Nicholas Lemann: The Myth of Meritocracy (October 7, 1999)
In his new book, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy, Nicholas Lemann argues that the structure of educational opportunity in America is inherently flawed and must be rebuilt.

Edward Said: Setting the Record Straight (September 22, 1999)
Edward Said, author of a new memoir, Out of Place, talks about Beethoven, the Oslo Accords, Arafat, and the "enormous fabrication of lies" printed in Commentary this month.

Richard Wilbur: A Certain Logic (September 9, 1999)
Peter Davison interviews Richard Wilbur, a poet who doesn't care for "perfection."

James Gleick: Buddy, Can You Spare Some Time? (September 1, 1999)
A (brief) conversation with James Gleick, the author of Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.

Elijah Anderson: Street Life (August 18, 1999)
Elijah Anderson talks about his new book, Code of the Street, and his effort to tell the real story of life in the inner city.

Andrew Shapiro: With Liberty and Justice for Me (July 22, 1999)
Is the Internet giving ordinary people more control over their lives? An e-mail exchange with Andrew L. Shapiro, the author of The Control Revolution.

Witold Rybczynski: Landscape Artist (July 14, 1999)
Witold Rybczynski, the author of A Clearing in the Distance, talks about Frederick Law Olmsted, the importance of Central Park, and the shape of our urban and suburban landscapes.

Joseph Epstein: Not Your Regular Joe (June 30, 1999)
Joseph Epstein is the essayist's essayist. But with his latest book, Narcissus Leaves the Pool, he says it's time to light out for new territory.

Vikram Seth: The Seth Variations (June 23, 1999)
Vikram Seth, the author of An Equal Music, discusses Indian writing, declares allegiance to poetry, and disagrees with Salman Rushdie.

David M. Kennedy: Our Finest Hours? (June 10, 1999)
David M. Kennedy, the author of Freedom From Fear, talks about America's era of crisis, and how the nation mastered the greatest challenges of the twentieth century.

Tracy Kidder: The Architecture of Daily Life (April 22, 1999)
Tracy Kidder discusses his new book, Home Town, and the power of true stories about ordinary people.

Philip Levine: A Useful Poetry (April 8, 1999)
Philip Levine, whose new collection of poems was published this month, talks about politics, history, autobiography, the successes and failures of language—and why poetry matters.

Wendy Lesser: Truth Enters In (March 24, 1999)
A conversation with Wendy Lesser, the editor of The Threepenny Review and author of the new memoir The Amateur, who says she'll take an autobiography over a biography anyday.

Jeffrey Tayler: Russia's Other World (March 10, 1999)
Jeffrey Tayler, the author of Siberian Dawn, tells of his 8,000-mile odyssey across Russia's coldest, most desolate landscapes.

Mary Anne Weaver: Islam Rising (February 17, 1999)
A conversation with Mary Anne Weaver, the seasoned foreign correspondent whose new book, A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam, shows that there is much more to Islamic activism than guns and bombs.

Bret Easton Ellis: Portrait of the Artist as a Social Satirist (February 10, 1999)
Bret Easton Ellis—whose latest book, Glamorama, has predictably stirred up critics—talks about the line between life and art.

Julian Dibbell: Virtual Reality Bites Back (January 28, 1999)
"It's not that cyberspace fails to resolve the social contradictions of the 'real world,'" Julian Dibbell writes, "but rather that it doesn't even resolve its own." An e-mail exchange with the author of My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World.

Mark Hertsgaard: Will We Survive? (January 21, 1999)
An interview with Mark Hertsgaard, a journalist whose new book, Earth Odyssey, tells of his six-year, round-the-world journey exploring the human side of environmental crisis.

Daniel Dennett: The Digital Philosopher (December 9, 1998)
Can robotics shed light on the human mind? On evolution? Daniel Dennett—whose work unites neuroscience, computer science, and evolutionary biology—has some provocative answers. Is he on to something, or just chasing the zeitgeist?

Stephen Budiansky: The Animal Point of View (December 9, 1998)
Stephen Budiansky, the author of If a Lion Could Talk, says that in order to truly understand animal intelligence, we need to move beyond our sentimental fascination with elephants that "weep" and gorillas that "save children."

Ethan Canin: How Did Your Life Turn Out? (November 25, 1998)
An interview with Ethan Canin, the author of the new novel For Kings and Planets, who believes the only story worth writing is the history of a human being.

Stephen Ambrose: Tell It Like It Was (November 12, 1998)
Steven Spielberg turned to him for advice on Saving Private Ryan. Now, Stephen Ambrose talks about his new book, The Victors—the culmination of his work on the Second World War.

