From New Statesman, throughout the 1940s, George Orwell was formulating the ideas about language and politics that found their ultimate expression in Nineteen Eighty-Four — telling the truth sometimes involves abandoning your friends; and a look at how Orwell’s novels of the 1930s prefigure the horror of Nineteen Eighty-Four (and more and more). Cigarette smoke so permeates George Orwell’s stories it almost leaves stains on one’s fingers when reading his books. A review of The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown (and more and more). Well, what did you expect? The burgeoning culture of complaints delivers no surprises for Alan Ryan. A review of Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever by Walter Kirn (and more). Splice Today goes down the YouTube white supremacy rabbit hole — it's deeper than you think. A review of Before Prozac: The Troubled History of Mood Disorders in Psychiatry by Edward Shorter. A review of Anticapitalism and Culture: Radical Theory and Popular Politics by Jeremy Gilbert. Britt Peterson reviews The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf. A review of The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East by Neil MacFarquhar (and more).
