Archive Fever: Los Angeles Review of Books’ Post-Election Roundup

BELOW YOU’LL FIND a collection of articles from our archives that look beyond Trump and the immediate questions around the 2024 election. They instead focus on larger questions and issues we’ve faced—and will undoubtedly face—in the years to come: the economy, war and famine, civil rights and abortion. We hope this offers a broader perspective beyond the news cycle of the past few days and this past week. And perhaps a way to look forward.

Featured image: Katherine S. Dreier. Spinning Wheel, ca. 1920–26. Gift of Elliot Sussman, B.A. 1973, Yale University Art Gallery (2020.44.5). CC0, artgallery.yale.edu. Accessed November 6, 2024. Image has been cropped.

Philosophy in Times Like These
Vanessa Wills argues that philosophical engagement is a necessary alternative to anti-intellectual nihilism and resurgent authoritarianism.
Vanessa WillsNov 27, 2023
A Tax Haven in a Heartless World: On Melinda Cooper’s “Counterrevolution”
Sarah Brouillette reviews Melinda Cooper’s “Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance.”
Sarah BrouilletteApr 15, 2024
- Economics and Finance
- Nonfiction
Hunger-Time
Alma Igra illustrates how, through the scrupulous caloric management of Gaza, Israel and the international community have weaponized food.
Alma IgraJun 16, 2024
What’s Next for Histories of Climate Change
Deborah Coen shows how historians miss a great deal when they rely on the quantitative tools of scientists.
Deborah R. CoenJan 25, 2024
Grieving Redness in the West: Reading Malcolm Harris After Mike Davis
Michael Docherty on what Malcolm Harris’s history of Palo Alto owes to Mike Davis’s histories of Los Angeles.
Michael DochertyMay 20, 2023
- Politics
Skeletons in the Dungeon: Conspiracy Theory, Nationalism, and the French Revolution
Nicole Bauer explores how the French Revolution made conspiracy theory central to modern political discourse.
Nicole BauerMar 9, 2023
- History
The US Academy and the Provincialization of Fanon
Frantz Fanon is a rock star of the American academy 60 years after his death. Here’s why it’s critical that we recognize the influence of the Algerian Revolution on his thought.
Muriam Haleh DavisNov 9, 2022
- History
- Politics
Trans Panic Otherwise: On Jules Gill-Peterson’s “A Short History of Trans Misogyny”
Juno Richards reviews Jules Gill-Peterson’s “A Short History of Trans Misogyny.”
Juno RichardsJun 10, 2024
California Communism and Its Afterlives: On Robert W. Cherny’s “San Francisco Reds”
Matt Ray and Matthew Wranovics review Robert W. Cherny’s “San Francisco Reds: Communists in the Bay Area, 1919–1958.”
Matt Ray and Matthew WranovicsMay 27, 2024
- History
- Politics
The Uterus and the Will to Power
Anthropologist Meredith Reiches describes how having a uterus changes what’s possible, physically and legally — and how, once again, what’s possible is being curtailed.
Meredith ReichesSep 22, 2022
Guns and Grammar, or How to Read the Second Amendment
Frank Bergon argues that bad grammar is driving our gun problem, via the Supreme Court’s reading of the Second Amendment.
Frank BergonJul 2, 2023