“We’re New — We Don’t Have Any Customs”
Two films about the Tennessee Valley Authority stress its utopian promise and the lives that had to be destroyed to fulfill it.
Blog
Voices From a Forgotten Revolution
The Rural Electrification Act (REA), passed in 1936 as part of the New Deal, enabled the federal government to provide loans to rural electric cooperatives. Access to electricity transformed education, farm work, and home life for communities previously ignored by big electric companies. Nearly 50 years after the passage of the act, the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives conducted 44 interviews with rural residents whose lives were affected by the REA.
Spaghetti Junctions
How did New York become the only metropolis in the world to insist that its transit map reflect the layout of the city above?
The Casualties of the Drone War
Since the War on Terror began, the US military has used aerial bombing campaigns to avoid American combat losses. But they’ve led to a staggering number of civilian deaths.
Putin Didn’t Unite Europe — He Just Militarized It
Whatever the outcome of the Ukraine war, it’ll mean a more divided and armed Europe.
Jeremy Corbyn: What You Should Read
What’s sitting on the nightstand of the Labour Party’s greatest living leader?
Get on the Bus
Chile’s private bus companies tried to repress the working-class vote. It backfired.
How Liberals Created, Then Destroyed, Publicly Owned Nuclear Power
The battle over New York’s Indian Point power plant was quietly a battle for the soul of American liberalism.
The Attack on Yemen’s Infrastructure — and the Humanitarian Disaster That Followed
Saudi planes have wreaked havoc on every part of Yemen.
Crypto Can’t Build a Better Internet
For all its utopian trappings, web3 tech like cryptocurrency only deepens the problem of elite control over the internet. We have an alternative.
Cuba’s Socialist Biotech
Despite sixty years of US blockade, Cuba continues its impressive medical research and development.
Hope You Like Swimming
While Congress stalled, the state of American infrastructure grew dire.