A Fireball in the Marshall Islands: How a Nuclear Test Changed the World
Émile P. Torres describes how it was not the dropping of the atom bombs in 1945 but the testing of a nuclear bomb is the Marshall Islands in 1954...
Émile P. Torres describes how it was not the dropping of the atom bombs in 1945 but the testing of a nuclear bomb is the Marshall Islands in 1954...
Émile P. TorresSep 20, 2023
Krzysztof Pelc mostly agrees with Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” but quibbles...
Krzysztof PelcSep 13, 2023
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 39: “Air,” Lauren Collee explores the history of light pollution.
Lauren ColleeSep 4, 2023
Alex Wellerstein assesses the depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film.
Alex WellersteinAug 30, 2023
Grant Sharples reviews Michael Tedder’s “Top Eight: How MySpace Changed Music.”
Grant SharplesAug 20, 2023
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 38: Earth, Ali Bektaş examines one of the state’s most contentious and consequential industries.
Ali BektaşAug 5, 2023
The pleasures of reading the titles from MIT Press’s new Radium Age series, writes historian of science Michael Gordin, lies in the science fiction...
Michael D. GordinJul 27, 2023
Andrew Ahern reviews Kohei Saito’s “Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism.”
Andrew AhernJul 23, 2023
W. J. T. Mitchell asks, What kind of intelligence does AI actually represent?
W. J. T. MitchellJul 22, 2023
Many decades before generative AI, the writer J. M. Coetzee actively engaged with machine voices, says Andrew Dean, and also grappled with the perils...
Andrew DeanJul 19, 2023
Gary Cross reviews Darryl Holter and Stephen Gee’s “Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City, 1900–1930.”
Gary CrossJul 15, 2023
Mary L. Holden considers Melissa Sevigny’s “Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon.”
Mary L. HoldenJun 25, 2023
Nora N. Khan interviews writer and artist Mashinka Firunts Hakopian about her new book, “The Institute for Other Intelligences.”
Nora N. KhanJun 19, 2023
Jenny Liou reviews Scott Chaskey’s “Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life.”
Jenny LiouJun 18, 2023
Ellen Wayland-Smith is haunted by Audrey Clare Farley’s exposé, in “Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in...
Ellen Wayland-SmithJun 13, 2023
Massimo Mazzotti uses a forgotten episode in revolutionary Naples to demonstrate the entanglement of mathematics and politics.
Massimo MazzottiJun 2, 2023
Evan Selinger reviews Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell’s “The Smartness Mandate” and finds it “vertigo-inducing.”
Evan SelingerMay 30, 2023
Paul J. D’Ambrosio reviews Elena Esposito’s “Artificial Communication: How Algorithms Produce Social Intelligence.”
Paul J. D’AmbrosioMay 24, 2023
Jeffrey Binder uses the rise of ChatGPT to explore the backstory of our unease with artifice.
Jeffrey M. BinderMay 5, 2023
Francesco D’Isa reviews Eduardo Navas’s “The Rise of Metacreativity”
Francesco D’IsaApr 16, 2023
Jathan Sadowski lands a damning critique of Bernard Dionysiu Geoghegan’s “Code: From Information Theory to French Theory.”
Jathan SadowskiMar 29, 2023
Philosopher Evan Selinger eviscerates David Sax’s unabashedly privileged views in “The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World.”
Evan SelingerJan 31, 2023
Raymond Craib reviews Douglas Rushkoff’s “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.”
Raymond CraibJan 25, 2023
Michael Scott Moore reviews Sabrina Imbler’s “How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures.”
Michael Scott MooreJan 20, 2023