This Week’s Issue: How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds

Plus: the rise of Steven Mnuchin, the invention of the police, and the argument of “Afropessimism.” View in browser | Update your preferences Annals of History How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds The plague marked the end of the Middle Ages and the start of a great cultural renewal. Could the coronavirus, for all its destruction, offer a similar opportunity for radical change? By Lawrence Wright A Reporter at Large How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic The secretive titan behind one of America’s largest poultry companies, who is also one of the President’s top donors, is ruthlessly leveraging the coronavirus crisis to strip workers of protections. By Jane Mayer On and Off the Avenue The Slob-Chic Style of the Coronavirus Pandemic What to wear when there’s nobody to dress up for except your cat—and Zoom. By Patricia Marx The Political Scene The High-Finance Mogul in Charge of Our Economic Recovery How Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin became one of the most consequential policymakers in the world. By Sheelah Kolhatkar Comment The Halted Progress of Criminal-Justice Reform Prosecutors are charging protesters with federal crimes, exposing them to long prison sentences, in another example of the Justice Department’s grotesque overreach under Attorney General William Barr. By Jeffrey Toobin A Critic at Large The Invention of the Police Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery. By Jill Lepore Books The Argument of “Afropessimism” Frank B. Wilderson III sketches a map of the world in which Black people are everywhere integral but always excluded. By Vinson Cunningham Pop Music Why the Chicks Dropped Their “Dixie” The all-female country band, which survived an instance of proto-cancel culture for its politics in the past, again wants to meet the current moment. By Amanda Petrusich Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Lexicon for a Pandemic “Maskhole,” “body Zoom-morphia,” and more neologisms for coronavirus communication. By Jay Martel Cartoons From The Issue Cartoons from the Issue Drawings and drollery from this week’s magazine. This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.