December 2006

Who are the most influential figures in American history? The Atlantic recently asked ten eminent historians. The result was The Atlantic’s Top 100—and some insight into the nature of influence and the contingency of history. Was Walt Disney really more influential than Elizabeth Cady Stanton? Benjamin Spock than Richard Nixon? Elvis Presley than Lewis and Clark? John D. Rockefeller than Bill Gates? Babe Ruth than Frank Lloyd Wright? Let the debates begin.

It wouldn’t be easy. But it wouldn’t be impossible. A reporter travels the world to find the weaknesses a terrorist could exploit

Our man in Shanghai samples budget beer, survives subway scrimmages, and starts living the contradictions of China’s breakneck modernization

Fifty years ago, yoga was the province of California communes and fringy New Agers. Now it’s teetering on the brink of overexposure and commodification. So, is it a spiritual antidote to the upscale Western lifestyle, or just the latest manifestation?

This is the eleventh in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th anniversary. This installment is introduced by Mark Bowden, an Atlantic national correspondent.

The U.S.-European alliance is not on its last legs— and when Bush goes, it could emerge stronger than ever

A remarkable celebration of unremarkable lives deflates pat social theories of both the right and the left

Iran. North Korea. Uganda? Why the Pentagon ranks Africa’s AIDS crisis as a leading security threat

A letter from Florida

The Atlantic recently asked a group of foreign-policy authorities about Pakistan and its president, Pervez Musharraf

Mapping the rise of discontent

Afghan schools under attack; the perils of stock-tip spam; marriage as a matter of life and death; Vietnamese astrology gets it right

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler

Selected by The Atlantic’s literary editor, Benjamin Schwarz

Stop it, you’re killing my libido

A career-spanning anthology reveals again why Alice Munro is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years

The View From Castle Rock, by Alice Munro

On Richard Ford’s latest

The steely resolve of Andrew Carnegie

A guide to additional releases

Midwinter pool hopping in Iceland

Chain stores threaten to destroy independent wineshops— and your chances of finding interesting wine

They aren’t destroying local flavor—they’re providing variety and comfort

A preview of the new versions of Windows and Office

A modest proposal for reinventing newspapers for the digital age

Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006)