The Pull of the Pool
On Julie Otsuka's "The Swimmers" and the literary history of swimming pools, objects of menace and desire.
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Josephine Baker, Agent Provocatrice
Josephine Baker’s life—her rise from the slums of St. Louis to stardom on the cabaret stages of Paris and worldwide renown as a singer, dancer, impresario, and civil-rights activist—would be extraordinary enough without the part she played as a secret agent during World War II.
What data taught me about my pandemic baby
On trusting an infant tracker app during lockdown
Secret, Unruly, and Progressive: The History of the Heterodoxy Club
On Saturday afternoon, in a place that feels, just then, like the brightly pulsing center of the universe, a group of women gathers to talk about the world, and their place in it. [Book excerpt]
‘The Case of the Married Woman’ Review: After a Scandal, She Fought Back
When an Englishwoman of Caroline’s era married, she ceased to exist, legally. Her husband took possession of everything she had, then and in the future: her body, her money and her children. In return, he would protect her and provide for her. What enraged Caroline, and eventually drove her to fight for change, was the failure of her husband, and the courts, to uphold the bargain.
HBO Max's New Show: Julia Child's American Story
Focusing on her life after France, Julia follows the machinations, compromises, and determination that led to her merrily slapping a raw chicken on the counter and booming “bon appétit!” to a bewildered television crew. The rest is as much myth as history, and the show liberally mixes the two.
Today We’d Call Her a Progressive Heroine. She’d Have Hated It.
Over the course of the book, the mystery of Leslie’s birth pales in the face of a still greater riddle, which intensifies with every depression, recession, panic, crash, bankruptcy, lawsuit and family ruination: how anybody got the idea that capitalism works, and that men should be in charge of it.
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