Identity
A Memoir: Beirut to America
The first Americans I met were the Marines. On July 15, 1958, hundreds of U.S. Marines landed on the beaches of Beirut. They did not storm any fortification, and no hostile force fired at them. They were greeted by curious, mostly happy onlookers, enterprising vendors eager to sell them American cigarettes, familiar nonalcoholic beverages and Lebanese food, and scores of children clamoring for candy, chewing gum and chocolate. I was one of those children. I was barely eight-and-a-half years old.
America’s Great Experiment — with Yascha Mounk
Political scientist Yascha Mounk joins New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai to discuss diversity, democracy and patching up America’s polarized politics.
The Shifting Cultural Role of Clothes
Every society has its traditional clothing and almost every society has moved radically away from these traditions in recent times. Nevertheless, clothes play a significant cultural role in creating a sense of belonging, unity and collective identity.
A 1963 Novel Offers Lessons on Racism
In a personal essay, terrorism and security reporter Tam Hussein considers his own run-ins with the police and the public, through the lens of William Gardner Smith’s classic 1963 novel “The Stone Face.”