The great flaw in American democracy has nothing to do with voting machines or lobbyists; it is the enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty.

The great flaw in American democracy has nothing to do with voting machines or lobbyists; it is the enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty.

David Margolick on David Mamet; Emily Nussbaum on Heidi Julavits; science fiction columnist Dave Itzkoff; and senior editor Dwight Garner on best sellers. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host.

David Margolick on David Mamet; Emily Nussbaum on Heidi Julavits; science fiction columnist Dave Itzkoff; and senior editor Dwight Garner on best sellers. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host.

How the invention of radio helped catch a pair of notorious fugitives fleeing on the high seas.

Industrialism gave us a new generation of leaders ? we might even call them America?s second founders.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

One of the forces behind ?Animal House? reveals that the movie was truer to life than you might have guessed.

David Kamp stands corrected; Nora Roberts?s new novel is guaranteed to be fresh.

To David Mamet, too many Jews are negative, weak, defeatist, ignorant and ungrateful.

?Politically, 2006 is definitely the Year of the Blogs,? says Michael Kinsley.

Thomas McGuane?s West in these astonishing stories is a place of tonal aggression and tourist ?pull-offs,? of bad fences making bad neighbors.

What photographs of the attack on the World Trade Center can tell us, and what they can?t.

Debate on Orson Welles used to center on the cause of his decline. Now the decline itself is in question.

The narrator of Janna Levin?s novel calls Gödel and Turing her ?two mad treasures.?

Miriam Toews displays her wit in two early novels, about single mothers and a sad-sack mayor.

In the comments he wrote in the margins of his books, John Adams was as pungent as he was copious.

Gary Giddins recalls when he first saw an Orson Welles movie.

Leonard Maltin?s annual movie guide is the go-to choice for both film geeks and casual couch potatoes.