The Atlantic | January/February 2004

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Letters to the Editor

A Two-Planet Species? The right way to think about our space program
by William Langewiesche

BRIEF LIVES: A Gambling Man Blair Hull thinks he has found the formula for how to buy a Senate seat
by Joshua Green

Young Fogeys The new Catholic clerical divide—youthful reactionaries versus aging liberals
by Andrew Greeley

Aftermath Cleaning up after suicide bombings
by Bruce Hoffman

THE LIST: No Hands Clapping
by Christopher Shea

POST MORTEM: Half Dragon Lady, Half Georgia Peach
Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1898-2003)
by Mark Steyn

Primary Sources North Korea's murderous prison camps; what is hell—and are you going?; why daughters cause divorce

THE NATION IN NUMBERS:

Packing, Cracking, and Kidnapping
The science of gerrymandering
by Don Peck and Caitlin Casey

Blind Into Baghdad
The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a debacle not because the government did no planning but because a vast amount of expert planning was willfully ignored by the people in charge. The inside story of a historic failure
by James Fallows

Spies, Lies, and Weapons: What Went Wrong
How could we have been so far off in our estimates of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs? A leading intelligence analyst gives a detailed account of how and why we erred
by Kenneth M. Pollack

Weapons of Misperception: An Interview With Kenneth M. Pollack
Kenneth M. Pollack, the author of "Spies, Lies, and Weapons: What Went Wrong," explains how the road to war with Iraq was paved with misleading and manipulated intelligence [Web only]

A Family Deposition
Should Egypt receive reparations for the Exodus?
by Ben Birnbaum

Speaking of the Candidates
Our correspondent looks much too closely at the current crop of stump speeches
by P. J. O'Rourke

In Search of the Elusive Swing Voter
The road map for the Democratic campaign runs straight through the handful of states with the largest numbers of independent voters. Any candidate needs to hunt them down
by Joshua Green

I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook
True tales from the Dear Leader's Japanese chef
by Kenji Fujimoto

Part I: The Economy
America's Fortunes by the Editors
Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? by Michael Lind
America's "Suez Moment" by Sherle R. Schwenninger

Part II: Society
The Angry American by Paul Starobin
The Other Gender Gap by Marshall Poe
The Tuition Crunch by Jennifer Washburn
Putting a Value on Health by Don Peck
Insurance Required by Laurie Rubiner
Information, Please by Shannon Brownlee

Part III: Governance
The $45 Trillion Problem by Nathan Littlefield
Radical Tax Reform by Maya MacGuineas
The Chieftains and the Church by Ted Halstead
Nation-Building 101 by Francis Fukuyama

State of the Union Address
James Fallows, an Atlantic national correspondent and a former presidential speech writer, annotates the President's address [Web only]

If Only A poem by John Balaban

E lucevan le stelle A poem by William Matthews

Close Call A drawing by Guy Billout

New & Noteworthy
Why we review the books we do; Rosamond Lehmann, by Selina Hastings; The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans
reviewed by Benjamin Schwarz

The Acutest Ear in Paris
To be so perceptive and yet so innocent—that, in a phrase, is the achievement of Proust
by Christopher Hitchens

Do As I Say
Dr. Laura Schlessinger's counsel is caustic and oftentimes hypocritical, but it is also compelling
by Caitlin Flanagan

High Plains Drifter
Don Quixote, a masterpiece of comic seriousness, gets a new and "virtually twee-free" translation
reviewed by Terry Castle

INNOCENT BYSTANDER: Looking for Trouble
Get a life—at your own risk
by Cullen Murphy

SPORT: A Beautiful Mind
As the Philadelphia Eagles' Hank Fraley demonstrates, the behemoth who snaps the ball must also be one of the most mentally nimble players on the field
by Mark Bowden

FICTION: An Incomplete Map of the Northern Polarity
by Nathan Roberts

The Puzzler by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Word Court by Barbara Wallraff