Liberties Journal of Culture and Politics

Liberties is a quarterly journal of serious, stylish, and controversial essays on culture and politics.In the Spring 2025 issue: Yaroslav Hrytsak on the surprising lessons of setting the Ukrainian war in the context of history; David Bell asks if we shouldn’t still believe in the enlightenment; Durs Grünbein shares cautionary echoes in prose and poetry; Clifford Thompson argues for reviving an honest view of race; Alfred Brendel notes some of the ungenteel qualities of Papa Haydn; Agnes Callard investigates what we see when we look at colors; Enrique Krauze explains what happens when a hunger for power destroyed a democracy; James Traub investigates journalism’s tangled relationship with truth; Jaroslaw Anders makes a cautionary tale from the the trajectory of Polish poetry; Gary Saul Morson warns of the danger of ready-made beliefs, and Kenda Mutongi of the use and abuse of magical thinking; Celeste Marcus asks what the American Jew owes her country; Leon Wieseltier muses on the slumber, and slow destruction, of liberalism in America and Israel; and poetry from David Grossman, Paula Bohince, and Karl Kirchwey.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 political and cultural spectrum read and cherish Liberties.