Calendar
What to watch for in the weeks ahead
Features
Among the Hostage-Takers
Twenty-five years ago in Tehran a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy and took hostage the entire American diplomatic mission. Now many of the leading hostage-takers speak candidly about their actions—which a surprising number deeply regret
Interviews: Mark Bowden, the author of "Among the Hostage-Takers," speaks about the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 and its architects' present-day struggles with the Islamic regime
Will Iran Be Next?
Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war game—with sobering results
The Confidentiality Fetish
The problem with attorney-client privilege
Leaks and the Law
What happens when the journalistic principle of protecting confidential sources clashes with the public interest in prosecuting a crime? A cross-examination
Harbinger Hall
A section of the bookcase slowly swung out into the room—a secret door, straight from a monster movie
Agenda
News Judgment and Jihad
Terrorists depend on the cooperation of the media. It's time to stop providing it
At the Gates of Brussels
If Recep Tayyip Erdogan gets his way, Turkey will be more Islamic and Europe will be more Turkish. Both would be good news
How Not to Catch a Terrorist
A ten-step program, from the files of the U.S. intelligence community
Strait-jacket
December elections could edge Taiwan closer to a symbolic declaration of independence—and the United States toward military conflict with China. There's one way out
Holiday Cheer
The world's most bibulous countries
Hail to the _____
An all-purpose post-election editorial, offered free to news organizations across the United States
Executive Assistance
The split between "red" states and "blue" states has never been wider, but one type of candidate is bridging that gap: businessmen
A Spectator's Guide to the Political Action Universe
[This article is unavailable online.]
Pork With a Point
The highway bill—a translation
Primary Sources
Federal air marshals behaving badly; why women get less sleep than men; divorce among born-again Christians
Russia's Loose Nukes
[This article is unavailable online.]
Books
Cheap at ,000
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison; Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, edited by David J. Wishart; The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin; The Encyclopedia of Chicago, edited by James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff; Chicago, by A. J. Liebling; Honored Guest, by Joy Williams
Leave Them and Love Them
In Alice Munro's fiction, memory and passion reorder life
Shakespeare in Love, or in Context
If society creates art, as Stephen Greenblatt believes, then why was Shakespeare's achievement so singular?
The Minister's Tale
Marilynne Robinson's long-awaited second novel is an almost otherworldly book—and reveals Robinson as a somewhat otherworldly figure herself
Interviews: Marilynne Robinson talks about her long-awaited second novel and the holiness of the everyday
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Humankind
From corruptibility to immortality, the human condition as revealed in four very different books
Survivor
Victor Klemperer's meticulous diaries of daily life under East Germany's "soul-smashing" Communists reveal a man trying to convince himself not that the system was wrong but that it was right
Pursuits
Knock It Off
The art of the unreal
100 Years Ago in The Atlantic
"Remarks at the Peace Banquet"
Flavorless No More
Small batch by small batch, the makers of a new artisanal vodka have tapped into the market for America's best-selling spirits
The Paladin of Palimony
Marvin Mitchelson (1928-2004)
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
This Must Be the Place: Byun 
The All-American Soap Box Derby (1936) 
Video Documentary: The Impact of a Principal 
