The Year of Two Popes
How Joseph Ratzinger stepped into the shoes of John Paul II—and what it means for the Catholic Church
January/February 2006
In This Issue
Paul Elie, "The Year of Two Popes"; William Langewiesche, "The Point of No Return"; Garrison Keillor, "Anthem"; Caitlin Flanagan on nice girls and oral sex; Clive Crook on greedy CEOs; P. J. O'Rouke on polling teens; and much more.
Features
The Point of No Return
First Pakistan's A.Q. Khan showed that any country could have made a nuclear bomb. Then he showed—not once but three times—why the nuclear trade will never be shut down
The George W. Bush Presidential Library
An unauthorized preview, with never-before -seen drawings of the interior
Politics & Presidents
The first in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th anniversary.
Farewell
A drawing
The Values Racket
by the Editors
Why the Culture War Is the Wrong War
It's time to challenge the metaphor—and the easy caricatures of left and right that sustain it
Tribal Relations
How Americans really sort out on cultural and religious issues—and what it means for our politics
Misfit America
Is our evolving national character a liability in our foreign relations?
Executive Privilege
The CEOs of too many public companies enjoy the power and rewards of ownership without the risks.
Two Cheers for Hypocrisy
As the Gallup Organization has discovered, the young are another country—and one day it's going to be ours
Get the digital edition of this issue.
Subscribers can access PDF versions of every issue in The Atlantic archive. When you subscribe, you’ll not only enjoy all of The Atlantic’s writing, past and present; you’ll also be supporting a bright future for our journalism.Agenda
The Perils of Primacy
When too much power means not enough security
Company, Left
There's something different about the latest crop of military veterans running for Congress
Man Versus Mine
Iraqi insurgents have perfected the use of lethal explosives, with profound implications for our military operations in Iraq
Whose Court Is It Really?
John Roberts is the new chief justice, but the Supreme Court isn't his to lead just yet
Primary Sources
The religion effect; a less violent world; one (very good) reason to resist early retirement
Books
The Not-So-Second City
Chicago Architecture and Design, by Jay Pridmore and George A. Larson; Chicago Architecture: Histories, Revisions, Alternatives, edited by Charles Waldheim and Katerina Rüedi Ray; Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
Are You There God? It's Me, Monica
How nice girls got so casual about oral sex
Mommies Dearest
Top literary reasons why it sucks to have chic parents
New fiction
The Accidental by Ali Smith
New Fiction
Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes
Downhill All the Way
An adroit new history of the British Empire in the post-Victorian era
A Close Read
Leaving Home, by Anita Brookner
Pursuits
Nova Scotia, Mon Amour
The province's quirks and inaccessibility are its very charms
The Singing Epidemic
All of a sudden everybody wants to be a jazz singer—and a few are actually good at it
Domestic Reserves
Americans no longer need to look abroad to satisfy their need for oil—Tuscan-style olive oil, that is
Moustapha, Messenger of Hollywood
Moustapha Akkad (1935-2005)
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
Also in this issue
Calendar
What to watch for in the weeks ahead
Other articles in this issue
Lincoln for President
October 1860 How Books Become Immortal
September 1891 What College Graduates Owe America
August 1894 The Purpose of Poetry
February 1964 Mapping America's Values
How our cultural attitudes stack up against ?those of other countries?
Poetry
The Anthem
If famous poets had written "The Star-Spangled Banner"
North and South
Selections from the notebooks of Elizabeth Bishop
