The Wars of John McCain
John McCain believes the Vietnam War was winnable. Now he argues that an Obama administration would accept defeat in Iraq, with grave costs to American honor and national security. Is McCain’s quest for victory a reflection of an antiquated pre-Vietnam mind-set? Or of a commitment to principles we abandon at our peril? Is there any war McCain thinks can’t be won?
How the West Was Wired
Two idealistic Taiwanese businessmen happened into the most rural part of China and thought: Let’s bring it from the 15th century to the 21st. [Web-only: Slideshow: China's Wild West narrated by James Fallows]
HUMOR
Innocence and Experience
Casanova’s first orgasm, Hitler’s famous mustache, Bob Hope’s last jokes: for every thing, there is a season. Herewith a compilation of great moments in precocity, endurance, and procrastination, organized instructively by age
Distant Replay
How the greatest game in football history looks 50 years later, through the eyes of a modern NFL head coach
Web-only
INTERVIEWS:
Football's Founding Fathers
Mark Bowden discusses the legendary Giants-Colts game of 1958 and reflects on how the sport and its players have changed in the past half century.
Is Pornography Adultery?
It may be closer than you think.
Web-only
INTERVIEWS:
Virtual Adultery
Ross Douthat discusses pornography, prostitution, the pixel-versus-flesh binary, and the strange moral dynamics of a national addiction.
The Atlantic's 2008 Presidential Election Campaign Supplement
An Atlantic chronicle of the campaign so far, with commentary by Joshua Green, Marc Ambinder, Ross Douthat, Matthew Yglesias, and others.
Web-only
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Elections Past
Writings from 1860 to the present on campaigns, candidates, and presidential elections, with contributions by James Russell Lowell, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., P.J. O'Rourke, and others.
POETRY
Royal Harp
POETRY
Searching
COMMENT
The Petraeus Doctrine
Iraq-style counterinsurgency is fast becoming the U.S. Army’s organizing principle. Is our military preparing to fight the next war, or the last one?
Calendar
What to watch for in the weeks ahead
Primary Sources
Why we love celebrities; sleepless soldiers; Pakistan's policing problems
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
All Counterinsurgency Is Local
Prosecuting the war in Afghanistan from provincial capitals has been disastrous; we need to turn our military strategy inside out.
Intolerant Chic
Editor’s Choice: The new “white people” are bigoted, but not the way you think—or they’ll admit.
The Man Who Remade the Met
Unlike most modern museum directors, Philippe de Montebello trusted the public to embrace his high standards—and it did.
Nasty, Brutish, and Short
The narrator of Roth’s Indignation may die off early and horribly—but it’s the reader of this adolescent work who ought to feel the most outraged.
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases
