Other People’s Money Troubles
Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses—and Misuses—of HistoryBy Barry EichengreenOxford University Press, 512 pagesCynics say history’s only lesson is that we learn nothing from history. Barry Eichengreen, who in his book The Hall of Mirrors compares the Great Depression of the 1930s with the recent Great Recession, begs to [...]
Philip Glass Half-Full
For all its manifold beauties, the classical music of the 20th century has yet to become popular in America. One sign of its failure to make a deeper mark on our culture is that except for Aaron Copland, the only American classical composer whose name is reasonably well known outside musical circles is Philip Glass. [...]
God Help the Reader
God Help the Child: A NovelBy Toni MorrisonKnopf, 192 pagesGod Help the Child, Toni Morrison’s 11th novel, begins compellingly enough. A woman named Sweetness, “light-skinned, with good hair, what we call high yellow,” recoils from her newborn “midnight black, Sudanese black” daughter in horror and embarrassment. She refuses to breastfeed or let the child call [...]