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Memo from the Editors
We chose to build this, The Atlantic's first Ideas Issue, not around speculative experimentation, academic abstraction, or gee-whiz gizmos, but around real-world attempts to rethink big questions. [Web only: Submit your own suggestions for the idea (or ideas) that have been most important this year. Some submissions may be included in part or in full in a future issue of the magazine.]
American Murder Mystery
Why is crime rising in so many American cities? The answer implicates one of the most celebrated antipoverty programs of recent decades.
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
What the Internet is doing to our brains
What Rumsfeld Got Right
How Donald Rumsfeld remade the U.S. military for a more uncertain world [Web only: Video: "Donald Rumsfeld—The Change Agent"]
The 11 1/2 Biggest Ideas of the Year
A thumbnail intellectual history of the year. [Web only: Video: "Where Ideas Come From": Interviews with David Lynch and Donovan ]
Electro-Shock Therapy
With the Chevy Volt, General Motors—battered, struggling for profitability, fed up with being eclipsed by Toyota and the Prius—is out to reinvent the automobile, and itself.
Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg
Intrigued (and alarmed) by the new science of “neuromarketing,” our correspondent peers into his own brain via an MRI machine and learns what he really thinks about Jimmy Carter, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bruce Springsteen, and Edie Falco.
Distracting Miss Daisy
Why stop signs and speed limits endanger Americans
Mr. Murdoch Goes to War
Rupert Murdoch wants his Wall Street Journal to displace The New York Times as the world’s paper of record. His ambitions could be good news for the newspaper industry— or another nail in the coffin of serious journalism. [Web only: Video: "Rupert Murdoch: The Last Hope for Journalism"]
COMMENT
Infectious Exuberance
Financial bubbles are like epidemics— and we should treat them both the same way.
REPORT
The Master and Medvedev
Why Vladimir Putin’s successful effort to handpick his replacement may backfire
A Vision in Concrete
Editor’s Choice: Oscar Niemeyer’s work continues to enchant and appall students of architecture and urban planning.
I Choose My Choice!
The fruits of the feminist revolution? Sisterhood, empowerment, and eight hours a day in a cubicle
Cassocks and Codpieces
Salman Rushdie’s ebullient historical novel manifests both his dexterous erudition and his bawdy wit.
New Fiction
The characters of Meg Wolitzer's latest novel are so insightful and articulate that it's a pleasure to listen to them think.
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases
TRAVELS
Little Skyscraper on the Prairie
A rare Frank Lloyd Wright tower—one of his most bizarre buildings ever—rises high above the Oklahoma plains. [Web only: Slideshow: "The Price is Wright"]