preferences of many voting New Yorkers disappointing?
Reposted by David Marcus
I reviewed Quentin Skinner’s new one www.thenation.com/article/arch...
What Is Freedom For?
Books & the Arts / June 9, 2025 Free From What? Quentin Skinner and the contested â¨history of liberty What Is Freedom For? Quentin Skinner and the contested
history of liberty. Samuel Moyn Share Co...
www.thenation.com
June 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I reviewed Quentin Skinner’s new one www.thenation.com/article/arch...
Reposted by David Marcus
Peter Linebaugh and I just published an essay about the life & work of Christopher Hill, one of the greatest historians of the 20c, in @thenation.com: “In 1965, [Hill] was elected master of Balliol College. History from below had arrived at the Oxford high table.”
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Christopher Hill’s Revolutions
The radical life and work of the historian.
www.thenation.com
May 14, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Peter Linebaugh and I just published an essay about the life & work of Christopher Hill, one of the greatest historians of the 20c, in @thenation.com: “In 1965, [Hill] was elected master of Balliol College. History from below had arrived at the Oxford high table.”
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
He’s got the grannies
May 30, 2025 at 11:49 AM
He’s got the grannies
Why should we do close reading? @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social in @booksandthearts.bsky.social on the history and future of close reading www.thenation.com/article/soci...
The Invention of Close Reading
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to turn postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
www.thenation.com
May 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Why should we do close reading? @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social in @booksandthearts.bsky.social on the history and future of close reading www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by David Marcus
I wrote about close reading. What it is, why it matters, and what John Guillory gets right and wrong in his recent On Close Reading. Offers a sneak peek of a little of what @johannawinant.bsky.social and I are up to in our forthcoming Close Reading for the 21C
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
What is Close Reading?
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to transform postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
www.thenation.com
May 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I wrote about close reading. What it is, why it matters, and what John Guillory gets right and wrong in his recent On Close Reading. Offers a sneak peek of a little of what @johannawinant.bsky.social and I are up to in our forthcoming Close Reading for the 21C
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
www.thenation.com/article/soci...