Moving to Higher Ground

Brett Kavanaugh threatened us with the revenge of a (presumably apocalyptic) whirlwind yesterday if–what? If we don’t believe him? In an effort to dispel that mini dust storm in advance, we scoured the Reps archive today for essays that might help clear the air. The special forum “Crime, Lies, and Narratives,” from shortly after 9/11 (another great time of national name-calling and angst), offers three such essays, perfect for weekend reading:

Representations 80: Special Forum–Crimes, Lies, Narratives

KEN ALDER
A Social History of Untruth: Lie Detection and Trust in Twentieth-Century America

TODD HERZOG
Crime Stories: Criminal, Society, and the Modernist Case History

ISTVAN REV
The Suggestion

MARGARET OLIN
Touching Photographs: Roland Barthes’s “Mistaken” Identification

DANIEL COTTOM
To Love to Hate