Gal Beckerman
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Staff writer at @TheAtlantic, formerly @nytimesbooks, and author of "How to Be a Dissident."
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Articles by Gal Beckerman
The Man Who Wanted to Understand Every Aspect of Jewish Life
Listen1.0x 0:0041:03 I. 2,087 Questions The Pale of Settlement is teeming with ghosts, and why shouldn’t it be? At the turn of the 20th century, some 5 million Jews lived in this region between the Baltic and Black Seas, and by 1945, almost all of them had been murdered.
Touching the Wound of October 7
9/11 and October 7 have become universal shorthand because of the concentrated, spectacular violence that took place on those days—the sense of total rupture. Both dates marked the beginning of a new reality, leading to months and then years of compounding death and destruction. But as the calendar dates have become crystallized, made into historical dividing lines, the days themselves have receded.
Nazi Analogies Rarely Help
A new Israeli documentary provoking both record-breaking festival applause and unhinged condemnation is called NAZA—a title with a suggestive sting. Hebrew speakers will recognize the military acronym for nezek agavi, or “collateral damage.” But for anyone else encountering the word, it might present as a twisted portmanteau that blends Gaza and Nazi, or at least nudges the mind in the direction of gas chambers. This doesn’t seem coincidental to me.
Emily Wilson Wanted to Like Nolan’s Odyssey
Emily Wilson has become the most famous living translator of the Homeric epics. Her 2017 The Odyssey, the first major translation of the poem into English by a woman, has sold more than 1 million copies. (Her Iliad translation came in 2023.) And this summer, she found herself right at the center of cultural discourse after she drew her sword and published a scathing review of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of the ancient work.
What Trump’s Bizarre Posts Are Teaching Us About AI
Here is a selective list of the dozens of images the president has recently disseminated on Truth Social: Donald Trump on a horse next to George Washington on a horse, in the body of Hulk Hogan, beating Hogan in arm wrestling, standing between General George Patton and General Douglas MacArthur in a World War II uniform, hovering menacingly with a hockey stick over the Canadian prime minister, commanding the deck of an aircraft carrier, nuking parts of Earth from space, gleefully dancing to...
Why the End of History Is So Miserable
Francis Fukuyama never promised us we’d be happy. To be fair to the many readers who thought otherwise, The End of History and the Last Man, his famous 1992 book, did give off a whiff of utopia, trumpeting a post–Cold War world in which liberal democracy had vanquished competing political systems and everyone could lie back on their affordable chaise longues and raise a glass to the expiration of all strife and struggle.
Why the End of History Is So Miserable
3 hours ago As staycations go, the one Sara Bareilles took one bright weekend in August checked all the relaxation boxes: a luxury Midtown Manhattan hotel, a passel of besties bonding over drinks, the promise of spa treatments. But Bareilles’s respite also carried an echo of loss. It was orchestrated by her …
How Silicon Valley Learned to Love Killer Robots
After reading Jill Lepore’s The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, I have a new destination for a time machine, should I ever finally get my hands on one. I’d set the dial to some night in the late 1970s or ’80s and visit the boyhood rooms of the Silicon Valley titans Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman. Then I’d confiscate all of their science fiction. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein—all of it.
We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys
6 days ago NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Harvard professor and writer at the New Yorker Jill Lepore about her new book, "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State." MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Normally, an historian like Jill Lepore writes about the past - in her case, bestselling, prize-winning histories about …
I Was a Bicentennial Baby
Thirteen seconds after midnight on July 4, 1976, Karen Steele was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and was anointed the first “bicentennial baby.” Newspaper articles followed. President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty, sent a note to the family. And then it kind of became a thing. Any baby born that year was treated like they had emerged playing the fife and drums. In Mobile, Alabama, new mothers received a commemorative blanket.
What a Bicentennial Baby Knows
World News 7 hours ago Iran faces 'greatest financial offensive ever', says US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bbc.co.uk - Mitchell Labiak, Michael Race • 7h The US treasury secretary has threated Iran with "the single greatest financial offensive ever", claiming the US-Israel war with Iran was "entering its endgame".
Put a Lock on It, Fauci Original
My teenage daughter has a diary. It’s pink and, most important, has an elaborate lock on it. And if I could go back in time to 2020, I might send this exact sort of journal to Anthony Fauci. Every night, when he was finished sharing his thoughts about battling COVID, he could have locked it, scrambled the combination, and then buried it in his sock drawer, as I think my daughter does.
