February 1999

In This Issue
Judith Hooper, “A New Germ Theory”; Peter Hessler, “Tibet Through Chinese Eyes”; Francine Russo, “A Mecca for Modernists”; W.S. Merwin, “Any Time”; and much more.
Articles
Tibet Through Chinese Eyes
Many Chinese working in Tibet regard themselves as idealistic missionaries of progress, rejecting the Western idea of them as agents of cultural imperialism. In truth, they are inescapably both
A New Germ Theory
The dictates of evolution virtually demand that the causes of some of humanity's chronic and most baffling "noninfectious" illnesses will turn out to be pathogens -- that is the radical view of a prominent evolutionary biologist
Who Owns Intelligence?
Three unresolved issues will dominate the discussion of intelligence: whether intelligence is one thing or many things; whether intelligence is inherited; and whether any of its elements can accurately be measured. The debate, a prominent psychologist argues, is really over proprietary rights to a fundamental concept of our age
The Penumbra of Pedigree
A revived reference book offers a fanfare for the common aristo
The Man With the Lapdog
He heard his wife lifting herself from the bath water, and he knew that when she came out she'd get into bed beside him, damp in a way he'd once found so erotic that it nearly choked him
Exiled Beyond Kilometer 101
Life in the Russian countryside makes life in Moscow -- even during times of economic crisis -- look pretty good.
A Mecca for Modernists
The Netherlands is studded with twentieth-century architectural marvels
Black and White Intertwined
A groundbreaking new history documents the rich collaboration between black and white players in the early decades of jazz
This Hawaii Is Not for Tourists
Poverty, squalor, and violence mark the "anything but paradise" created by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, an award-winning writer whose blistering work is politically controversial
America's Heart
Satan's Biographers
77 North Washington Street
Letters
The February Almanac
Word Improvisation
Investigations of slang by the editor of the Random House Dictionary of American Slang.
