Volume 300 No. 5 | December 2007
Articles with headlines in gray are unavailable online.
Is Iraq Vietnam? Who really won in 2000? Which side are you on in the culture wars? These questions have divided the Baby Boomers and distorted our politics. One candidate could transcend them.
by Andrew Sullivan
Web-only
INTERVIEWS
Andrew Sullivan speaks candidly about why he supports Barack Obama, how he became a blogger, and why he's not afraid to change his mind.
by Jennie Rothenberg Gritz
Hillary Clinton tried to teach Barack Obama about power, but then he got ideas of his own. A story of nasty surprises, dueling war rooms, and the Drudge Report
by Marc Ambinder
It took five years, two screenwriters, and $180 million to turn a best-selling antireligious children’s book into a star-studded epic—just in time for Christmas.
by Hanna Rosin
How the author helped Afghans build a thriving soap and body-oil business—and overcame the incompetence of America’s aid establishment [Web only: Slideshow: "Everyday Afghanistan"]
by Sarah Chayes
POETRY
by Stuart Dischell
COMMENT
Why homeownership may be bad for America
by Clive Crook
Facebook for spies; long live the queen; the $260,150 handbag
Compiled by Matthew Quirk
Pre-seniors on the march; have-not nation; do gamers dream of electric abs?
POLL
The Atlantic recently asked a group of foreign-policy authorities about the United States, al-Qaeda, and Pakistan.
THE WORLD IN NUMBERS
Slums are burgeoning worldwide— and that’s a good thing.
by Matthew Quirk
BUSINESS
Can Google “not be evil” and still fend off the government?
by Joshua Green
MEDICINE
The health-care crisis no candidate is addressing? Too many doctors
by Shannon Brownlee
Editor’s Choice: Womanizer, bribe-taker, statesman—the cynically brilliant Talleyrand inspired an equally colorful biographer.
by Benjamin Schwarz
It’s the most critically acclaimed novel of the fall. And it’s astonishingly bad.
by B. R. Myers
Noël Coward’s dizzying life
by Thomas Mallon
Arthur Schlesinger’s journals are predictably sycophantic—and surprisingly good.
by Christopher Hitchens
A guide to additional releases
Web-only
INTERVIEWS
Nick Hornby, the author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and Fever Pitch, talks about the pitfalls of contemporary literary culture, his ambition to be the male Anne Tyler, and his new novel for young adults
by Jessica Murphy
FOOD
Cool new coffeemakers bring out the deeper pleasures of a light roast.
by Corby Kummer
CULTURE & COMMERCE
Why sending a man to the moon is easier than finding jeans that fit
by Virginia Postrel
TECHNOLOGY
Move over, iPod: Internet radio captures the enduring magic of the medium and makes the local global.
by Bill McKibben
CONTENT
Newspapers should try giving readers what they want, not just what editors think they need.
by Michael Hirschorn
THE PUZZLER
by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Cringe benefits; mastering drykwondo
by Barbara Wallraff