Put a Lock on It, Fauci
Hear What Homer’s Odyssey Sounded Like When Sung in the Original Ancient Greek It’s been a humanist truism for some time to say that Shakespeare speaks to every age, transcending his time and place through the sheer force of his …
The Odyssey Was Never About the Gods
If you lived in the Bronze Age and were sailing the wine-dark sea, you’d soon understand the need for gods. You don’t know about low-pressure systems or atmospheric circulation, about ocean currents or the contours of the seafloor. You know only that the sky has darkened, the wind has shifted, and the waters have begun to rise. The sudden appearance of thunder, lightning, and towering waves crashing against the hull demand an explanation: gods.
The Odyssey Was Never About the Gods
Matt Damon received Ben Affleck phone call he’s ‘waited 45 years to get’ after friend watched The Odyssey Matt Damon has opened up about long-term best friend Ben Affleck’s reaction to The Odyssey, revealing that his Good Will Hunting co-star gave him a …
A New Test for Free Expression Original
On Thursday morning, PEN America, the free-speech organization, posted an article detailing the “isolation and exclusion” many Israeli and Jewish writers have felt since October 7, 2023.
The Surprising Return of the Blockbuster Trump Book
Literary agents and book editors are in the business of selling stories, so drama comes easily to them. Even temporary sales slumps breed alarmist pronouncements; book parties in disfavored genres begin to feel like wakes, sending off one more spirit to the inevitable afterworld of the remainder shelf. The novel has apparently been declared dead 30 times since 1902.
The Theory That Explains Trump’s UFC Fight Original
Listen1.0x 0:008:29 Bo Nickal, his face shiny with Vaseline, had just finished pounding the nose and eyes and ears of his opponent, Kyle Daukaus, who lay on his back like an overturned, squashed bug. Immediately, Nickal jumped over the edge of the Octagon and landed just in front of Donald Trump, who stood up and grabbed the fighter’s hand.
What It Means to Love America
Americans have never settled the question of how best to love this country. Does patriotism mean prioritizing unconditional loyalty—the Pledge of Allegiance I remember repeating every morning of elementary school, right hand over my heart—or does it first demand skepticism and vigilance, a setting and resetting of expectations, a love that needs to be earned?
Et si nos ancêtres avaient ressenti les émotions différemment ?
Assis en tailleur sur son canapé à Montréal par une journée glaciale d'hiver, l'historien Rob Boddice évoque l'image d'un menuisier médiéval s'affairant dans son atelier. " Imaginez-le en train de fabriquer une table. " Soudain, l'artisan rate le clou et se frappe le pouce. " Qu'a-t-il ressenti ? ", demande-t-il. Je le regarde pendant quelques secondes tandis qu'il me sourit avec un air encourageant, comme s'il venait de me demander de résoudre mentalement une équation difficile.
The Pope Is Now the World’s Most Famous Humanist
Does the pope have an editor? If I could presume to take on this role for a second, then I might have one little note for Leo XIV after reading his new encyclical about artificial intelligence: Great stuff, but lose the Tower of Babel. It’s a tired cliché. Most of us have already been told that those who would seek to be like God will see their ambitions crash to the ground. And in this instance, the lesson has a limited audience.
How to fight fascism, in ten easy steps
But what can we do? This, more than anything, is the question I hear around me. The despair — about creeping authoritarianism, environmental ruin, AI run amok, algorithmic tyranny — is everywhere. But what can be done? The stock answers are well known to you: Join a movement. Call Congress. March. But Gal Beckerman, of The Atlantic, has a provocative intervention on the subject that points toward a different answer — even, in fact, a different starting question.
Why did social media fail to complete the revolution···Change begins in the ‘quiet conversation’
The starting point of dangerous ideas that changed the world Emphasizing the importance of ‘deliberation’ by surveying history Skeptical of the social media·revolution relationship “Instead of the hard work of putting our heads together to discuss only blanket rejection and emotion remain” Preparing for Revolution By Gal Beckerman | Translated by Son Seong-hwa Across | 496 pages | $19 (25,000 KRW) Where is a revolution conceived?
For Ibram X. Kendi, It’s Nazis All the Way Down
A conspiracy theory is soothing to the believer not just because it promises a complete explanation for all that appears wrong with the world, but also because it confirms the sense that something is wrong with the world. Society is in flux: New technology is altering how we work and think, centuries-old definitions of gender are collapsing, long-trusted institutions are crumbling, the weather itself seems to be in revolt.
The Quiet Way Authoritarianism Begins to Crumble
In the days after Donald Trump won his second term, I called a handful of Hungarian political analysts to ask what the American future might look like. My impulse was not an original one; the analysts had been fielding many calls of this sort. Hungary seemed like a bellwether for the illiberal direction in which Trump said he was going to lead the United States.
