Articles with headlines in gray are unavailable online.
77 North Washington Street
Calendar
Letters to the Editor
COMMENT The Perils of Primacy When too much power means not enough security
by Benjamin Schwarz
PHOTO OP Sects in the Cité
by Alexandra Boulat
POLITICS Company, Left There's something different about the latest crop of military veterans running for Congress
by Joshua Green
FOREIGN AFFAIRS Man Versus Mine Iraqi insurgents have perfected the use of lethal explosives, with profound implications for our military operations in Iraq
by Robert Bryce
THE LIST Invasion of the Privacy Snatchers
by Matthew Quirk
CROSS-EXAMINATION Whose Court Is It Really? John Roberts is the new chief justice, but the Supreme Court isn't his to lead just yet
by Benjamin Wittes
Primary Sources The religion effect; a less violent world; one (very good) reason to resist early retirement
by Marshall Poe, Ross Douthat and Abigail Cutler
THE NATION IN NUMBERS The Border Illegal immigration is once again a potent political issue
by Ross Douthat and Jenny Woodson
The Year of two Popes
How Joseph Ratzinger stepped into the shoes of John Paul II—and what it means for the Catholic Church
by Paul Elie
INTERVIEWS Behind the Scenes at the VaticanThe Point of No Return
Paul Elie, the author of "The Year of Two Popes," talks about Ratzinger's rise and his own extraordinary experiences researching the story
by Ramsey Prather [Web only]
First Pakistan's A.Q. Khan showed that any country could have made a nuclear bomb. Then he showed—not once but three times—why the nuclear trade will never be shut down
by William Langewiesche
INTERVIEWS The World in Which We LiveThe George W. Bush Presidential Library
William Langewiesche on nuclear proliferation—and why the U.S. is powerless to stop it.
by Elizabeth Dougherty [Web only]
An unauthorized preview, with never-before -seen drawings of the interior
by Cullen Murphy and Edward Sorel
150 YEARS OF THE ATLANTIC Politics & Presidents
The first in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th anniversary.
POETRY The Anthem
If famous poets had written "The Star-Spangled Banner"
by Garrison Keillor
POETRY North and South
Selections from the notebooks of Elizabeth Bishop
COMING SOON A Conversation With Alice QuinnFarewell
The editor of a new collection of previously unpublished poetry by Elizabeth Bishop talks about the fascination of sifting through a master poets' notebooks and unfinished work.
A drawing
by Guy Billout
STATE OF THE UNION The Values Racket
by the Editors
STATE OF THE UNION Why the Culture War Is the Wrong War
It's time to challenge the metaphor—and the easy caricatures of left and right that sustain it
by E. J. Dionne Jr.
STATE OF THE UNION Tribal Relations
How Americans really sort out on cultural and religious issues—and what it means for our politics
by Steven Waldman and John C. Green
STATE OF THE UNION Misfit America
Is our evolving national character a liability in our foreign relations?
by Paul Starobin
STATE OF THE UNION Executive Privilege
The CEOs of too many public companies enjoy the power and rewards of ownership without the risks.
by Clive Crook
STATE OF THE UNION Two Cheers for Hypocrisy
As the Gallup Organization has discovered, the young are another country—and one day it's going to be ours
by P. J. O'Rourke
TIMELINE Milestones in the Culture Wars
EDITOR'S CHOICE The Not-So-Second City
Chicago Architecture and Design, by Jay Pridmore and George A. Larson; Chicago Architecture: Histories, Revisions, Alternatives, edited by Charles Waldheim and Katerina Rüedi Ray; Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
by Benjamin Schwarz
Are You There God? It's Me, Monica
How nice girls got so casual about oral sex
by Caitlin Flanagan
READING LIST Mommies Dearest
Top literary reasons why it sucks to have chic parents
by Sally Singer
New fiction
The Accidental by Ali Smith
by Joseph O'Neill
New Fiction
Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes
by Elizabeth Judd
Downhill All the Way
An adroit new history of the British Empire in the post-Victorian era
by Christopher Hitchens
NEW FICTION A Close Read
Leaving Home, by Anita Brookner
by Christina Schwarz
BEST SELLERS ABROAD Turkey
by Jeffrey Tayler
TRAVELS Nova Scotia, Mon Amour
The province's quirks and inaccessibility are its very charms
by Alex Beam
MUSIC The Singing Epidemic
All of a sudden everybody wants to be a jazz singer—and a few are actually good at it
by Francis Davis
FOOD Domestic Reserves
Americans no longer need to look abroad to satisfy their need for oil—Tuscan-style olive oil, that is
by Corby Kummer
THE PUZZLER Mysterious Island
by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Word Court
by Barbara Wallraff
POST MORTEM Moustapha, Messenger of Hollywood
Moustapha Akkad (1935-2005)
by Mark Steyn
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
by Benjamin Healy