Perspective Magazine | Harvard's Liberal Monthly

Potential for Penile Expansion?

0 Comments 06 March 2010

By Daniel Villafaña Wieners, hot links, bratwurst, and breakfast sausages are all conglomerations of meat that millions of Americans enjoy. In between a bun at a tailgate, or next to eggs at breakfast, these fatty, salty, yummy foods all bear a striking resemblance to missiles, baseball bats, dildos, even the Eiffel Tower. In fewer words, they [...]

Editorials

Demand Question Time

0 Comments 03 March 2010

The night of January 28th, Barack Obama’s political advisors called the office of Mike Pence, who was organizing the Baltimore retreat for House Republicans at which Obama would be appearing the next day. A question and answer session had been planned and, as was usually the case, the press was to be excluded. The White [...]

Features

Hopes of Financial Regulation

0 Comments 26 February 2010

By Ian Kumekawa In the wake of a financial crisis that has often been compared to the Great Depression, it is fitting to compare the measures for financial reform currently under debate to the banking reforms of the New Deal. The comparison is more than a little discouraging. The lasting importance of Roosevelt’s reforms was twofold. First, [...]

Features

The Powder Keg in the 21st Century

0 Comments 24 February 2010

By Mark Warren Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon on the Obama administration’s vision for Southeastern Europe Southeastern Europe is home to a centuries-old tradition of instability and conflict, and it remains today one of the world’s most politically complex and fraught regions. The Balkan Peninsula, known for precipitating the First World War, is home to deeply [...]

Features

The Cult of Optimism: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided

0 Comments 09 February 2010

By Lucy Caplan Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America Metropolitan Books, 276 pages, $23.00. “But isn’t positive…good?” Barbara Ehrenreich heard this question many times while researching her new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. So let’s begin with a clear understanding [...]

Features

The War to Win The Wars: On Arsenal of Democracy

0 Comments 31 January 2010

By Dylan Matthews Julian Zelizer, Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security – From World War II to the War on Terrorism Basic Books, 592 pages, $35.00. At its least ambitious, Princeton historian Julian Zelizer’s Arsenal of Democracy is a superb and eminently readable single-volume history of American foreign policy. Its historical content begins with the American [...]

Features

Basic to Basics: On Keynes, The Return of the Master

0 Comments 31 January 2010

By Ian Kumekawa Robert Skidelsky, Keynes: The Return of the Master Public Affairs, 221 pages, $25.95. Mark Twain once quipped that though history may not repeat itself, it rhymes. Such is the theme of Robert Skidelsky’s new book, Keynes: The Return of the Master. In 2000, Skidelsky published the final installment of his definitive three-part biography of the [...]

Features

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals: A Catalyst For Reconsideration

0 Comments 27 January 2010

If one were ever curious about the social cost of omnivorous eating habits (and indeed, we all should be), Foer provides the answer.

Features

Falling Out of Love With Europe

0 Comments 03 January 2010

Why the Treaty of Lisbon spells the end of the United States of Europe. By Idriss Fofana December 1st 2009 was supposed to represent the advent of a new Europe, united not only economically but also- and more importantly- politically. In 1990, when French president Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl laid out their vision for [...]

Features

The Moderate

0 Comments 28 December 2009

Is Republican Senate candidate Mike Castle feeling pressure from the Right? By Mark Warren Long gone are the days when the moderate Republicans’ weekly lunch table at the Capitol had two dozen regulars. Today, when a Republican fails to toe the party line, he or she can expect to be blasted by the conservative media. As Sam [...]