Is it really the case, as is often alleged, that money decides everything about elections? As the US presidential election is looming, La Vie des idées/Books & Ideas and Public Books team up to examine the influence of money in today’s electoral democracies.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer. In the meantime, here is a selection of essays, reviews and interviews published over the past year, exploring the relationship between music and politics.
How do refugees experience everyday life in the United States? Anthropologist Catherine Besteman investigates the trajectories of Somalian refugees in Lewinston, Maine, from their application for resettlement to their struggles in a world that disrupts their social organization and their way of living.
The question of rising inequalities in the United States is widely discussed, but what reality do they entail? Taking the example of San Francisco, this article casts a new light on the way to measure urban inequalities and to understand them.
How is history relevant to current debates about race, economic inequality or the national narrative? A renowned historian of urban crises and segregation, Thomas Sugrue proposes an answer that emphasizes both the value of passion and that of careful scholarship. Historians can and should engage in public debate, but on their own terms.
Addressing the fragility of Latino pan-ethnicity in the U.S., Marie L. Mallet presents an overview of the social interactions between Latino communities in Los Angeles, Boston and Miami, showing how these differential interactions impact on the identity formation and subsequent assimilation of Latino immigrants.
Two recent books, focusing on the American corporate elite & high-technology innovation in the US, reveal much about the particular characteristics and operation of the US state. With diverging but compatible approaches, they provide bases for understanding why the US is in decline.
