Ben Terrall

Non-Fiction: Scoundrels and Spitballers by Philippe Garnier

November 4, 2020 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen.) Given the scary nature of pretty much everything these days (a raging pandemic amidst widespread disbelief in science; a ruling U.S. oligarchy dead set on destroying anything […]

Non-Fiction: Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen

September 28, 2020 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about The Deep End by Jason Boog.) Enough books have been published about the D.J. Trump Crime Family to fill a studio apartment. Ace investigative reporters Wayne Barrett and David Cay Johnston have […]

Non-Fiction: The Deep End by Jason Boog

September 16, 2020 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about No Fascist USA! by Hilary Moore and James Tracy.) In The Deep End: The Literary Scene in the Great Depression and Today (OR Books), journalist Jason Boog writes about the plight of […]

Non-Fiction: No Fascist USA! by Hilary Moore and James Tracy

July 3, 2020 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about Seth Donnelly’s The Lie of Global Prosperity.) No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements (City Lights) is an important addition to histories of 20th-century anti-racist movements […]

Non-Fiction: The Lie of Global Prosperity by Seth Donnelly

January 21, 2020 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about Colin Asher’s Never a Lovely So Read: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren.) Seth Donnelly’s The Lie of Global Prosperity: How Neoliberals Distort Data to Mask Poverty and Exploitation (Monthly Review […]

Non-Fiction: Never a Lovely So Real
by Colin Asher

October 9, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 1

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about Silicon City: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley, by Cary McClelland.) Colin Asher’s Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren (Norton) is both a […]

How Will Tech Giants Shape San Francisco’s Future?

April 15, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 1

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, by Jason Stanley.) In recent years a plethora of books have been published about the rise of Silicon Valley’s giant technology companies. Some […]

Continuing the World’s Fight Against Fascism

March 12, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 2

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comics, by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart.) In an era of successful far-right movements consolidating power around the world, we need […]

Of Imperialists, Bigots and Cartoon Waterfowl

February 5, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, by David Cay Johnston.) When How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic was […]

Non-Fiction: Trump Under Scrutiny

May 28, 2018 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement: A Year Inside the Optimization Movement by Carl Cederström and André Spicer.) David Cay Johnston, a very sharp and multitalented journalist, has been writing about Donald Trump for […]