Features
Bush's Lost Year
By deciding to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration decided not to do many other things: not to reconstruct Afghanistan, not to deal with the threats posed by North Korea and Iran, and not to wage an effective war on terror. An inventory of opportunities lost
The Long Hunt for Osama
Where has he been? How did we ever let him get away? Our correspondent—one of the few Western journalists ever to have met Osama bin Laden—traces the al-Qaeda leader's footsteps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and describes the sometimes hapless American pursuit
If Memory Doesn't Serve
Sarah Jessica Parker or Sarah Michelle Gellar? Ashanti or Beyoncé? All will come clear on the Day of Reckoning
The Crusader
Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general of New York, has risen to national prominence by emulating Teddy Roosevelt and fearlessly taking on powerful interests. His aggressiveness has made him a lot of enemies—but it may propel him to the governor's mansion and beyond
The Big Picture
Our annual survey of the admissions landscape uncovered recent and upcoming changes to the process, growing concern about tuition increases, and serious questions about whether colleges are fulfilling their mission
Who Needs Harvard?
The pressure on smart kids to get into top schools has never been higher. But the differences between these schools and the next tier down have never been smaller
Interviews: Atlantic contributing editor Gregg Easterbrook on why the college-admissions process need not be a confidence-shattering ordeal
Measure by Measure
A new effort to determine how well schools teach
Independent Counsel
For private admissions consultants business is booming. But is their expensive expertise worth the cost?
The Third Way
Liberal arts or a professional education? More and more students are choosing to combine elements of both. A leading proponent describes the emerging trend he calls "practice-oriented education"
Florence of Arabia (Part II)
One woman's crusade to bring female emancipation to the Middle East. A short story
Leak
A drawing
Agenda
Divided We Stand
Republicans and Democrats should be careful what they wish for
The X Factor
Americans probably care less about Teresa Heinz Kerry's outspokenness than about her exoticism. The question is what they think of it
Suspended Sentencing
The consequences of "the single most irresponsible decision in the modern history of the Supreme Court"
"To Hell With Lipitor!"
Medicare reform—an explanation
Tick, Tick, Tick
Pakistan is a nuclear time bomb—perhaps the greatest threat to American security today. Here's how to defuse it
Primary Sources
How gay marriage could reduce the federal deficit; what your eleven-year-old has in common with presidential debaters; Cuba's looming chaos
Books
The Glass of Fashion
What to read this month—and what not to
A Gloom of One's Own
Demanding women with demanding lives, and the men who love them
No Way, Madame Bovary
A new but not improved translation
Rote From Underground
Progressive books that—like Michael Moore—(ought to) make progressives wince
The Real Thing
Joseph O'Neill reviews William Trevor's short story collection A Bit on the Side.
Mind the Gap
Turkey is everyone's idea of a "successful" modern Muslim state. A new novel will make you think twice
Pursuits
Never Mind
Old science doesn't die ...
125 Years Ago in The Atlantic
The flight of jobs overseas is a hot-button issue in the 2004 election. But the problem is by no means new. As this October 1879 editorial by William Vaughn Moody makes clear, concerns about losing jobs to developing nations have been with us for a long time.
Good-bye, Cryovac
Imagine college food for which students will fake IDs, write rap songs, and line up outside the dining-hall door
The Twentieth-Century Darwin
Francis Crick (1916-2004)
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