About Benj Demott

Novelist Jesymn Ward first posted this short meditation on what Obama’s rise meant in the deep South in 2008. I almost didn’t vote for Obama in the primaries. I called El beforehand, and we had a very long conversation. I’m afraid, I told her, afraid that he will not be a viable candidate to beat the … Read more

First writers and readers – Amiri Baraka, Jeremy Brecher, Benj DeMott, Diane di Prima, Mark Dudzic, John Fullerton, Dr. Donna Gaines, Ty Geltmaker, Lawrence Goodwyn, Adam Hochschild, Staughton Lynd, Greil Marcus, Deborah Meier, Dennis Myers, (AKA) Nolemonomelon, Jedediah Purdy, Aram Saroyan, Fredric Smoler, Tom Smucker, Scott Spencer & Richard Torres – comment on OWS. Begin … Read more

First first published the following interview with William Greider in 2004. We’re reprinting it now because Greider’s efforts to “explain power in plain English” to everyday people seem especially pertinent in the context of OWS. His recent books, The Soul of Capitalism and Come Home America call attention to citizens whose businesses and working lives … Read more

Gar Alperovitz grew up in America’s heartland in Racine, Wisconsin, in the 1940s, at a time when the city was one of the country’s most vibrant industrial hubs. His father owned a small specialty manufacturing company employing about 30 people. “I knew what the inside of a factory looked like,” he recalls. “It was not … Read more

I know you are disappointed with Obama’s performance as president. “Disappointed” may be too weak a word: “disillusioned” or “disenchanted” or even “betrayed” may be more accurate. At the root of, well let’s settle for, disillusionment is a belief that Obama has broken the promises he made when he ran for president. He has not … Read more

Like his predecessors, in particular his Democratic predecessors, Obama doesn’t see himself as automatically beholden to his base — either in principle or in the pragmatic exercise of his presidency. In a parliamentary system, the leader and his base are closely aligned; since there is no separation of powers or possibility of a divided government, … Read more

The 9/11 Commission Report has just been reissued with a new afterword. The following critique of it by the late Benjamin DeMott first appeared in 2004 in Harper’s Magazine. DeMott’s essay remains vital because it’s an act of imagination as well as an act of protest. No book in memory has stirred greater anticipatory frenzy than … Read more