Features
The Desert One Debacle
In April 1980, President Jimmy Carter sent the Army’s Delta Force to bring back fifty-three American citizens held hostage in Iran. Everything went wrong. The fireball in the Iranian desert took the Carter presidency with it. [Enhanced for online viewing, with audio, video, photos, maps, and more.]
Colonel Cross of the Gurkhas
In the mountains of strife-torn Nepal, some lessons about modern warfare from a British throwback
Horsemen of the Esophagus
Among the super-gluttons, on the front lines of competitive eating
The Talented Mr. Chávez
A Castro-loving, Bolivar-worshipping, onetime baseball-player wannabe, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is perhaps the world’s most openly anti-American head of state. With Latin America in the midst of a leftward swing, how dangerous is he?
Nature & Environment
This is the fourth in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th anniversary. This installment is introduced by Bill McKibben, the author of The End of Nature, Wandering Home and the forthcoming Deep Economy.
Telephone Surveillance Permission Form
Humor by Bruce McCall
Agenda
The Nuclear Power Beside Iraq
Now that Iran unquestionably intends to build a nuclear bomb, the international community has few options to stop it—and the worst option would be a military strike
The Numbers War
In Washington, measuring the changing size of the Iraqi insurgency has become the battle to watch
Who Has Bush's Ear?
The Atlantic recently asked members of Congress about their perceptions of influence in the White House
The Benefits of Brutality
Why America's immigration outlook—current grumblings notwithstanding—remains so much healthier than Europe's
The Man With the Golden Phone
Before Mark Warner was a politician, he was a wildly successful entrepreneur—and his success as a huckster shows why he may be a formidable challenger for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination
Marital Differences
The national divide over gay marriage is a recipe for legal confusion—but we should learn to live with it
The Web Police
Internet censorship is prevalent throughout the world. Can the Web be tamed?
Primary Sources
Diagnosis at a distance; why private school might not be worth it; Pretty Boy Floyd as statistical outlier; the upside of global warming
Books
Modernism, Minimalism, Fundamentalism
Glenn Murcutt: buildings + projects 1962-2003, by Francoise Fromonot; Hariri & Hariri Houses, by Gisui Hariri and Mojgan Hariri; The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy Hempel; Fundamentalism and American Culture, by George M. Marsden
Rhymes With Rich
One woman’s conscientious objection to the “mommy wars”
New Fiction
Everyman, by Philip Roth
Exodus
The ominous push and pull of the U.S.–Mexico border
New Fiction
The Whole World Over, by Julia Glass
A Close Read
Luck, by Joan Barfoot
Blood for No Oil!
A new manifesto finds a model in the Truman era for returning liberals to political centrality in America. But the comparison is hopelessly inexact
Interviews: The author of The Good Fight defends his vision of the American Left
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases
Pursuits
The Father of the Pina Colada?
Visitors to Barbados can see where George Washington slept—really
Madrid Fusion
The pleasures and perils of the Spanish gastronomic avant-garde
Tinfoil Underwear
Tools to protect your privacy on the Internet go just so far, and the businesses that dominate it have no incentive to let them go any farther
Passing Grades
Scouting is state-of-the-art, yet judging which NFL players will pan out remains a gamble. Maybe they’re not the ones who should be studied
He Made the Refrains Run on Time
Romano Mussolini (1927–2006)
Who's Who
A selective index to this month’s issue
May 2013 
April 2013 
March 2013 
Jan/Feb 2013 
December 2012 
November 2012 
October 2012 
September 2012 