October 2008

Jeffrey Goldberg offers a look inside the mind of John McCain; Ross Douthat assesses the relationship between porn and adultery; James Fallows tells the story of two businessman who sought to modernize rural China; Mark Bowden on Football; Andrew Bacevich on the counterinsurgency; Christopher Hitchens on Philip Roth; Jed Perl on the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Wayne Curtis pays a visit to Anne of Green Gables; and much more.

Features

The Wars of John McCain

Is there any war McCain thinks can’t be won?

How the West Was Wired

Two idealistic Taiwanese businessmen happened into the most rural part of China and thought: Let’s bring it from the 15th century to the 21st. [Web-only: Slideshow: China's Wild West narrated by James Fallows]

Innocence and Experience

Casanova’s first orgasm, Hitler’s famous mustache, Bob Hope’s last jokes: for every thing, there is a season. Herewith a compilation of great moments in precocity, endurance, and procrastination, organized instructively by age

Distant Replay

How the greatest game in football history looks 50 years later, through the eyes of a modern NFL head coach
Interviews: Mark Bowden discusses the legendary Giants-Colts game of 1958 and reflects on how the sport and its players have changed in the past half century.

Is Pornography Adultery?

It may be closer than you think.
Interviews: Ross Douthat discusses pornography, prostitution, the pixel-versus-flesh binary, and the strange moral dynamics of a national addiction.

The Atlantic's 2008 Presidential Election Campaign Supplement

An Atlantic chronicle of the campaign so far, with commentary by Joshua Green, Marc Ambinder, Ross Douthat, Matthew Yglesias, and others.
From the Archives: Writings from 1860 to the present on campaigns, candidates, and presidential elections, with contributions by James Russell Lowell, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., P.J. O'Rourke, and others.

Agenda

The Petraeus Doctrine

Iraq-style counterinsurgency is fast becoming the U.S. Army’s organizing principle. Is our military preparing to fight the next war, or the last one?

Calendar

What to watch for in the weeks ahead

Primary Sources

Why we love celebrities; sleepless soldiers; Pakistan's policing problems

Blowback

Is wind the new ethanol?

Planting the Rightroots

Can Republicans find a way to compete on the Web?

All Counterinsurgency Is Local

Prosecuting the war in Afghanistan from provincial capitals has been disastrous; we need to turn our military strategy inside out.

Books

Intolerant Chic

Editor’s Choice: The new “white people” are bigoted, but not the way you think—or they’ll admit.

The Man Who Remade the Met

Unlike most modern museum directors, Philippe de Montebello trusted the public to embrace his high standards—and it did.

Nasty, Brutish, and Short

The narrator of Roth’s Indignation may die off early and horribly—but it’s the reader of this adolescent work who ought to feel the most outraged.

Cover to Cover

A guide to additional releases

Land of Green Gables

[Web-only: Slideshow: Anne's Land narrated by Wayne Curtis]

Half a Loaf

When bakers break up, who gets custody of the recipes?


Video

Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

Video

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A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

Video

Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

Video

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The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

Video

What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

Video

NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

Video

Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

Video

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Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

Video

New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

Video

The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

Video

What Does It Take to Make Real Craft Gin?

Tour the Green Hat Gin distillery

Video

Letter From the Editor

The June 2013 issue

Video

What Straights Can Learn From Same-Sex Couples

New insight from decades of research

Video

The End of the Mall Rat

A tribute to that pillar of teen culture

Writers

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Down
More back issues, Sept 1995 to present.

In Focus

Picking up the Pieces After the Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma

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