Mark Bowden, "The Desert One Debacle"; Jason Fagone, "Horsemen of the Esophagus"; Franklin Foer, "The Talented Mr. Chavez"; James Fallows, "Tinfoil Underwear"; Allen Barra on NFL scouting; Corby Kummer on Spanish food; Sandra Tsing Loh blasts the Mommy Wars; and much more.
In April 1980, President Jimmy Carter sent the Army’s Delta Force to bring back fifty-three American citizens held hostage in Iran. Everything went wrong. The fireball in the Iranian desert took the Carter presidency with it. [Enhanced for online viewing, with audio, video, photos, maps, and more.]
In the mountains of strife-torn Nepal, some lessons about modern warfare from a British throwback
Among the super-gluttons, on the front lines of competitive eating
A Castro-loving, Bolivar-worshipping, onetime baseball-player wannabe, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is perhaps the world’s most openly anti-American head of state. With Latin America in the midst of a leftward swing, how dangerous is he?
This is the fourth in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th anniversary. This installment is introduced by Bill McKibben, the author of The End of Nature, Wandering Home and the forthcoming Deep Economy.
Humor by Bruce McCall
Now that Iran unquestionably intends to build a nuclear bomb, the international community has few options to stop it—and the worst option would be a military strike
In Washington, measuring the changing size of the Iraqi insurgency has become the battle to watch
The Atlantic recently asked members of Congress about their perceptions of influence in the White House
Why America's immigration outlook—current grumblings notwithstanding—remains so much healthier than Europe's
Before Mark Warner was a politician, he was a wildly successful entrepreneur—and his success as a huckster shows why he may be a formidable challenger for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination
The national divide over gay marriage is a recipe for legal confusion—but we should learn to live with it
Internet censorship is prevalent throughout the world. Can the Web be tamed?
Diagnosis at a distance; why private school might not be worth it; Pretty Boy Floyd as statistical outlier; the upside of global warming
Glenn Murcutt: buildings + projects 1962-2003, by Francoise Fromonot; Hariri & Hariri Houses, by Gisui Hariri and Mojgan Hariri; The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy Hempel; Fundamentalism and American Culture, by George M. Marsden
One woman’s conscientious objection to the “mommy wars”
Everyman, by Philip Roth
The ominous push and pull of the U.S.–Mexico border
The Whole World Over, by Julia Glass
Luck, by Joan Barfoot
A new manifesto finds a model in the Truman era for returning liberals to political centrality in America. But the comparison is hopelessly inexact
A guide to additional releases
Visitors to Barbados can see where George Washington slept—really
The pleasures and perils of the Spanish gastronomic avant-garde
Tools to protect your privacy on the Internet go just so far, and the businesses that dominate it have no incentive to let them go any farther
Scouting is state-of-the-art, yet judging which NFL players will pan out remains a gamble. Maybe they’re not the ones who should be studied
Romano Mussolini (1927–2006)
A selective index to this month’s issue
What to watch for in May
U.S. restaurants at the crest of the Spanish new wave
An old Spanish wine takes on new life
The national divide over gay marriage is a recipe for legal confusion—but we should learn to live with it
[with audio]
