How Jefferson Counted Himself In

Something was funny about the Georgia ballot during the 1800 election. Did Thomas Jefferson act properly in making himself President in 1801? A historical detective story

When the Front Page Meets the Big Screen

Hollywood is not a reliable moral arbiter of anything, so it's not surprising that when it holds a mirror up to journalism, Shattered Glass is the result

God’s Lonely Man

Johnny Cash was a Christian who didn't cast stones, a patriot who wasn't a bully

The Hollow Army

The U.S. military is stretched to the breaking point—and one more crisis could break it

Marriage Counselor

Matt Daniels believes he's found a solution to the political problem of gay marriage. So why do his fellow conservatives want to divorce him?

We Will Bury You

How the caretakers of Lenin's corpse have made a killing in post-Soviet Russia

Madonna Wants Me

Every candidate now needs a "celebrity wrangler"—matchmaker to the stars

The Southern Cross

Georgians want the Confederate emblem back on their state flag, and are frustrated that a referendum this month won't give them that option. What they don't know is that if the emblem's creator were alive, he'd vote to bury it

Great Scot

Between Kipling and Fleming stands John Buchan, the father of the modern spy thriller

The Man Who Would Be Khan

A new breed of American soldier—call him the soldier-diplomat—has come into being since the end of the Cold War. Meet the colonel who was our man in Mongolia, an officer who probably wielded more local influence than many Mongol rulers of yore

Would Shakespeare Get Into Swarthmore?

How several well-known writers (and the Unabomber) would fare on the new SAT

The Armageddon Plan

During the Reagan era Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were key players in a clandestine program designed to set aside the legal lines of succession and immediately install a new "President" in the event that a nuclear attack killed the country's leaders. The program helps explain the behavior of the Bush Administration on and after 9/11

The Next Testament

If the Bible were being compiled for the first time right now, what would we put in it? Making the case for a NEW New Revised Standard Version

New & Noteworthy

The war that never ends

Primary Sources

The EU's suppressed report on anti-Semitism; the real relationship between pot smoking and crime; how nonvoting aliens affect U.S. elections; why Republicans benefit more than Democrats from high taxes; Al Sharpton's taste in hotels

America's Most Wanted

Washington is paying more and more to find its Most Wanted


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Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

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A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

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Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

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The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

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What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

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NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

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Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

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Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

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New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

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The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

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What Does It Take to Make Real Craft Gin?

Tour the Green Hat Gin distillery

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Letter From the Editor

The June 2013 issue

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What Straights Can Learn From Same-Sex Couples

New insight from decades of research

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The End of the Mall Rat

A tribute to that pillar of teen culture

Writers

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More back issues, Sept 1995 to present.

In Focus

Picking up the Pieces After the Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma

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