August 1987
In This Issue
Explore the August 1987 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Hard Times in the Big Easy
A portrait of a city that is fast losing its feeling of immunity from the discontents of urban life
The August Almanac
Notes: Going to the Cats
New Orleans: Hard Times in the Big Easy
A portrait of a city that is fast losing its feeling of immunity from the discontents of urban life
Paris: A Nation of Readers
The best-seller list in France is a serious affair indeed
My Store of Grievances
The (Relative) Decline of America
In 1945 the United States commanded a 40 percent share of the world economy; today its share is half that, and yet our military commitments have grown dramatically. This imbalance, which conforms to a classic historical pattern, threatens our security, both military and economic
Ike Was Right
The preceding article argued that there is an ominous imbalance between America’s real economic power and its military obligations. This article makes the case for reducing one of those obligations—the deployment of our troops in Europe
Contributors
Grandmother's Spit
Acuity
Unbuilding
One of the Citizens
Breakdown
Roden's Eye
The artist James Turrell is shaping Arizona earth so that an observer can listen to the sounds of the stars, be enveloped by the image of the moon, and think he is watching a seventy-five-story volcanic crater flatten into the desert floor
Octane and Knock
Knowing about the wide world of gasoline additives will make more of a difference to your ear’s well-being than you might suppose ,but springing for premium won’t
Quicksand
The Widow
A Seashell From the Seychelles
Ralph Lauren's Achievement: He Has Built an Empire Out of Our Nostalgia for a Lost Age
Snake Oil: Don't Believe Everything You Hear About Dietary Fats
Large-Scale Jazz: The Action Today Is in Composing, Not Improvising
The Gentle Heroes
Can We Still Hear Tocqueville?
Van Winkle's Return
Moscow 2042
Mary Shelley
Who Killed Palomino Molero?
An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art With Essays
The Belle Lettres Papers
Lee's Tigers
American Houses
Acrostic No. 25
The Puzzler
Word Watch
Here are a few of the words being tracked by the editors of The American Heritage Dictionary, published by Houghton Mifflin. A new word that exhibits sustained use may eventually make its way into the dictionary. The information below represents the first stage of research, not the final product.
