Why We Fight War with Iran, writes Kevin Baker, would “make our war in Vietnam look like a walk in the park” [“The Deep State of Dementia,” Easy Chair, September].…

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In Memoriam We at Harper’s Magazine are deeply saddened by the untimely death of our former contributing editor Edwin Dobb. He wrote many essays for the magazine, including “Pennies from…

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Socialism and Barbarism According to Aaron Lake Smith, who discusses the works of Vasily Grossman alongside my biography of the writer [“The Trials of Vasily Grossman,” Reviews, July], my book…

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Visible Hands Marilynne Robinson’s essay [“Is Poverty Necessary?” June] describes the quest for understanding that drove her to study the great political economists, culminating in her discovery of the contributions…

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Back to the Future I found Kevin Baker’s piece on the historical antecedents of the Green New Deal [“Where Our New World Begins,” Essay, May] perhaps the best essay I’ve…

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Brexit Wounds On the matter of Britain’s membership in the European Union, which Lionel Shriver discussed in her fascinating recent column [“No Exit,” Easy Chair, April], I am a reluctant…

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Sport for Joe Andrew Cockburn’s portrayal of Joe Biden’s legislative career was seriously distorted [“No Joe!,” Letter from Washington, March]. As Biden’s European policy adviser on the Senate Foreign Relations…

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Crimes and Misdemeanors I agree with Lionel Shriver’s assertion that the complete cultural banishment to which perceived sexual offenders are sometimes subjected is harsh, and mindlessly so [“Cruel and Unusual…

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A View from Afar Michel Houellebecq’s praise of Trump is a timely send-up of decades of American triumphalism, which seems to be imploding under its own weight [“Donald Trump Is…

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A Question of Identity Mychal Denzel Smith’s essay about black public intellectuals is a nuanced examination of a complex dilemma [“The Gatekeepers,” Essay, December]. At one point, Smith expresses guilt…

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State of Mind As a solution to conservatives’ stranglehold on federal politics, Jonathan Taplin posits a progressive federalism, under which environmental, economic, civil rights, and other reforms are undertaken by…

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Give Love a Bad Name? John Hockenberry asserts early in his essay that millions of women have reexamined their sexual lives “looking for evidence of victimization” [“Exile,” Memoir, October]. This…

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Get Up, Stand Up It was heartening to read Garret Keizer condemn the fact that labor leaders “turned their backs” on Bernie Sanders’s candidacy in 2016 and willfully scorned their…

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Basket of Implausibles The assertions in Walter Kirn’s “Illiberal Values,” especially his critique of liberals’ sudden confidence in this country’s intelligence agencies, are eminently reasonable [Easy Chair, August]. But my…

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Death and Taxes Kevin Baker’s essay about New York is a comprehensive catalogue of the symptoms of overdevelopment affecting the city today [“The Death of a Once Great City,” Report,…

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What Is It Good For? The earnest ruminations of military experts, convened at West Point by Harper’s Magazine, about our “endless war” never once addressed how to actually bring about…

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All of us at Harper’s Magazine deeply mourn the death of our longtime friend and contributing editor Tom Wolfe (1930–2018). Some of his most influential writings were published in this…

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Great Pains Elizabeth Royte’s report about a water crisis in rural Kansas reflects the reality that federal regulations place a disproportionate burden on small businesses and towns [“Drinking Problems,” Letter…

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Fool Me Once Thomas Frank is right: the Trump reelection nightmare could happen [“Four More Years,” Essay, April]. But I believe it is crucial that we not ignore fundamental truths.…

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Things We Can Do Without Katie Roiphe ignores the fact that gender inequality is a psychological condition, not just a material one [“The Other Whisper Network,” Essay, March]. She dismisses…

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The Braindead Megaphone “The Other Whisper Network” [Essay, March] is a rehash of Katie Roiphe’s decades-old argument that women are prone to hysterical overreactions to male sexual behavior. In the…

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Where to from Here? My husband and I recognize that we owe a great debt to the LGBT generations of the past, but with social acceptance and the freedom to…

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A Seat at the Table Theodore Postol suggests that a swarm of defensive drones hovering over the Sea of Japan might force Kim Jong-un to the bargaining table [“Destroyer of…

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Cut Too Deep In “Monumental Error” [Essay, November], J. C. Hallman unfairly skewers J. Marion Sims, the “Father of Gynecology.” He attributes to Sims a huge ego and the desire for…

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Kingdom Come Andrew Cockburn [“Crime and Punishment,” Letter from Washington, October] draws much-needed attention to Saudi Arabia’s deceitful lobbying campaign to derail the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA),…

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Book Collective Jonathan Dee’s reflections on the status of the social novel are a welcome critique of contemporary writing, but his argument is compromised by an elision in his survey…

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Green the Vote Richard Manning profiles the Democratic officeholders in Western states who are leading the fight for progressive environmental policies [“Political Climbers,” Report, August]. Manning believes that a pro-conservation…

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Black Like Me Zadie Smith writes that Americans “live in a mixed society” and that “there is no getting out of our intertwined history” [“Getting In and Out,” Review, July].…

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