A Boy's Life
What would you do if your son wanted to be a girl? Some doctors have a new and troubling answer.
Their Own Worst Enemy
China is stunningly bad at managing its own reputation. Here's why.
Michelle Rhee, the young chancellor of the D.C. public school system, talks about her career path, what makes a good teacher, and her efforts to transform a struggling school district
First Person Plural
The neuroscience of identity
Psychologist Paul Bloom reflects on happiness, desire, memory, and the chaotic community that lives inside every human mind
The Things He Carried
Adventures in airport security
Why I Blog
The feedback is personal and brutal, but the connection with readers is intoxicating. [Web only: Video: "Your Brain on Blog"]
EDITOR'S NOTE
About the Redesign
Quick Study
Ghetto tax; Taliban talking points; biblical trauma
GALLERY
Lights
GALLERY
Hummer Ride
GALLERY
It's Mutual
GALLERY
Red Meat Nation
GALLERY
Vote Now
GALLERY
Fairy Tale
POETRY
My Career in Radio
POETRY
Father Andrews
In a Word
Eloquence contretemps; ages of fable
SPORT
Buffalo Shuffle
Can a deal with Toronto save an American football team—and its decaying hometown?
CAMPAIGNS
All the Right Moves
Will former NBA all-star Kevin Johnson become the next mayor of Sacramento?
PUBLIC WORKS
Turkish Bath
A new dam could submerge one of the world’s richest historical sites. [Web only: Slideshow: "Drowning Hasankeyf"]
DESIGN
A Question of Balance
How do you redesign The Atlantic? [Web only: Slideshow: "150 Years of Atlantic Covers"]
TRAVEL
The Gangster In My Tub
The author finds himself in hot water at a Japanese onsen. [Web only: Slideshow: "Eternal Spring"]
TECHNOLOGY
Self-Reliance 2008
Like your Leatherman? Love your iPhone? Still to come: the ultimate open-source ultragadget
EDITOR’S CHOICE
The Reel Thing
An infuriating, idiosyncratic critic can’t help but be elegiac in cataloguing the history of film.
Should Women Rule?
A clutch of books suggests they can’t rule like men. But there are other ways to run the world.
Torch Song
Remembering the language of lyrics
Cruel and Unusual
V. S. Naipaul has produced works of extraordinary skill— and lived a life of equally extraordinary callousness.
Cover to Cover
Du Maurier gets her due; Julia Glass's latest; the ruins of the railroads; SCottishness debunked; and more
CULTURE AND COMMERCE
The Case for Debt
Public anxiety over “excessive” consumer debt has a long, and misguided, history. By Virginia Postrel
