Making It in America
The story of Standard Motor Products, a family- run manufacturer in Queens, illuminates what it takes to survive in today’s economy—and why the jobs crisis will be so hard to solve.
January/February 2012
In This Issue
American manufacturing and the jobs crisis, Robert D. Kaplan on John J. Mearsheimer, James Parker on R.E.M., Caitlin Flanagan on Joan Didion, and more
Features
Torturer’s Apprentice
The sickening parallels between today’s interrogation tactics and those used by the Inquisition reveal the dangers of yoking moral certainty to the machinery of torture.
Campaign Inc.
How a presidential election boosts the economy
Why John J. Mearsheimer Is Right (About Some Things)
The political scientist’s star has fallen in recent years, as critics have branded him an anti-Semite. But his doctrine of “offensive realism” serves as an incisive theory for understanding how states behave in an anarchic world.
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Zohra Bensemra/Reuters Pictures Freed Press
Our correspondent teaches Libya’s budding reporters the ABC’s of ethics and objectivity—with mixed results.
Matthew Woodson Misfortune Teller
A statistics professor says he can predict crime before it occurs.
NASA/solar dynamics observatory/Getty Images What We Don't Know About the Sun
How the central figure of our solar system could kill us—or erase our iPods.
Sergey Maximishin/Panos Pictures The Haunted History of an Arctic Monastery
On a remote Russian archipelago, monks once served both God and Stalin.
Waiting for Mike Ditka
Thirty years after he saved Chicago, the fabled Bears coach is everywhere—and nowhere.
Graham Roumieu My Nutmeg Bender
The surprising intoxicant hidden in your spice rack
James Sturz 'Archery Is a Manly Game'
In Bhutan, carbon-fiber bows are becoming the weapon of choice for practitioners of the national pastime.
The Need for Speed
In the wake of a horrific crash, should air racing be allowed to continue?
Columns
Frank Whitney/Getty Images The Graduates
Attending a business-school reunion in the Occupy age
Richard E. Aaron/Getty Images America’s Rock Band
How R.E.M.’s almost-utterances allowed listeners to find their own meaning
Books
Everett Collection The Perfect Wife
The nicest star in Hollywood, plus the man who made what Americans looked at
Teresa Zabala / The New York Times / Redux The Autumn of Joan Didion
The writer’s work is a triumph—and a disaster.
Didion Zylberyng/Alamy Cover to Cover
How the West was photographed; willpower, explained; and more
Editor's Note
Dean Kaufman The Anxiety Economy
In an age of globalization, it's a wonder we make anything in the United States at all.
Letters
The Conversation
Responses and reverberations
Gallery
Poetry
Advice
Nishant Choksi
