In a New Yorker profile, the MacArthur ‘genius’ considers her legacy.
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Ta-Nehisi Coates; Nikole Hannah-Jones; Mark Collette, David Hunn, and Mike Hixenbaugh; Natalie Kitroeff and Victoria Kim; and Robert Minto.
The First White President
In his latest for the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates posits that white identity politics forms the foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency.
It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer
Hip-hop was a different kind of music that needed a different kind of writer to cover it. This is how Michael A. Gonzales came of age in a time when Black writers began breaking the white ceiling.
Longreads Best of 2017: Political Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in political writing.
The Myth of Kevin Williamson
He’s not very good at his job.
The Battle Over Teaching Chicago’s Schools About Police Torture and Reparations
A little-known city law has educators figuring out how to talk to eighth and tenth grade students about the history of Chicago police abuse.
Above It All: How the Court Got So Supreme
Secrecy and speechifying, collegiality and hierarchy, exceptionalism and opulence on the Supreme Court.
‘For Eight Years Barack Obama Walked on Ice and Never Fell’
Obama was born into a country where laws barring his very conception—let alone his ascendancy to the presidency—had long stood in force. A black president would always be a contradiction for a government that, throughout most of its history, had oppressed black people. The attempt to resolve this contradiction through Obama—a black man with deep […]
The Internet Isn’t Forever
When an online news outlet goes out of business, its archives can disappear as well. The new battle over journalism’s digital legacy.

