january/february 2005

"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

• Richard A. Clarke

• Interviews: Richard Clarke talks about his frightening scenario of an America hobbled by terrorism—and what we can do to avoid it

A "containment" strategy for the age of terror

• James Fallows

Life in the wilds of a city without trust

• William Langewiesche

Meet Amy Dickinson, agony aunt for the twenty-first century

• Sridhar Pappu

How I traded an education for a ticket to the ruling class

• Walter Kirn

• The Editors

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

• Jonathan Rauch

The United States is about to experience economic upheaval on a scale unseen for generations. Will social harmony be a casualty?

• Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong

The real religious divide in the United States isn't between the churched and the unchurched. It's between different kinds of believers

• Hanna Rosin

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

• William Powers

The Crescent of Crime, the Spousal Spine, the Divorce Coasts, the Righteous Region, and other sources of national greatness

• P. J. O'Rourke

A poetry anthology

• Poetry: [with audio]
• Poetry: [with audio]
• Poetry: [with audio]

• Bruce McCall

Had her father been a coward all these years, his reticence a cover for things he was afraid to say?

• Anna North

Our growing transatlantic estrangement has less to do with George W. Bush's foreign policy than with deep social changes in Europe

• Niall Ferguson

• Ben Healy and Nathan Littlefield

The corporate tax bill—an explanation

• P. J. O'Rourke

• Michael Slenske

• John Sellers

How car insurance causes death; the Brits and foreplay; how long could you survive without the Internet?

[This article is unavailable online.]

• Ross Douthat

V. S. Pritchett, by Jeremy Treglown; Born Losers, by Scott A. Sandage; War in the Wild East, by Ben Shepherd

• Benjamin Schwarz

If Rupert's so bad, why is Fox so good?

• Tom Carson

Christopher Isherwood followed Oscar Wilde's prescription for lifelong romance by falling in love with himself—over and over again

• Thomas Mallon

Beneath the surface the vaguely preposterous Stephen Spender had a pith of seriousness and principle

• Christopher Hitchens

Five novels by critics who learned their lesson

• David Kipen

Bobby Darin was so determined to be somebody that he tried to be everybody

• David Hajdu

Appraising the substance of style

• Christina Schwarz

Some say that liberals and conservatives need to build bridges of understanding. Drawbridges might be better

• Cullen Murphy

"The Job of the Washington Correspondent"

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

• Francis Davis

Fervently Orthodox, anti-Islamic, and proudly militaristic, the Cossacks are on the rise in Vladimir Putin's new Russia

• Jeffrey Tayler

• Barbara Wallraff

Cy Coleman (1929-2004)

• Mark Steyn

A selective index to this month's issue

• Ben Healy

What to watch for in January and February

• Matthew Quirk

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.

• Rebecca West

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.

• Rebecca West

(from Virgil's Georgics) [with audio]

• David Ferry

[with audio]

• Geri Doran