Ten Years Later
"Then the second wave of al-Qaeda attacks hit America." A leading expert on counterterrorism imagines the future history of the war on terror. A frightening picture of a country still at war in 2011
January/February 2005
In This Issue
Richard A. Clarke, "Ten Years Later"; James Fallows, "Success Without Victory"; William Langewiesche, "Letter From Baghdad"; Sridhar Pappu, "What Amy Would Do"; Walter Kirn, "Lost in the Meritocracy"; The Annual "State of the Union" Report; Jeffrey Tayler, "Russia's Holy Warriors"; Tom Carson, "The Murdoch Touch"; fiction by Anna North; and much more.
Features
Success Without Victory
A "containment" strategy for the age of terror
Letter From Baghdad
Life in the wilds of a city without trust
What Amy Would Do
Meet Amy Dickinson, agony aunt for the twenty-first century
Lost in the Meritocracy
How I traded an education for a ticket to the ruling class
Bipolar Disorder
A funny thing happened to many of the scholars who went out into the country to investigate the red-blue divide. They couldn't find it
Shaken and Stirred
The United States is about to experience economic upheaval on a scale unseen for generations. Will social harmony be a casualty?
Beyond Belief
The real religious divide in the United States isn't between the churched and the unchurched. It's between different kinds of believers
The Massless Media
With the mass media losing their audience to smaller, more targeted outlets, we may be headed for an era of noisy, contentious press reminiscent of the 1800s
Continental Divides
The Crescent of Crime, the Spousal Spine, the Divorce Coasts, the Righteous Region, and other sources of national greatness
Field Guide
A poetry anthology
A Record Book for Small Farmers
Had her father been a coward all these years, his reticence a cover for things he was afraid to say?
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William Philpott / Reuters Clintonism, R.I.P.
How triangulation became strangulation
The Widening Atlantic
Our growing transatlantic estrangement has less to do with George W. Bush's foreign policy than with deep social changes in Europe
Redheaded Eskimo
The corporate tax bill—an explanation
Dana Verkouteren / AP Letting Go of Roe
Roe v. Wade has been deeply unhealthy for abortion rights—and for democracy
Primary Sources
How car insurance causes death; the Brits and foreplay; how long could you survive without the Internet?
A Muslim Europe?
[This article is unavailable online.]
Books
An Exquisite Slogger
V. S. Pritchett, by Jeremy Treglown; Born Losers, by Scott A. Sandage; War in the Wild East, by Ben Shepherd
The Murdoch Touch
If Rupert's so bad, why is Fox so good?
Darling Me
Christopher Isherwood followed Oscar Wilde's prescription for lifelong romance by falling in love with himself—over and over again
A Nice Bloody Fool
Beneath the surface the vaguely preposterous Stephen Spender had a pith of seriousness and principle
Easier Said Than Done
Five novels by critics who learned their lesson
Chameleon With a Toupee
Bobby Darin was so determined to be somebody that he tried to be everybody
Villages, by John Updike
Appraising the substance of style
Pursuits
People to People
Some say that liberals and conservatives need to build bridges of understanding. Drawbridges might be better
45 Years Ago in The Atlantic
"The Job of the Washington Correspondent"
X Jazz
The pianist Matthew Shipp is the star of the latter-day free-jazz scene—the only scene in jazz right now with younger faces in the audience
Russia's Holy Warriors
Fervently Orthodox, anti-Islamic, and proudly militaristic, the Cossacks are on the rise in Vladimir Putin's new Russia
Broadway's Last Good Time
Cy Coleman (1929-2004)
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
Also in this issue
Calendar
What to watch for in January and February
Other articles in this issue
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: Part IV
Violence was indeed all I knew of the Balkans,' writes Rebecca West, 'all I knew of the South Slavs. And since there proceeds steadily from the southeastern corner of Europe a stream of events which are a danger to me, which indeed for years threatened my safety and deprived me forever of many benefits, that is to say I know nothing of my own destiny. The Balkan Peninsula was only two or three days distant, yet I had never troubled to go that short journey, which might explain to me how I shall die, and why.' So it was that in 1937 Rebecca West, with her husband, set out to explore the Balkans, and particularly Yugoslavia, to see for herself why the fate of the Continent and of England has so often been threatened by the Powderkeg of Europe. The story she brought back with her annihilates distance, and touches every thoughtful reader.
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: Part V
Violence was indeed all I knew of the Balkans,' writes Rebecca West, 'all I knew of the South Slavs. And since there proceeds steadily from the southeastern corner of Europe a stream of events which are a danger to me, which indeed for years threatened my safety and deprived me forever of many benefits, that is to say I know nothing of my own destiny. The Balkan Peninsula was only two or three days distant, yet I had never troubled to go that short journey, which might explain to me how I shall die, and why.' So it was that in 1937 Rebecca West, with her husband, set out to explore the Balkans, and particularly Yugoslavia, to see for herself why the fate of the Continent and of England has so often been threatened by the Powderkeg of Europe. The story she brought back with her annihilates distance, and touches every thoughtful reader.
Poetry
A Place for the Bees
(from Virgil's Georgics) [with audio]
Retrospective
[with audio]
