Essays | Los Angeles Review of Books

Essays

Reading (and Shopping) with Angela McRobbie

A reflection on the Birmingham School cultural studies scholar’s vision of girlhood.

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part II
For the Legacies of Eugenics series, Jessica Riskin continues to explore how the neo-Darwinian ‘modern synthesis’ was simply nonsense.
Jessica RiskinMar 24
Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I
For the Legacies of Eugenics series, Jessica Riskin explores how the neo-Darwinian idea of ‘modern synthesis’ tried to fuse eugenics, genetics, and evolution as three aspects of the same science.
Jessica RiskinMar 23
The Weirdness of the Archive, the Possibilities of the Present
On the global resurgence of feminist film curating collectives.
Maggie HennefeldMar 19
Death by Optimization
How healthcare apps and platforms distance us from care.
Hilary C. RobinsonMar 18
- Science & Technology

Niloufar Talebi reflects on the towering legacy of Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou on the anniversary of his birth.

Different, Deadly Games
With the American-Israeli assault on Iran, the die is cast.
Hamid DabashiMar 16
- Politics
Untidy Feminist Entanglements
In the 13th essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Margaret R. Eby shows how, during feminism’s first wave, white women physicians became the unlikely standard-bearers of eugenics.
Margaret R. EbyMar 15
This Is My War
On Iran, the experience of home, and a conflict that is ‘doubly mine.’
Hooman MajdMar 11
- Politics
- Cultural Studies
Lip-Synching the Revolution
Fighting about art and identity, again.
Bradley WesterMar 11
- Art & Architecture
Photography Gone to the Dogs
John Divola’s photographs of the Southern California desert in the late 1990s get a second wind thanks to Nazraeli Press’s reissues.
Andrew WittMar 8
- Art & Architecture
“Superstars” by Ann Scott
One of the premier French cult novels of the last thirty years, a carnal portrait of Paris’s queer rave scene in the ‘90s, the LARB Book Club Spring 2026 pick is Ann Scott's novel, Superstars.
Mar 7
Reading (and Shopping) with Angela McRobbie
A reflection on the Birmingham School cultural studies scholar’s vision of girlhood.
Rose Higham-StaintonMar 2
- Gender & Sexuality
- Cultural Studies
Finding Our God-Terms
The work of literary critic Mark Edmundson offers a powerful vision for recentering the American university.
Joshua HallMar 2
- Literary Criticism
- Education