Anne Fadiman: Coming to Life (October 28, 1998)
An interview with the writer and editor Anne Fadiman, whose new book, Ex Libris, proves what she has always suspected—that there is an essayist lurking inside her.

Stephen Schulhofer: Redefining Rape (October 22, 1998)
Alarmingly, when it comes to sexual assault, "no" doesn't always mean "no" in a court of law. The legal scholar Stephen Schulhofer talks about his new book, Unwanted Sex, and explains why the laws need to change.

John Edgar Wideman: Body Language (October 7, 1998)
What's behind the work of John Edgar Wideman, the author of the new novel Two Cities, is simple: if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk.

Robert D. Kaplan: Manifest Destiny (September 16, 1998)
An interview with Robert D. Kaplan, whose new book, An Empire Wilderness, explains why the impending demise of the United States is good news.

Andrew Todhunter: Fear of Falling (September 3, 1998)
Andrew Todhunter talks about his new book, Fall of the Phantom Lord, about the rock climber Dan Osman, and examines the lure of putting one's life on the line.

Cullen Murphy: Eve's Bible (August 6, 1998)
An interview with Cullen Murphy, whose new book, The Word According to Eve, explores the revolutionary implications of feminism's encounter with religion.

Roy Blount Jr.: Bittersweet (July 23, 1998)
In his new memoir, Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story, Roy Blount Jr. goes looking for the source of his humor.

William Langewiesche: Sky Writing (June 30, 1998)
All writers have a point of view. For William Langewiesche—pilot, Atlantic correspondent, and author of Inside the Sky—it happens to be an aerial one.

John Irving: The "What If?" Business (June 17, 1998)
John Irving, the author of A Widow for One Year, is a novelist for whom storytelling has always been a "necessity."

The Adventures of Jane Smiley (May 28, 1998)
An interview with the acclaimed author of A Thousand Acres (1991) and the new novel, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton.

Patricia Williams: Speaking of Race (May 14, 1998)
Patricia Williams, the author of Seeing a Color-Blind Future, suggests that when it comes to the trauma of racism Americans have not yet learned how to speak.

Lawrence Weschler: In the Very Middle of Things (April 29, 1998)
In his new book, Calamities of Exile, Lawrence Weschler's explorations lead him to some very strange—and familiar—places.

Richard Rorty: The Next Left (April 23, 1998)
Richard Rorty, the eminent philosopher and author of Achieving Our Country, argues that the American Left, if it is to recapture its relevance, must take pride in its past.

Edward O. Wilson: All for One, One for All (March 18, 1998)
Can science call the postmodernist bluff? Edward O. Wilson, the author of Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, says it can—and must.

Hans Koning: Being There (March 4, 1998)
Freedom fighter, anti-war activist, novelist, reporter—Hans Koning, the author of Pursuit of a Woman on the Hinge of History, reflects on the twentieth century.

Edward Ball: Inheriting Slavery (February 26, 1998)
Edward Ball, the author of Slaves in the Family, set out to reckon with the legacy of his ancestors' plantations.

The World According to David Gelernter (January 29, 1998)
An interview with a computer scientist who argues that beautiful technology—and a return to traditional values—must show us the way forward.

Jack Beatty: The Author of Modernity (January 29, 1998)
Jack Beatty discusses his intellectual profile of Peter Drucker, the man who invented the modern world.

Seymour Hersh: Darker Than We Want to Know (January 8, 1998)
Seymour Hersh responds to critics of The Dark Side of Camelot, and suggests why the truth about John F. Kennedy hurts so much.

Tom Piazza and Eric Nisenson: The Shape of Jazz and What's to Come (December 4, 1997)
Can jazz survive into the twenty-first century? Tom Piazza and Eric Nisenson go head to head over the state of America's most celebrated art.

Jorge Castañeda: A Life (More or Less) Revolutionary (November 20, 1997)
In his new biography of Che Guevara, Jorge Castañeda makes the case that Che is culturally—but not politically—significant.

Edward Sorel: Drawing Without a License (November 6, 1997)
His sharp-witted illustrations, instantly recognizable, have appeared in many of America's best-known magazines. Now, in a new book, Edward Sorel looks back over thirty years of "unauthorized portraits."

Louis Auchincloss: The More the Merrier (October 15, 1997)
Louis Auchincloss has written fifty-four books in his eighty years. Now the author of The Atonement talks about Henry James, Edith Wharton, and a life of lawyering.

Steven Johnson: A Medium in Embryo (October 9, 1997)
Most of us take the computer interface for granted. But for Steven Johnson it is a defining metaphor of our times—and a summons to the metaphysical.

