A wide-ranging, persuasive, readable treatise on a crucial component of modern life.
We’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century. What do we have to show for it?
How is it possible that our modern society produces so much content and yet so little true cultural innovation? In the 21st century, “the most radical forms of cultural invention have become scarce,” says culture writer Marx. Neoliberalism tamps down creative innovation by “elevating extreme profit-seeking as the highest human goal.” The theory of “poptimism” posits that popular culture should be “appreciated as a complex manufactured product” rather than derided as kitsch; once poptimism took hold, artists who openly pursued mass-market success were lauded rather than accused of “selling out.” The film industry began to rely more heavily on existing IP and nostalgia for low-risk, financially rewarding projects; as Marx says, “Retromania depends on older works feeling more valuable than contemporary ones.” Web 2.0, with its user-generated content and revenue-sharing models that allowed direct monetization, has created a class of well-compensated and highly visible influencers, but this development has not amounted to a “true revolution [involving] a reversal of status” because these individuals “had little influence on mainstream cultural standards.” Pioneering niche movements have been unseated by “the omnivore monoculture,” in which the blending of all tastes and styles is welcomed, even encouraged, as long as the result is maximally commercially successful. (Country music was once seen as a stubborn holdout of monoculture, but then came Lil Nas X.) Now that inclusive liberal politics have largely become normalized, extreme radical conservatives (“a group with no meaningful concern for artistic innovation”) have emerged as the transgressives of the new century; while mainstream culture did not embrace them, the internet has allowed their ideas to flourish unabated, with profound consequences. Marx has written a worthy follow-up to his 2022 book, Status and Culture. He draws on a commendable wealth of examples from disparate realms of culture—from the dominance of Japanese streetwear to Nazified internet memes and the “child influencer” the Rizzler—to ably explain what many citizens of the modern world, especially Americans, have long colloquially felt: that our current culture has grown stagnant.
A wide-ranging, persuasive, readable treatise on a crucial component of modern life.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593833995
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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