How to Be a Dissident
'Invites us to learn from those more courageous than ourselves' TIMOTHY SNYDER'A beautiful, profound book ... feels essential in these times' SARAH BAKEWELLAn invigorating guide to fighting back - part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift.
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Description An invigorating guide to fighting back—part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift How do we push back in a world where political leaders wield fear and intimidation? Where digital technology dehumanizes and flattens us? We need role models, and in this engaging book, acclaimed writer Gal Beckerman goes looking for them.
Hoe word ik dissident?
De wereldgeschiedenis zit vol standvastige eenlingen die weigerden zich aan te sluiten bij een ideologie of zich neer te leggen bij een regime. In plaats daarvan bleven ze zich afvragen: kan ik nog met mezelf leven? In tien hoofdstukken, elk rond een indringend advies, vertelt Beckerman over historische dissidenten als Socrates, Václav Havel, Aleksej Navalny, Etty Hillesum en Ai Weiwei.
How To Be a Dissident | Jewish Book Council
Skip to main content Join a community of readers who are committed to Jewish stories Sign up for JBC’s Nu Reads, a curated selection of Jewish books delivered straight to your door! Review By – April 20, 2026 There could hardly be a timelier book than this examination of social conscience by the author of When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, recipient of prestigious awards and named a best book of the year by the New Yorker.
Uit de handleiding ‘Hoe word ik dissident?’: lach om de macht
Hoe pleeg je verzet in een tijd waarin extreme standpunten steeds normaler worden en de democratie onder vuur ligt? In zijn boek Hoe word ik dissident?, dat dinsdag verschijnt, portretteert Gal Beckerman mensen die hier eerder mee te maken kregen. Van Diogenes tot Ai Wei - zij deden dit door de macht uit te lachen. Gal Beckerman Gal Beckerman is redacteur bij The Atlantic. Zijn boek Hoe word ik dissident. Een handleiding verschijnt dinsdag bij uitgeverij Balans.
The Quiet Way Authoritarianism Begins to Crumble
In the days after Donald Trump won his second term, I called a handful of Hungarian political analysts to ask what the American future might look like. My impulse was not an original one; the analysts had been fielding many calls of this sort. Hungary seemed like a bellwether for the illiberal direction in which Trump said he was going to lead the United States.
Be as Self-Righteous as Thoreau
One afternoon in the summer of 1846, Henry David Thoreau left his hut near Walden Pond and walked into town to pick up a shoe he was having mended. He was stopped by the local tax collector, who nudged him for the umpteenth time about paying his poll tax—the dollar and a half that every man over the age of 20 had to pay annually, or else lose the right to vote. The tax collector, who wanted to clear his books, even offered to cover the bill, which hadn’t been paid for four years.
What the Astronauts See That Trump Cannot
I’ve never been to space, but as a young child my ego was obliterated by the short film Powers of Ten. I was at summer camp, on a sticky-hot day that was suddenly interrupted by a thunderstorm. We were all herded into a room, the film projector was rolled out, and red-white-and-blue popsicles distributed. This was normally an occasion for Mighty Mouse or Tom and Jerry cartoons—a much more pleasurable situation for me than trying to catch a ball.
HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular... A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former.
Adiós a Jürgen Habermas, uno de los pensadores más influyentes de la Alemania de posguerra
Jurgen Habermas en la Universidad de Frankfurt en 1969. Fue conocido principalmente por introducir la idea de una "esfera pública" a principios de la década de 1960 (Foto: Sueddeutsche Zeitung/Alamy Stock Photo/ The Washington Post) Jürgen Habermas, filósofo e intelectual público, uno de los pensadores más influyentes y citados de la Alemania de posguerra, falleció el sábado en Starnberg, Alemania, al suroeste de Múnich. Tenía 96 años. Su editor, Suhrkamp, confirmó el fallecimiento.
Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany's Most Influential Thinkers
Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and public intellectual who was one of the most influential and cited thinkers in postwar Germany, died on Saturday in Starnberg, Germany, southwest of Munich. He was 96. kAmw:D AF3=:D96C[ $F9C<2>A[ 4@?7:C>65 E96 562E9]k^Am kAmu@C @G6C 92=7 2 46?EFCJ 2?5 :? 5@K6?D @7 3@@<D[ w236C>2D 3F4<65 E96 AC6G2:=:?8 EC6?5 @7 A@DE>@56C?
Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany's Most Influential Thinkers
Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and public intellectual who was one of the most influential and cited thinkers in postwar Germany, died on Saturday in Starnberg, Germany, southwest of Munich. He was 96. kAmw:D AF3=:D96C[ $F9C<2>A[ 4@?7:C>65 E96 562E9]k^Am kAmu@C @G6C 92=7 2 46?EFCJ 2?5 :? 5@K6?D @7 3@@<D[ w236C>2D 3F4<65 E96 AC6G2:=:?8 EC6?5 @7 A@DE>@56C?
Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany’s Most Influential Thinkers
Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and public intellectual who was one of the most influential and cited thinkers in postwar Germany, died on Saturday in Starnberg, Germany, southwest of Munich. He was 96. His publisher, Suhrkamp, confirmed the death. For over half a century and in dozens of books, Mr. Habermas bucked the prevailing trend of postmodern cynicism about truth and reason, offering a staunch defense of Enlightenment ideals and the possibility of individual and societal freedom.
Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany's Most Influential Thinkers
Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and public intellectual who was one of the most influential and cited thinkers in postwar Germany, died on Saturday in Starnberg, Germany, southwest of Munich. He was 96. kAmw:D AF3=:D96C[ $F9C<2>A[ 4@?7:C>65 E96 562E9]k^Am kAmu@C @G6C 92=7 2 46?EFCJ 2?5 :? 5@K6?D @7 3@@<D[ w236C>2D 3F4<65 E96 AC6G2:=:?8 EC6?5 @7 A@DE>@56C?
Just Don’t Say the W-Word
What’s happening in Iran right now? The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have been twisting themselves into semantic pretzels to avoid answering this very easy question with the word war, although it is very clearly a war. Even the writers at Saturday Night Live couldn’t help but notice the absurdity. “War? Whoever called this a war?” Colin Jost said on this weekend’s show, playing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in full testosterone-rage mode. “This isn’t a war; it’s a situationship.
Why People Shed Tears for Tyrants
The Iranian state television announcer was gasping for air. I almost felt bad for him. That’s how hard he was weeping when he delivered the news of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s demise. He reached for a tissue, blew his nose. His cheeks glistened. This was not Walter Cronkite choking up for a second while delivering the news of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The Iranian announcer was heaving.
How to Be a Dissident
ISBN9798217089215 Available onApr 21, 2026 Published byCrown Pages208 Dimensions5-3/16 x 8 Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, a New York Times notable book, and When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, which won the Sami Rohr Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications.
America Needs ‘Self-Evident’ Truths
The Trump administration has backed down in Minnesota. Last week, Tom Homan, the border czar, announced that the surge of federal agents into the state—3,000 officers—was ending. He framed this mostly as a mission accomplished: They had come to round up illegal immigrants, and the job was done. But even Homan had to grudgingly acknowledge that something unexpected had happened amid the confrontations between ICE agents and local people trying to defend their neighbors.
Is Anything Morally Obvious Anymore?
3 hours ago Bitcoin, which has been plummeting in value, has come to feel less like a rebel upstart, more like an eccentric uncle. The past few months have been disastrous for cryptocurrencies. Even after bouncing back a bit on Friday, bitcoin is now down almost 50 percent from its all-time high in October, and …
Let Trump Keep Building Monuments to Himself
Donald Trump’s supporters really need to think bigger. A 15-foot-tall golden sculpture of the president—“Don Colossus” to friends—has recently been completed and will likely soon stand triumphantly, his fist in the air, atop a 7,000-pound pedestal that has already been installed at Trump’s Miami golf club.
Let Trump Keep Building Monuments to Himself
Donald Trump’s supporters really need to think bigger. A 15-foot-tall golden sculpture of the president—“Don Colossus” to friends—has recently been completed and will likely soon stand triumphantly, his fist in the air, atop a 7,000-pound pedestal that has already been installed at Trump’s Miami golf club.
Let Trump Keep Building Monuments to Himself
2 hours ago In his appeal of a $5 million judgment, the president's lawyers called it "deeply damaging" to the country for Trump to have to defend himself. WASHINGTON – Making a case for why the Supreme Court should overturn a $5 million judgment that President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed the …
There Is a Word for What Is Happening in Minneapolis
Listen1.0x 0:0012:53 This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The fight against ICE in Minneapolis defies easy categorization. Is it activism? Protest? Political opposition? Resistance? None of these terms quite captures what we’re seeing: people putting their own bodies on the line to care for immigrants and impede the operations of a paramilitary force in their city.
The Way to Beat Back Trump Was Just Revealed
4 hours ago When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem strode into the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters last week, ahead of a monster winter storm that walloped much of the country, she caught staffers buzzing around the agency’s response center off guard. “I was shocked she showed up after …
There Is a Word for What Is Happening in Minneapolis
8 hours ago The choice ends a monthslong search for a successor to Jerome Powell, who has resisted fierce White House pressure to lower interest rates. President Donald Trump plans to nominate Kevin Warsh to the board of the Federal Reserve as a governor and the next chair of the central bank. If confirmed by …
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