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In This Issue

Letters to the Editor

INNOCENT BYSTANDER: Fast-Free Living
by Cullen Murphy



The Air-Power Revolution by Michael Kelly
Looking Back on Tomorrow by David Brooks
On Plagiarism by Richard A. Posner
Blind Spot by Randall Kennedy
The Case Against Europe by Walter Russell Mead
Behavior Modification by James Fallows
How to Stuff a Wild Enron by P. J. O'Rourke
The Other Deficit by Eamonn Fingleton



Seeing Around Corners
The new science of artificial societies can grow long-vanquished civilizations and modern-day genocides on computers—and perhaps help us to spot trouble ahead
by Jonathan Rauch

Artificial Society Animations
Watch QuickTime animations of the artificial societies discussed in "Seeing Around Corners" [Web only]

The World on a Screen
Jonathan Rauch talks about what the study of artificial societies has to tell us about the real world. [Web only]

Dances With Daffodils
Can postmodernist antics salvage one of the author's least favorite poems?
by Phyllis Rose

Nixon and the Chiefs
In the winter of 1971 Richard Nixon discovered that a Pentagon spy had been systematically stealing White House documents. Newly discovered tapes captured Nixon's angry reaction—and discussions with his advisors about how to turn the situation to his advantage
by James Rosen

Centerpiece: Stalking the American Lobster
Government scientists say lobsters are being dangerously overfished. Lobstermen say that's not so. Into this familiar standoff comes a new breed of ecologist, determined to understand the lobster's secret life
by Trevor Corson

Raw Material A short story by A. S. Byatt

Conservative Men in Conservative Dresses
The world of cross-dressers is largely a world of traditional men in traditional marriages. The author joins some of them, with their wives, on a cruise
by Amy Bloom

Teaching the Slider A poem by J. T. Barbarese [with audio]
The Sunday Phone Call A poem by Maxine Kumin [with audio]
Riverside Ghazal A poem by Patricia Clark [with audio]




TRAVEL: The Splendor of Angkor by Jamie James
SPORT: A Generation of Gidgets by Jeff Spurrier
PALATE AT LARGE: Fore Street by Corby Kummer
MUSIC: Conducting: A Backwoods Guide by David Schiff



The Medals of His Defeats
Examining the revisionist version of Winston Churchill
by Christopher Hitchens

Looking for Mr. Churchill Isaiah Berlin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and others on Churchill as politician, author, world leader, and friend. [Web only]