Articles with headlines in gray are unavailable online.
CalendarLetters to the Editor
COMMENT Managing China's Rise Contending effectively with China's ambitions requires a better understanding of our own
by Benjamin Schwarz
PHOTO OP Shanghai Rising [This article is unavailable online.]
a photograph by Alessandro Digaetano
INTELLIGENCE Truth Extraction A classic text on interrogating enemy captives offers a counterintuitive lesson on the best way to get information
by Stephen Budiansky
PHENOMENON Baby Names
by Tyler Cabot
BRIEF LIVES The Odd Couple Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, old-fashioned Democrats, have the charge—but so far few signs of the ability—to sell their party to America
by Joshua Green
THE LIST The Next Plague? Contagion through history
by Michael Slenske
HYPOTHETICALS Democratic Dominoes [This article is unavailable online.]
by Daniel Byman
Primary Sources Grade inflation at Cornell; what the Saudis are teaching Muslims in America; what the UN does better than the United States
How We Would Fight China
The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was
by Robert D. Kaplan
FLASHBACKS This American LifeZiad for the Defense
In the 1930s a series of articles by the French author Raoul de Roussy de Sales commented on politics, courtship, and identity in American life
by Kathryn Crim [Web only]
When Saddam Hussein goes on trial, he will not lack for legal defenders. Heading his team at the moment is a man named Ziad al-Khasawneh
by William Langewiesche
Road Trip: Part II
What would Tocqueville say? A journey continues, from Seattle to San Diego via Alcatraz and an obesity clinic
by Bernard-Henri Lévy
Being Geraldo
Yes, he knows exactly what he is. But he still can't help it. (And anyway, it's not quite what you think)
by Sridhar Pappu
The Flirty Dozen
The field testing of Agent Mauve
by Christopher Buckley
POETRY Ishi
[with audio]
by Louis Simpson
POETRY The Tattered Dress
[with audio]
by Ellen Bryant Voigt
EDITOR'S CHOICE Golden State
The Golden West, by Daniel Fuchs; California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown, by Ethan Rarick; The Singapore Grip, by J. G. Farrell; The Survivor, by John F. Harris; Carry Me Back, by Steven Deyle
by Benjamin Schwarz
Kiddie Class Struggle
One mom's breast-milk-curdling tour of lower education's higher end
by Sandra Tsing Loh
READING LIST Strange Butterflies
Recent collections from the photographic fringe
by Terry Castle
New Fiction
Specimen Days, by Michael Cunningham
by Joseph O'Neill
A Doomed Young Man
No, he was not Byron. But he certainly tried. A new look at Mikhail Lermontov and his classic work, A Hero of Our Time
by Christopher Hitchens
A Close Read
Ideas of Heaven, by Joan Silber
by Christina Schwarz
TEMPEST A Letters Exchange
After School
The mind-boggling coincidences, boundless energy, and cheerful capaciousness of Jonathan Coe's new novel, The Closed Circle
by Elizabeth Judd
ORAL HISTORY The Kissinger Transcripts
A selection from recently released material in the National Archives
by James Warren
FLASHBACKS The Craft and Craftiness of Henry KissingerTHE PUZZLER Central Intelligence
Articles by Seymour Hersh, Robert D. Kaplan, and others assess Kissinger's career and legacy.
by Sage Stossel [Web only]
by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Word Court
by Barbara Wallraff
POST MORTEM The Chap on Duty
James Callaghan (1912-2005)
by Mark Steyn
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
Compiled by Benjamin Healy