Publisher's Note — May 16, 2013, 11:55 am
In Boston, An Exercise in Intimidation
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, why did so few people protest the decision to lock down parts of the city?
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Publisher's Note — May 16, 2013, 11:55 am
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, why did so few people protest the decision to lock down parts of the city?
Publisher's Note — April 18, 2013, 11:48 am
Where were the voices of conscience on the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War?
Publisher's Note — March 21, 2013, 1:37 pm
Vague talk about the middle class, and plenty for big business
Publisher's Note — March 14, 2013, 2:41 pm
On John le Carré and the relaunch of the Folio section
Publisher's Note — March 4, 2013, 5:51 pm
A short documentary about a town whose Autolite spark-plug plant moved most of its jobs to Mexico in the wake of NAFTA.
Publisher's Note — January 17, 2013, 11:29 pm
“Where will it end, as Google becomes ever more dominant?”
Publisher's Note — December 19, 2012, 4:42 pm
What are liberals for?
Publisher's Note — October 17, 2012, 9:43 am
Talking with longtime city alderman Edward Burke about how the Chicago political machine launched Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel to national prominence.
Publisher's Note — October 3, 2012, 8:05 am
Revising Salman Rushdie’s self-history—from “The Friends Rushdie Forgot,” in the September 2012 issue of The Spectator.
Publisher's Note — September 12, 2012, 9:52 am
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on September 12, 2012. Like other liberals, I’ve been inundated with e-mails attacking the “lies” lately retailed by the Republican Party and the two candidates leading its national ticket. Paul Ryan’s remarks about the shutdown of his hometown General Motors plant, and President Obama’s alleged deception about keeping it open, is the casus belli cited by most of the anti-Ryan/Romney truthers. But the Janesville/GM gambit seems to stand in …
Publisher's Note — July 18, 2012, 11:00 am
Earl Shorris passed away on May 27, 2012. He was a long-time contributor to Harper’s Magazine, authoring more than two dozen reports and essays, including one on the development of the Clemente Course in the Humanities. His last feature for the magazine, “American Vespers,” ran in the December 2011 issue. John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on July 18, 2012. I’ve delivered a few eulogies over the years, and they don’t get any easier with …
Publisher's Note — June 20, 2012, 12:53 pm
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on June 20, 2012. Scott Walker’s easy victory in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial recall election once again raises the question I’ve been posing for nearly four years: What will it take for liberals to recognize Barack Obama’s lack of conviction about anything remotely resembling a reform agenda? Nowadays it’s not just me and the political scientist Adolph Reed pointing out the president’s indifference to progressive or constitutional causes. His refusal …
Publisher's Note — May 23, 2012, 9:25 am
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on May 23, 2012. Last week I spoke at my alma mater’s Class Day ceremony, which at Columbia College serves as the central event for seniors, even though Columbia University, of which it’s a part, conducts the formal commencement and awarding of degrees on the next day. I won’t reprise my speech since I’m reluctant to promote a contribution to a genre of public speaking that many people …
Publisher's Note — May 15, 2012, 1:19 pm
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This is the text of a keynote address delivered at Columbia College Class Day on May 15, 2012, in New York City. President Bollinger, Provost Coatsworth, Vice President Dirks, Dean Valentini, members of the class of 2012 and their parents, honored guests. I realize that many among you are disappointed that I am not the president of the United States. I want you to know that I share your disappointment. There was a time when …
Publisher's Note — April 18, 2012, 1:05 pm
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on April 18, 2012. It’s presidential-campaign season and once again I find myself impressed by the wealth of choices among the many candidates. There are center-right and center-left candidates of considerable standing, a true centrist candidate independent of the major parties, a far-right candidate who sometimes sounds like a left-winger, and a charismatic far-left candidate who appeals directly to supporters of the far right. Then there’s an acidly …
Publisher's Note — March 15, 2012, 11:25 am
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on March 14, 2012. Presidential candidates are once again crisscrossing the Midwest, making believe they’re dreadfully upset by the plight of the working class. The leveraged-buyout mogul, Mitt Romney, sheds crocodile tears in factories, while the Bible-flogging Rick Santorum offers Christian salvation to stanch the wounds of the underpaid and unemployed. To borrow a phrase from Santorum, it’s enough to make you throw up. “I spent my life …
Publisher's Note — February 16, 2012, 11:00 am
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on February 15, 2012. In a recession-bruised country starved for humor, the Republican primaries are a gift from heaven, especially when the debates involve religion and morality. The biggest laughs come out of Newt Gingrich’s struggles with sexuality and marriage, and how they’re contrasted with Mitt Romney’s allegedly perfect relationship with his wife. Having labeled state-sanctioned unions between homosexuals as evidence of “the rise of paganism” and “a …
Publisher's Note — January 18, 2012, 4:59 pm
John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. This column originally appeared in the Providence Journal on January 18, 2012. In the outpouring of accolades that followed the death of Christopher Hitchens, I confess I joined in, trying my best to claim some of his journalistic legacy. Because the obituaries failed to mention his service as the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, of which I am the publisher, or that his landmark book The Trial of Henry Kissinger originated as two long pieces in …
Lucas Mann on hope and change in a minor-league-baseball city
Minimum number of baboons forced to smoke crack in a 1989 study testing the efficacy of cigarettes as a drug delivery device:
A reduction in distrust toward atheists was documented among pious Canadians who are reminded of the Vancouver police.
A Missouri cinema apologized for hiring an actor dressed in body armor and carrying a fake rifle to appear at a screening of Iron Man 3.
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”
