Skip Navigation
James Fallows

James Fallows - James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. His latest book, China Airborne, was published in early May.
More

James Fallows is based in Washington as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He has worked for the magazine for nearly 30 years and in that time has also lived in Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. In addition to working for The Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot. He is also now the chair in U.S. media at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, in Australia.

Fallows has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times and has won once; he has also won the American Book Award for nonfiction and a N.Y. Emmy award for the documentary series Doing Business in China. He was the founding chairman of the New America Foundation. His two most recent books, Blind Into Baghdad (2006) and Postcards From Tomorrow Square (2009), are based on his writings for The Atlantic. His latest book, China Airborne, was published in early May. He is married to Deborah Fallows, author of the recent book Dreaming in Chinese. They have two married sons.

Fallows welcomes and frequently quotes from reader mail sent via the "Email" button below. Unless you specify otherwise, we consider any incoming mail available for possible quotation -- but not with the sender's real name unless you explicitly state that it may be used. If you are wondering why Fallows does not use a "Comments" field below his posts, please see previous explanations here and here.
« Previous Fallows | Next Fallows » Email Email Print Print

Pictures of the Day: Italian Ship Crash, Green Zone D.C.

By James Fallows

Jan 17 2012, 5:56 PM ET

In the unfortunate art-trouvee category, this one from the Belfast Telegraph  (thanks to many who have sent it):

photo (1).JPG

And, from the indispensable Department of Fear, a few shots of the new double-row "Green Zone D.C." fencing that is going up to build in extra buffers between the Congress and the public. The D of F suggests that this is an homage to the fondly remembered Green Zone in Iraq:
What is Green Zone D.C.?  Modeled after our former seat of government in Baghdad, Green Zone D.C. will comprise a system of fortifications designed to keep the People at a distance from Congress.  The temporary fencing we have in place today is only a beginning.

FearDept2.png



FearDept1.png

The bunkerizing of the nation's capital is one of the big, startling-when-you-actually-notice-it transformations of my time in Washington off-and-on since the Watergate era. Through that period my wife and I have lived away for five different multi-year stretches. Usually one of the big surprises on return is how many more areas of the town are closed to traffic, full of police, walled off with blast barriers, and so on. (Hmmm, if only there were some metaphor for things that happen so gradually that you may not notice them happening day by day.) Good to see the Department of Fear keeping us alert.


Presented by

More at The Atlantic

The Rock-Mining Children of Sierra Leone Have Not Found Peace 10 Years After Civil War, No Peace for Sierra Leone's Kids
Get Ready: Milky Way to Collide With Neighboring Galaxy in 4 Billion Years Milky Way to Collide With Neighbor in 4 Billion Years
How 'Natural' Is Stevia? How 'Natural' Is Stevia?
Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are
This Photo Uses Every Single Instagram Filter How to Go From Kinkade to Rothko in 18 Easy Steps

Correspondents

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Afghanistan: May 2012

Jun 1, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

James Fallows
from the Magazine

Obama, Explained

As Barack Obama contends for a second term in office, two conflicting narratives of his presidency…

Barack Obama

Facing huge risks and holding inconclusive intel, the president makes a gutsy call to take out bin…

Hacked!

As email, documents, and almost every aspect of our professional and personal lives moves onto the…