The Monthly Digest: October 2018

In September LARB ran a number of articles that tackled the question of violence from a wide range of perspectives. The pieces below address the political, social, and biological causes and consequences of violence. They range from an homage to the great chronicler of the Shoah, Claude Lanzmann, to a review of Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard’s anthology Violence: Humans in Dark Times, to an entry in Brad Evans’s ongoing series of LARB interviews, “Histories of Violence.” — LARB Editorial

“The Blood of the Unhappy Tsar”: On Helen Rappaport’s “The Race to Save the Romanovs”
Douglas Smith investigates “The Race to Save the Romanovs” by Helen Rappaport.
Douglas SmithSep 30, 2018
- Around the World
- History
2+2=5: On the White Sea-Baltic Canal and Totalitarian Pipe Dreams
Maya Vinokour considers dictatorial “gigantomania,” from Stalin’s White Sea-Baltic Canal to Trump’s THE WALL.
Maya VinokourSep 27, 2018
The Things They Carried: On “Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement”
Ashley Valanzola appraises “Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement,” edited by Leora Auslander and Tara E. Zahra.
Ashley ValanzolaSep 26, 2018
- Cultural Studies
- History
Reckoning with Colombia’s Bloody, Conspiratorial History in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s “The Shape of the Ruins”
Mike Broida finds danger in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s exploration of the conspiracies that shaped Colombia in his new novel, “The Shape of the Ruins.”
Mike BroidaSep 25, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
James M. Cain and the West Virginia Mine Wars
Sean Carswell looks into James M. Cain and his time reporting on the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Sean CarswellSep 25, 2018
- Noir
The Terrifying Truth in Jeffrey Lewis’s Novel on Nuclear War
Melissa Chan considers "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States."
Melissa ChanSep 23, 2018
- Fiction
Teaching the Kids of Jonestown
A San Francisco teacher remembers her students who died at Jonestown.
Julia ScheeresSep 22, 2018
- Memoir & Essay
Histories of Violence: Anatomy of Destruction
Brad Evans speaks with Gil Anidjar, whose most recent book is “Blood: A Critique of Christianity.”
Brad EvansSep 17, 2018
- Art & Architecture
- Histories of Violence
Suffering Visible: The Ravages of Postcolonial Capitalism in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s “This Mournable Body”
In her sly, layered novel “This Mournable Body,” Tsitsi Dangarembga forces the reader’s perspective toward both violence and its humane alternatives.
Michael FriedrichSep 14, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
Mircea Eliade and Antisemitism: An Exchange
Bryan Rennie and Philip Ó Ceallaigh exchange views on Mircea Eliade and antisemitism.
Bryan Rennie, Philip Ó CeallaighSep 13, 2018
Death and Its Souvenirs: On Murderabilia
The disappointing art of murderabilia.
Daniel ElkindSep 10, 2018
- Art & Architecture
In the Grip of Dread
Dread has many expressions but only one end.
David Theo GoldbergSep 9, 2018
- Philosophy & Religion
- Politics
Claude Lanzmann’s Ghosts
On the monumental challenge of remembering the dead.
Jennifer CazenaveSep 4, 2018
- Film
- History
A Fatigued Fight: Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard’s “Violence: Humans in Dark Times”
Though written in its own inside language, a new anthology offers a roadmap to troubled times.
Alison GatelySep 3, 2018
- Politics
Beyond “Carceral Capitalism”
In "Carceral Capitalism," Wang’s essays set up the abolition of the carceral state as one of the key moral battles of this century.
John W. W. ZeiserSep 3, 2018
- Economics and Finance
- Politics
Blighted by Empire: What the British Did to India
Omer Aziz indicts the Western amnesia around colonialism.
Omer AzizSep 1, 2018