Howard Frank Mosher: A Disappearing Eden (October 2, 1997)
The novelist Howard Frank Mosher recently traveled the length of the United States' northern border. He's got stories to tell.

Jane Hirshfield: Some Place Not Yet Known (September 18, 1997)
Jane Hirshfield discusses the lives of poetry—public and private, sensual and spiritual.

Hunter S. Thompson: Writing on the Wall (August 26, 1997)
A multimedia interview with Hunter S. Thompson, scourge of presidents, the press, and the politically correct.

Jim Sleeper: Letting Go of Race (August 21, 1997)
Jim Sleeper, author of Liberal Racism, says it's time to end the relentless color-coding of public life.

Charles Baxter: Desire Rules (August 7,1997)
Charles Baxter, author of Believers and Burning Down the House, talks about violence, epiphany, and the mystery of the Midwest.

Paul Theroux: All Change Is Fascinating (July 3, 1997)
Paul Theroux discusses his novel, Kowloon Tong, and the implications of the Hong Kong handover.

Michael Nash: Most Multimedia Sucks (June 5, 1997)
Is the golden age of multimedia already behind us? Michael Nash, a visionary who helped raise the art of the interactive CD-ROM to new levels, doesn't think so—despite his feeling that today "most multimedia sucks."

James Carroll: The Story of My Life (April 24, 1997)
James Carroll talks about his memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for non fiction.

Kai Krause: Artist at Play (April 16, 1997)
Kai Krause—whose graphic-design tools combine the power of mathematics and computers with a childlike delight in sheer playfulness—would bridge the divide between technology and art.

Suzanne Gordon: Cutting Down on Care (March 19, 1997)
In Life Support, Suzanne Gordon gives a first-hand account from the front-lines of nursing—a profession that is gravely threatened by the restructuring of our medical system.

Frederick Barthelme and Askold Melnyczuk: The Next Big Thing—Words! (February 26, 1997)
We all know that digital media are transforming the publishing industry and our literary culture. It's time for publishers to return the favor. Interviews with the editors of two influential literary journals: Frederick Barthelme, who brought the Mississippi Review to the Web in 1995, and Askold Melnyczuk, whose AGNI magazine has come to the Web recently.

Robert Kuttner: The Vanity of Human Markets (February 26, 1997)
In Everything for Sale, Robert Kuttner challenges the prevailing orthodoxy of laissez-faire economics.

Thomas Powers: The Numbers Game (February, 1997)
CIA analyst Sam Adams fought the intelligence establishment about its Vietnam policy like David fought Goliath. An interview with Thomas Powers, the editor of Adams's posthumous book, War of Numbers.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead: What We Owe (February, 1997)
Dan Quayle is still right, argues Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, author of The Divorce Culture and a Democrat who has never voted Republican.

Paul Fussell: The Other Side of War (February, 1997)
In Doing Battle: The Making of Skeptic, Paul Fussell—historian, literary critic, and veteran—wants to change the way Americans remember the Second World War.

George Kelling and Catherine Coles: The Promise of Public Order (January, 1997)
George Kelling and Catherine Coles, the authors of Fixing Broken Windows, wax optimistic about repairing America's crime-ridden communities.

Howard Cushnir: The Game's the Thing (December 21, 1996)
Obsidian, the elaborate and much-anticipated CD-ROM adventure game, takes the genre that Myst defined to a new level. An e-mail exchange with Howard Cushnir, Obsidian's co-author.

Michael Joyce: The End of the Story (November 20, 1996)
Michael Joyce is one of the premier authors of hyperfiction in America. His new work, Twilight, A Symphony, transcends the limits of narrative and reveals the burden of infinite possibility.

Tobias Wolff: An Eye for What Is Human (November, 1996)
Tobias Wolff talks about—and reads from—The Night in Question, his first collection of short stories in more than a decade.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft: A Century of Zionism (November, 1996)
Geoffrey Wheatcroft discusses The Controversy of Zion, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and takes stock of Theodor Herzl's "mad idea."

William Langewiesche: The Desert Extreme (August, 1996)
William Langewiesche, author of Sahara Unveiled, traveled 4,000 miles through the hottest, driest, and largest desert on earth—and lived to tell about it.

Francis Davis: Bebop and Beyond? (July, 1996)
Francis Davis, author of Bebop and Nothingness: Jazz and Pop at the End of the Century, talks about jazz in the '90s—its influences, rising stars, and prospects for the future. Plus, Atlantic articles on jazz from as far back as 1922.