The New Criterion
The Critic’s Notebook by the Editors. On Dino Buzatti, George Bellows, Lillie P. Bliss, Mahler’s Ninth, John Soane & more from the world of culture.
“The DOGE versus the NED,” by James Piereson
Dec 3, 2024 · James Piereson on Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency looking to zero out the National Endowment for Democracy.
The masterpiece of our time | The New Criterion
W he n Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation appeared in 1973, its impact, the author recalled, was immediate: “Like matter enveloped by antimatter, it exploded instantaneously!” The first translations into Western languages in 1974—just fifty years ago—proved almost as sensational. No …
About | The New Criterion
The New Criterion, edited by Roger Kimball, was founded in 1982 by the art critic Hilton Kramer and the pianist and music critic Samuel Lipman.A monthly review of the arts and intellectual life, The New Criterion began as an experiment in critical audacity—a publication devoted to engaging, in Matthew Arnold’s famous phrase, with “the best that has been thought and said.”
The heart of fugue | The New Criterion
M an y people, if they wonder how music is made up, suppose that it consists of a tune and an accompaniment. The paradigmatic guitarist in front of a campfire croons the melody, while his hands create the harmonies that give it color. In the bel canto operas of Bellini, the diva astonishes with her delivery of the top line while the orchestra provides dutiful underpinning, moving from tonic to ...
Dispatch - The New Criterion
4 days ago · On a concert of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Daniele Rustioni, with Joshua Bell, violin soloist.
January 2025 | The New Criterion
The New Criterion is published by The Foundation for Cultural Review, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
Archive | The New Criterion
Research without restriction. With your subscription, receive complimentary online access, complete with downloadable pdfs, in The New Criterion’s unequaled archive of essays, poems, and reviews.
“Our Athenian American Democracy,” by Victor Davis Hanson
Democracy—the word itself means “people (demos) power (kratos)”—originated in late sixth-century Athens through the reforms of Cleisthenes.The Athenian popular leader transferred political power from the traditional tribal clans to the general Assembly of citizens.
“Irony deficiency,” by James Bowman
A ft er the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump in just over two months, the media’s reactions were once again more shocking than shocked. What was only gracelessness back in July has now been compounded by an affected cynicism implying that, if the attempts were not actually staged by the candidate himself, they were at least dismissible as part of his histrionic style of ...