Building Democracy Out of What?
The Iraqi people, and anyone who wants to help them, will have to deal with the long-term psychological trauma of life under Saddam
Norman Ornstein's Doomsday Scenario
What would happen if a bomb wiped out the federal government?
JFK's Second Term
Toward the end of his life John F. Kennedy increasingly distrusted his military advisers and was changing his views on foreign policy. A fresh look at the final months of his presidency suggests that a second Kennedy term might have produced not only an American withdrawal from Vietnam but also rapprochement with Fidel Castro's Cuba
Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?
The image of a boy shot dead in his helpless father's arms during an Israeli confrontation with Palestinians has become the Pietà of the Arab world. Now a number of Israeli researchers are presenting persuasive evidence that the fatal shots could not have come from the Israeli soldiers known to have been involved in the confrontation. The evidence will not change Arab minds—but the episode offers an object lesson in the incendiary power of an icon
Sir Thomas Browne, Jorge Luis Borges, y Yo
A commencement address
Lost in Translation
Barton Raffel's English version of Le Rouge et le Noir lacks the essential tone and style of Stendhal
Aural History
The doyen of capital insiders has written a misleading account of the debate that led to war
The Logic of Suicide Terrorism
First you feel nervous about riding the bus. Then you wonder about going to a mall. Then you think twice about sitting for long at your favorite café. Then nowhere seems safe. Terrorist groups have a strategy—to shrink to nothing the areas in which people move freely—and suicide bombers, inexpensive and reliably lethal, are their latest weapons. Israel has learned to recognize and disrupt the steps on the path to suicide attacks. We must learn too
The Reluctant Fan
Professional baseball's lachrymose and soporific spell
A New Chestnut
The work of a dedicated few may eventually restore America's blighted chestnut forest to their former vastness. One happy consequence can already be tasted
Still Growing
Michael Byers' first novel, though ambitious and often engaging, suggests that he hasn't yet made the leap from short stories
Moving On, and On
From the Transition Index to the Rapture Index
New & Noteworthy
What to read this month
Primary Sources
Selections from recent reports, studies, and other documents. This month: 39,842 box cutters; gays in the (wartime) military; how college basketball hurts U.S. productivity; the most dangerous country in the world
Book Group in Chadors
An outstanding and unusual memoir of post-revolutionary Iran
Monstress
A short story
Too Much of a Good Thing
The theoretical physicist who ignited the biggest firestorm in the history of the American photography market was simply trying to figure out if his vintage photos were genuine. By the time he learned the answer, two of the country's best-known photography scholars had come under a cloud of suspicion
May 2013 
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March 2013 
Jan/Feb 2013 
December 2012 
November 2012 
October 2012 
September 2012 