Liberties Journal of Culture & Politics: Fall 2025 - Paperback

by Jackson Arn (Author), David Greenberg (Author), Ryan Ruby (Author)

Liberties is a quarterly journal of serious, stylish, and controversial essays on culture and politics.

In the Fall 2025 issue: Jackson Arn on the mindless expansion of art museums; David Greenberg on the nonsense of "neoliberalism"; Ryan Ruby on literary canons here and elsewhere; Julia Kieserman on privacy and the pill; Vanessa Garcia on love and first responders; Henry Oliver on Shakespeare's mothers; Cass R. Sunstein on what AI cannot do, now or ever; James P. Rubin on the Democrats and the fight for American foreign policy; Michael Walzer on unlikely meetings with uncommonly interesting people; Paul Reitter on Marx's adventures in mimesis; Paul North on the inner life of things made and traded; Anna Ballan on womanly ecstasy according to Charlotte Brontë; Robert Rubsam on Yasunari Kawabata's art of distance; Didi Tal on "I Am an American Day"; Yahia Lababidi on the startling intensity of Blaise Pascal; Fateme Karimkhan in Tehran under fire; Celeste Marcus on the revolutionary synagogue; and Leon Wieseltier on the shopkeeper who gave him the gift of doubt.

As well as poetry from John Berryman and Myles Zavelo.

Liberties features essays from leading op-ed writers and scholars, award-winning writers, the next generation's rising talent, and poets from around the world--there's a reason why cultural warriors, political leaders, opinion makers, and engaged citizens from across the political and cultural spectrum read and cherish Liberties.

Author Biography

Jackson Arn is an art critic in New York.

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and the author most recently of John Lewis: A Life.

Ryan Ruby is the author most recently of Context Collapse: A Poem Containing a History of Poetry.

Julia Kieserman is a doctoral student at New York University. She writes about security and privacy issues.

Vanessa Garcia is a writer, a journalist, and a visual artist.

Henry Oliver is a fellow in the Emerging Scholars Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and the author most recently of On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom.

James P. Rubin served as a top adviser to two secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Antony Blinken and served as the chief spokesman of the State Department from 1997 to 2000. In the Biden administration he was Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center at the Department of State.

John Berryman, who died in 1972, won the Pulizer Price for poetry in 1965 for 77 Dream Songs.

Michael Walzer is professor emeritus at the Insitute of Advanced Study and the author most recently of The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On "Liberal" as an Adjective.

Paul Reitter, who recently translated Marx's Capital with Paul North, is ASC Distinguished Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University.

Paul North, who recently translated Marx's Capital with Paul North, is the Maurice Natanson Professor of German at Yale University.

Myles Zavelo is a writer from New York City.

Anna Ballan is a Ph.D. student at Yale University.

Robert Rubsam is a writer, editor, and photographer. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of publications around the world.

Didi Tal is a doctoral student in the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia University where she studies the history of immigration.

Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian-American poet and the author most recently of Palestine Wail.

Fateme Karimkhan is an Iranian journalist, essayist, photographer, and sociologist. She lives in Tehran.

Celeste Marcus is the managing editor of Liberties. Her book Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art was recently published by Public Affairs.

Leon Wieseltier is the editor of Liberties.