A new issue of Open Letters Monthly is out, including a review of The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-Hunting in the Western World by John Demos; a review of J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist by Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler; and a review of Everyday Drinking by Kingsley Amis (and more from Bookforum). From Policy, an article on the myth of OPEC: It has little to do with high oil prices; a look at the trouble with religious hatred laws; and policy on trial: Randomised trials are the best tool we have for finding out if policies really work. For Ernst Kirchner, the modern world expressed its deepest nature in the strut of the prostitute. The Hoboist: Culture11 goes inside the strange culture of America's wannabe hobos. From New Humanist, left brain, right brain, hard-wiring? Think again. A review of Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson by Tricia Tunstall. Who wrote the Koran? Abdulkarim Soroush, a theological reformer, challenges those who claim to speak for Islam. The other Brazil: The mixed blessings of the simple life led by indigenous people deep in the forest. From NBER, why do foreigners invest in the United States? Trading Places: Alan Ehrenhalt on the demographic inversion of the American city. From Esquire, a look at what Obama's 27-year-old speechwriter Jon Favreau learned from George W. Bush.
