My first post!
Plus new writing and a reading/party in NYC
The last literate place on the internet?
G.R. Swain, “Venezuela. Orinoco. Rain Forest”
I’ve long been cautiously curious about Substack, but I learned two pieces of information recently that convinced me to join. First, my friends Matthew Ellis and kate wagner were singing Substack’s praises to me during the “Fredric Jameson and the Future of Critical Theory” conference we presented at together last month at Duke. And then I read that Lena Dunham used a Substack book tour to great effect in marketing her memoir (which everyone seems to be reading!), making me think that maybe Substack really is the last literate place on the internet. I guess we’ll find out.
I want to live in América
I have a new piece in the spring issue of N+1, a review of Greg Grandin’s sweeping history of the New World, America, América, now out in paperback. It’s a big, important book, and, I argue in the review, one that can help us understand the Trump administration’s ambitions for hemispheric domination:
Still, we need a book like Grandin’s now — more so, surely, than he could have known while writing it. If Grandin’s framing emphasis on US influence over Latin America and on the contrasts between Anglo-American and Latin American intellectual traditions sometimes seems too rigid, it is undeniable that we are now witnessing a watershed moment in attempts by the US to reshape Latin America to serve its own ends. Under Joe Biden, Latin America policy made few headlines, as the administration’s geostrategy was dominated by the quest to consolidate European support and position the United States for a zero-sum showdown with China. (Never mind that Latin America is among the regions in which China has made major development investments and amassed soft power in recent years.) But the second Trump Administration has reasserted dominance in Latin America with a special, manic intensity unmatched by any other presidential administration since the end of the cold war. Venezuela and Cuba are the most visible targets, but the first year of Trump’s second term also saw the ratcheting up of pressure throughout the region, including strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean; diplomatic spats with Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil; the creation of a migrant rendition and torture program in El Salvador; and a $20 billion bailout of Argentina under its self-described anarcho-capitalist president, Javier Milei.
For all this presentism, I don’t want to undersell the book’s historical depth, or (if I can say so without bragging), my engagment with it in the review. You can read it here. Or better yet, get a print subscription to n+1 to read it in the magazine.
Live from New York
If you just can’t get enough of Hogan on Grandin, I’ll be at the N+1 Reading and Celebration on Friday, May 29 in Brooklyn, alongside a phenomenal lineup of other contributors to this fantastic issue. If you don’t come for me, come for them. I reproduce the event flyer below:
Stacker 2
Will I become a regular Substacker? Hard to say. Starting new habits is hard, but I promise I’ll do my best to be a contributing member of literary society. Let your friends know I’m here, at least!