On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal

In On Compromise, Rachel Greenwald Smith argues against viewing compromise as an unalloyed good-politically, ethically, and artistically. By way of such topics as the Riot Grrrl movement, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the COVID-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice, and the resurgence of fascism, she raises the dangers of thinking about compromise as an end, rather than a means. Yet even as Smith explores the ways that late capitalism demands individual compromise, she holds out hope for t...