HeyJaredThe Sense of an Ending
Arthur Goldhammer is a writer and translator. He is the author of the novel Shooting War and the translator of more than 125 works from the French. He is also a senior affiliate of Harvard's Center for European Studies.
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- 12
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- Sep 24, 2026
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- Jul 13, 2026
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Sphymgmomanometer Democracy (opens the original)
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I am old enough to have watched the first televised presidential debate in 1960 (Kennedy vs. Nixon). Yesterday I sat through the latest offspring of that seminal event: a Socialist primary debate in France. Although press commentary this morning was generally favorable (“often interesting,” “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2027/live/2026/09/23/en-direct-debat-de-la-primaire-a-gauche-les-candidats-debattent-de-la-situation-a-gaza-si-le
Themes and Variations (opens the original)
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I spent yesterday afternoon at the movies with my son and grandchildren watching Coyote vs. Acme, a feature-length reprise of the many Roadrunner cartoons that enlivened my boyhood weekends. And then I spent yesterday evening at Boston’s Jordan Hall listening to pianist Simone Dinnerstein in concert with the string ensemble A Far Cry performing a reimagined version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.Both works are built on the device of theme and variations. When Coyote pursues Roadrunner, the theme
Reflections on the New Jewish Question (opens the original)
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“If the Jew didn’t exist, the antisemite would invent him.” So said Jean-Paul Sartre in his 1946 Réflexions sur la question juive. I don’t want to unpack everything that Sartre intended by this oft-cited formula, nor do I wish to rehearse the various grounds on which it has subsequently been criticized as inadequate to its object. Instead, I want to stand Sartre’s apothegm on its head. In light of all the changes that have taken place since October 7, 2023, in relations not only between Jews and
A French Excursion (opens the original)
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This is for readers who may be interested in French politics, about which I usually blog at Tocqueville21.com.Amateurs of French political rhetoric should treat themselves to a sample of the Ruffin-Villepin debate. Libération and BFM-TV did well to pair two candidates who both speak well and who appear at this stage to be so far out of contention that they have nothing to lose by avoiding name-calling and admitting to areas of agreement. What ensued was a civil conversation gently mod
From Maestro Casals to Cage Matches and Motor Cars (opens the original)
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On November 13, 1961, the renowned cellist Pablo Casals played a concert of pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Couperin at the White House, to which he had been invited by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. It was a coup of sorts for the Kennedys, since Casals had previously refused to play in the United States after the U.S. government recognized Franco’s Spain (de facto in 1939 and then formally with the Pact of Madrid in 1953). Without explicitly renouncing the accord with the Spanish dictator,
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