“America was born in the streets,” reads the tag line for Martin Scorsese’s bold new historical epic, Gangs of New York, and these are mean streets, indeed. Scorsese’s film, which is set in Read More

They call it the Tweed Courthouse, because only New York would name a municipal building after the city’s greatest scoundrel. I worked there at a low-level job some years ago, answering letters to the mayor, in one of Read More

We are the new empire—get used to it. This is the message being promulgated by a number of conservatives, led by William Kristol’s Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Read More

This year a new conservative movement, led by William Kristol’s Project for the New American Century, formed around a single idea: support for a new, proud American imperialism. The debate on whether America is an imperial power is over, P.N.A.C.’s scholars insist; the American empire is real. The challenge now is to figure out what to do with it. ”We had better get used to seeing ourselves as others see us,” says Tom Donnelly, P.N.A.C.’s deputy executive director. ”It doesn’t matter if we don’t consider ourselves an empire. Others see us as impinging on their lives, their space, their way Read More

Something about the seashore lends itself to nostalgia—something to do with childhood memories, or the ceaseless murmur of the waves, or maybe too much sun. Read More

Over the last few years, a regular cottage industry has sprung up in publishing and Hollywood to celebrate what Tom Brokaw dubbed ”the greatest generation.” Read More

Saturday mornings in the fall, I like to take the No. 1 train up to 218th Street and, believe it or not, find the best sports buy in all of New York. There, for $3, I can sit in the aluminum bleachers at Baker Field and watch the Columbia University men’s soccer team in action. I think there are few better places to watch any game, anywhere in the United States. From the few rows of bleachers that are the only seats, one can gaze out over the lovely old Inwood section of Manhattan; the cliffs above the Harlem River, Read More

It’s opening night at the Newark Bears’ new Riverfront Stadium, the home of the city’s independent minor-league baseball team, and Mayor Sharpe James is in his element. Read More

Can it really be 20 years ago? It seems as if both more and less should have happened in that time—like George Steinbrenner imploding under the mass of his own bile. It’s hard to believe Read More