June 2004
In This Issue
Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “The Tragedy of Tony Blair”; Joshua Green, “Playing Dirty”; Max Holland, “The Assassination Tapes”; Alex Beam, “Greed on Trial”; Christopher Hitchens, “Young Men in Shorts”; Paul Starobin, “Dawn of the Daddy State”; Nasra Hassan, “Al-Qaeda's Understudy”; P. J. O'Rourke, “Sulfur Island”; fiction by Dennis Lehane; and much more.
Articles
Greed On Trial
The question before the jurors was not whether legal fees amounting to $7,700 an hour were "unreasonable." It was whether the lawyer-plaintiffs should get $1.3 billion more
A Real Gone Guy
Even though the saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter never went away, his two recent albums are being hailed as a major comeback
Kerry’s Secret Weapon?
Hundreds of thousands of swing-state radio listeners may turn the unlikely Howard Stern into a presidential kingmaker
Playing Dirty
This year's presidential campaign is already shaping up to be even more negative than the last. That's no accident. Our correspondent looks at the cloak-and-dagger world of opposition research—the updated version of "dirty tricks"
Al-Qaeda’s Understudy
Suicide terrorism has come to Pakistan, waged by one of the most vicious Islamist groups ever known
Young Men in Shorts
The 1908 Boy Scout manual was, our reviewer writes, "one of the very few books of the twentieth century that actually led to the formation of a worldwide movement"
What’s for Dinner?
Convenience foods have been doing battle with old-fashioned cooking for half a century. Which side is winning?
The Assassination Tapes
Lyndon Johnson secretly recorded many of his telephone conversations as President. The tapes provide our only window into his thoughts after hearing what was then a rumor about CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro—information that shaped Johnson's views of both JFK's assassination and his own presidency. Herewith excerpts from his 1967 calls
Offshoring the Audience
If France makes movies for the French, and America makes movies for the world, who's left to make movies for America?
Until Gwen
Your father looks down at the gun in his hand. "This going to fire?"
Rich, Famous, Incarcerated
Two decades of celebrity justice
The Heart of the Matter
Is Dick Cheney physically a good risk as Vice President? Seven cardiologists weigh in
The Abolitionist
Bush's homelessness czar has some new ideas. Will liberals listen?
New & Noteworthy
What to read this month
Life on Mars
Primary Sources
Our "unthinkable" environmental future; Iraq's looming ethnic conflict; the (mostly nonexistent) relationship between quality and profitability in TV news; the most expensive homes in America
In the Dark
Dawn of the Daddy State
If terrorism has made a global trend toward greater state power inevitable, then it's important to get authoritarianism right. Here's how
Shopworn
Like the Valley Girls who made it famous, the suburban mall is now on the wrong side of forty
Word Court
The Tragedy of Tony Blair
When he came to office, the Prime Minister seemed another JFK. Now his mystique is dissipated and his promise shattered. The chief cause of his failure is the war in Iraq—a war he led his people into against their will, for reasons that were not true
Squirt Gun
Loggers
Some Words Inside of Words
(for children and others)
Sulfur Island
Everyone recognizes the image of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima. But what do you know about the place we were actually fighting for?
Letters to the Editors
