Calendar
What to watch for in May
Features
In the Footsteps of Tocqueville
How does America look to foreign eyes? This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of Alexis de Tocqueville, our keenest interpreter. We asked another Frenchman to travel deep into America and report on what he found
Interviews: Bernard-Henri Lévy speaks with David Brooks about America—its patriotism, its religion, its ideology
On Becoming American
What does it take for an immigrant to shift from "you" to "we"?
The Coming Death Shortage
Why the longevity boom will make us sorry to be alive
Hotel Baghdad
Fear and lodging in Iraq
Boat Ride
A drawing
Agenda
Will Israel Live to 100?
Don't be seduced by the recent hopeful signs: in the long run the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will remain a problem without a solution
Gas Pains
One of the U.S. military's greatest vulnerabilities in Iraq is its enormous appetite for fuel. The insurgents have figured this out
The Apocalypse, Rated PG
Can a socially conservative Christian Republican succeed in Hollywood? Philip Anschutz is betting he can
Freedom, Responsibility … and What?
Social Security reform—an explanation
It Isn't the Message, Stupid
A new kind of guru is convincing Democrats that they don't need new ideas after all—a snazzy new sales pitch will revive their fortunes
The Hapless Toad
Amid all the liberal hysteria about the threats posed by a conservative Supreme Court, one threat tends to be ignored—and it happens to be the biggest one
Primary Sources
Why you shouldn't trust your real-estate agent; the financial cost of expelling gays from the military; how to spot a crooked CEO
Books
Eminent Domains
The Sky's the Limit, by Steven Gaines; London 1945, by Maureen Waller; The Command of the Ocean, by N. A. M. Rodger
A Bag of Tired Tricks
Blank pages? Photos of mating tortoises? The death throes of the postmodern novel
Retail Therapy
Five fictional reasons not to pay full price
The Man Who Ended Slavery
Slandered by craven abolitionists as unhinged, John Brown was in fact an eloquent, cool-headed tactician who succeeded in his long-range plan: launching a civil war
Flashbacks: A collection of writings—some by Brown's friends and collaborators—sheds light on the abolitionist who took a violent stand against slavery
New Fiction
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Interviews: Kazuo Ishiguro on Jane Austen, adapting his work for film, and his latest novel, Never Let Me Go
New Fiction
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Big Shill
Hollywood's need for hits creates a culture of misses
A Close Read
The Good Wife, by Stewart O'Nan
Pursuits
The Kosher Conversion
The market for kosher food is growing, for reasons both practical and spiritual
The Marrying Kind
Owen Allred (1914-2005)
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
Doin' It in the Park: No Gatorade (Excerpt) 
The Visual Clichés of Instagram 
Synthetic Biology 
