Kenan Malik

Signs and symbols are increasingly being wielded by politicians around the world in place of reasoned debate about serious issues

If one town could be emblematic of the vicissitudes of blue-collar life in America, Springfield, Ohio, might be as good a pick as any. At the heart of the midwest, Springfield’s prosperity was built on manufacturing and publishing. But its decline began early. The giant Crowell-Collier publishing plant closed on Christmas Eve 1956. Three decades later, in 1983, Newsweek dedicated a whole issue to Springfield. Entitled “The American Dream”, it concluded sadly that “The times have not been hospitable to dreaming”.

The struggle between liberalism and reactionary strands of thought has gnawed away at the Tories since the party’s dawn

Both sides believe they have right on their side and use it as an excuse to perpetuate bloodshed

Labeling politics is not an exclusively left-wing phenomenon. The right is often even more vehement in denouncing ideas it despises as woke, which has become a vehicle for...

Shifting blame to the victims of economic policy is an old trick by politicians. Now they’re using obesity to tackle joblessness

Voices on the right who now criticise the jailing of rioters for racial hate wilfully ignore history

The dark view of populist politics by renowned historian Richard Hofstadter sheds light on the US election

A new book by Musa al-Gharbi accuses liberal professionals of talking about justice but entrenching inequalities

A documentary about unionising the company’s Staten Island warehouse reveals new ways of negotiating with oppressive bosses