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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, will be published in May.
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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; he is at work on another book about China. 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.

Leaving home photo album, #1

By James Fallows
Feb 11 2009, 1:29 AM ET

We all do it, many times. As mentioned earlier here, background here, for me this appears to be the last time. My wife and I have followed my sisters and brother in sorting through and unavoidably thinking about all the objects, collections, projects, mementos, treasures, and other miscellany of our parents' lives.

Discoveries, not necessarily in order of importance:

- From my brother's high school year book, a reminder of why the Redlands High School Terriers were often so good in football. Check out our All-Citrus Belt League quarterback:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_6246A.jpg

- From my dad's book case, a reminder that The Atlantic has always been ahead of the news. My dad was a toddler himself when this issue came out 80 years ago. Although he and my mom subscribed to the magazine when we were little children, he got this one later from a collector. The January, 1929 cover evokes a different world in some ways (click for larger) -- but check the evergreen story above the banner:
 
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_6191A.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_6191B.jpg



-- From the environs of the Redlands Airport, heartening news that the Hangar 24 brewery, previously mentioned here and here, has matured into a commercial and gustatory success.

Over the past year, as I've gone back and forth to Redlands on family duties, I've found excuses to go to the little airport to watch planes take off and land and drown my sorrows in excellent beer watch the development of the area's only craft brewery. On each visit, the place was much more bustling than the previous time. Last week, they had their first run of a bottling machine. (Previously, all drinks sold from kegs.) Ben Cook, the happy brewmaster, below. Below him, sample of the regional art on the labels.
 
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_6198.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_6255.jpg

The combination of small airplanes, good beer, orange trees, and the hometown atmosphere. It will be missed.

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