Palin's Unlikely Hero
Harvey J. Kaye is the Ben & Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Social change and Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. He is currently writing The Four Freedoms and the Promise of America.
Thomas Paine gets a nod in Going Rogue, and Sarah Palin's not the only conservative who loves this American revolutionary. But the right has him—and their American history—all wrong, writes historian Harvey Kaye.
Her Majesty's Secrets Revealed
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
A new history of MI5 contains revelations straight from the spy agency's files, from bungling the Irish troubles to Hitler’s thoughts on Chamberlain.
PEN ALERT: Free Liu Xiaobo
PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of International PEN, the world’s oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program, which works to protect the freedom of the written word, has been working to end China’s imprisonment, harassment, and surveillance of writers and journalists and curtail Internet censorship and other restrictions on the freedom to write in that country. For more information, please visit www.pen.org/china.
PEN American Center has written a letter to President Obama asking him to help pressure the Chinese authorities to release a Tiananmen dissident, writer, and activist. Read more about the case.
The Missing Pages in Palin's Book
Samuel P. Jacobs is a staff reporter at The Daily Beast. He has also written for The Boston Globe, The New York Observer, and The New Republic Online.
The Alaska governor’s new memoir will have no index, robbing D.C. insiders of their favorite game: seeing their names in print. Samuel P. Jacobs on the death of the “Washington Read.”
My Fabulous Life
Nicholas Haslam is an interior designer and the author of Sheer Opulence. He has been a contributing editor at British Vogue and Tatler for many years and also writes for The World of Interiors and The Spectator. He lives in London and Hampshire.
In an excerpt from his new memoir, Redeeming Features, the designer Nicholas Haslam tells about hiding in a closet with the Duchess of Windsor and the wedding of his royal cousin, Princess Diana.
Rolling Stones' Bloody Concert
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Forty years ago, Ethan Russell’s iconic photographs captured Mick and the boys on their 1969 tour and its tragic end at the infamous Altamont Speedway show. His new book on the tour, Let It Bleed, is out now.
Marc Rich Spills His Secrets
Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
The fugitive financier’s biographer talks to Allan Dodds Frank about Rich’s global commodities empire, his connection to U.S. intelligence, and how he bribed world leaders.
Tackling A Feminine Taboo
Danielle Friedman has worked as a nonfiction book editor for Hudson Street Press and Plume, two imprints of Penguin Group. Her writing has been published in the Miami Herald, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and on CNN.com. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
In their new book Flow two authors take on a taboo topic—and target the new pills that suppress periods.
"The Only Woman in the Room"
Bill Minutaglio is co-author, with W. Michael Smith, of Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, released this week by PublicAffairs. He is a professor of journalism at The University of Texas at Austin and the author of several books, including George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty and The President’s Counselor: The Rise to Power of Alberto Gonzales.
Molly Ivins was the most popular liberal commentator of the last 25 years. Bill Minutaglio, author of a new biography of the tangy Texan, on why her voice is needed now more than ever.
American Striptease
Rachel Kramer Bussel is the editor of Peep Show: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, Bottoms Up and over 25 other erotica anthologies, and hosts and curates In The Flesh Reading Series.
Dita Von Teese talks to The Daily Beast about her sexy new flipbooks, why America can't handle her moves, and the secrets of old school burlesque.
The Best of Brit Lit
Peter Stothard is editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He was editor of The Times of London from 1992-2002. He is the author of Thirty Days, a Downing Street diary of his time with British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the Iraq war and On the Spartacus Road: A Spectacular Journey Through Ancient Italy will be published in January.
A look at great reads from the editor of the Times Literary Supplement. This week: the harrowing true story of discovering the Northwest Passage, the British art of political sketches, and myth and fairytales in British history.
Was a WWII Classic Too Gay?
Kaylie Jones is the author of the memoir Lies My Mother Never Told Me, and the novels A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (which was made into a film starring Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Hershey), Celeste Ascending, and Speak Now. She also chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 annually to the writer of an unpublished first novel. She lives in New York City.
As the nation marks another Veterans Day with gays still barred from serving openly, Kaylie Jones, daughter of From Here to Eternity author James Jones, reveals that a major gay sex storyline was cut from her father’s famed novel. Plus, view the original manuscript.
5 Great Books for Poker Fiends
James McManus has covered poker for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Magazine, Card Player, ESPN.com, and The New Yorker. Positively Fifth Street, his memoir of finishing fifth in the World Series of Poker championship event, was a New York Times bestseller and is already considered a classic.
From David Mamet’s American Buffalo to Bill Gates’ memoir, poker expert James McManus shares five great works where the game plays a major hand. His new book, Cowboys Full, has just been published.
Does Suzanne Somers Cause Cancer?
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The former actress has one of the nation’s top books, touting secret cancer cures. But these methods, reports Gerald Posner, may actually increase the disease risk. PLUS: Somers defends herself.
Life as the 'PC Guy'
The Daily Beast Video curates the most essential and entertaining video, and brings you original and exclusive productions from our talented contributors.
John Hodgman opens up about becoming Apple’s famous foil, what it’s like to mock President Obama—and how to make the perfect drink. PLUS, an excerpt from his book More Information Than You Require.
Amis vs. "Two Bags of Silicone"
Olivia Cole writes for the Spectator and the London Evening Standard. An award-winning poet, her first collection, Restricted View, will be published this fall.
Amid allegations of sexism and snobbery, novelist Martin Amis has attacked Katie Price, the model-turned-author known as Jordan. Olivia Cole on London's favorite literary feud.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
Jeffrey Koterba is an acclaimed syndicated political cartoonist. Since joining the Omaha World-Herald in 1989, he has been a finalist for Editorial Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society and has placed second in the National Headliner Awards. His work is distributed through King Features Syndicate to 400 newspapers nationwide, and has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post, among others.
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