The Cruel Idealist
LBJ’s better angels, plus the power of Big Oil
LBJ’s better angels, plus the power of Big Oil
In which two guys who agree on just about everything face off in one of the most expensive House races of 2012
Tokyo conservatives look westward for inspiration.
The modern Republican Party has braided together a reverence for tradition with a devotion to free markets. But the free market is the most powerful force for change imaginable.
Tattered finances, broken schools, rampant crime—Rahm Emanuel is taking on an entrenched bureaucracy and a legacy of corruption to fix the problems that American voters care about most deeply. Can the mayor of Chicago make the city that works work?
Image credit: Kevin Kolczynski/Reuters
As Barack Obama contends for a second term in office, two conflicting narratives of his presidency have emerged. Is he a skillful political player and policy visionary—a chess master who always sees several moves ahead of his opponents (and of the punditocracy)? Or is he politically clumsy…
How a presidential election boosts the economy
The president of the United States reflects on what Abraham Lincoln means to him, and to America.
Seven months after his call to free the slaves, Emerson hails the Emancipation Proclamation.
Three months after Lincoln’s murder, The Atlantic seeks to make sense of it.
The significance of the Gettysburg Address
A journalist who covered the Lincoln-Douglas debates recalls the future president’s bawdy appeal.
In 1860, The Atlantic endorsed Abraham Lincoln for president.
Facing huge risks and holding inconclusive intel, the president makes a gutsy call to take out bin Laden
A GOP governor slams those inciting anti-Muslim bigotry
The first openly gay U.S. political candidate works to save a slice of gay history
The list of politicos laid low by sexual scandal grows ever longer. It hasn’t always been this way. Fifty years ago, the press famously considered politicians’ sex lives off-limits, however colorful. Go back to the Gilded Age, though, and salacious gossip was front-page news. Taken as a…
A political superstar’s precipitous fall
An insider’s six-step plan to fix Congress
Browse back issues of The Atlantic that have appeared on the Web. From September 1995 to the present, the archive is essentially complete, with the exception of a few articles, the online rights to which are held exclusively by the authors.
See All Back Issues: September 1995
News Corp. Braces for 500 Phone-Hacking Legal Claims
What's Tanking the Economy
Bloomberg: 'Just Before You Die, Remember You Got Three Extra Years'
Rethinking the Economics of Traffic Congestion
America's Economic Rebound
How to Handle a City of Tourists
The Speed of Light 
Alter Ego 
Synthetic Biology 
