Rand Richards Cooper

Rand Richards Cooper is a contributing editor to Commonweal. His fiction has appeared in Harper’s, GQ, Esquire, the Atlantic, and many other magazines, as well as in Best American Short Stories. His novel, The Last to Go, was produced for television by ABC, and he has been a writer-in-residence at Amherst and Emerson colleges.

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Article

Nolan Goes History Channel Mode

‘Oppenheimer’ vitiates the drama of its subject matter, reducing tragedy to mere chronicle.

By Rand Richards Cooper

September 1, 2023

Article

The Life of a Song

Glen Campbell possessed not only a prodigious musical talent, but an ability to connect regional American music to the mainstream.

By Rand Richards Cooper

January 27, 2023

Article

Careening Toward Disaster

In ‘Tár,’ Cate Blanchett displays a capacity for jagged intensity that is by turns commanding and disturbed.

By Rand Richards Cooper

November 25, 2022

Feature

Suspense in Real Life

Melodramatic plots and ethical dilemmas are at the center of the movies of Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi.

By Rand Richards Cooper

August 18, 2022

Article

The Steadfast Gaze

When faced with the horror of war, we want to tame it into something with order and meaning.

By Rand Richards Cooper

June 23, 2022

Feature

Wachapreague

“What if it happened now?” he thought, riding in the Virginia countryside; “what if it happened here?”

By Rand Richards Cooper

April 10, 2022

Must Reads

Politics

Is ‘Bronze Age Pervert’ Born to Rule?

It’s hard to understand how anyone can think of Bronze Age Pervert as a role model, but an alarming number of young would-be fascists apparently do.

By Matt McManus

November 19, 2023

Religion

Sold by the Jesuits

Rachel L. Swarns's book dives into the history and legacy of the 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits at Georgetown University.

By Marcia Chatelain

November 15, 2023

Culture

Have We Become Gods?

Tara Isabella Burton’s new book asks: How has self-creation in pursuit of profit become our social ideal?

November 15, 2023

Books

Preserving Hope for Humanity

One fear ties together techno-utopian fantasies and anti-birth environmentalism: the messy, imperfect reality of our human bodies.

By Gilbert Meilaender

November 1, 2023

Collections

The Israel-Palestine Conflict

A collection of Commonweal's writings on the Israel-Palestine conflict since 2009

November 14, 2023

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