Inside The Atlantic's December Issue

The feature stories, dispatches, columns, essays, and original fiction in The Atlantic's December 2012 issue include: 

The Insourcing Boom
After years of offshore production, General Electric is moving much of its far-flung appliance-manufacturing operations back home. And the company is not alone. Charles Fishman explores the startling, sustainable, just-getting-started return of industry to the United States. As he reports, the offshoring rush of the past decade or more--one of the signature economic events of our times--may have been a mistake.
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Mr. China Comes to America
For decades, every trend in manufacturing favored the developing world and worked against the United States. Now labor developments in China and new technology in the U.S. are slowing--and may reverse--the decades-long relocation of American jobs to Asia. Visiting factories across the United States and China, including the infamous Foxconn facility, James Fallows examines the impacts on trade around the globe.
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Digital exclusive: Fallows discusses his recent travels in China and narrates a series of photos he took inside Foxconn's Shenzhen factory. 

The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control)
How do we reduce gun crime and mass shootings like the one in Aurora, Colorado, when Americans already own nearly 300 million guns? Maybe by allowing people to carry more guns. After talking to advocates on both sides of the issue, Jeffrey Goldberg makes that argument.
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The Bookstore Strikes Back
Two years ago, when Nashville lost its only in-town bookstores, the novelist Ann Patchett decided to step into the breach. Parnassus Books, which Patchett and two veteran booksellers envisioned, designed, financed, and manage, is now open for business and enjoying the ride. Here, Patchett's paean to bookstores, and to books.
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Digital exclusive: watch a video interview with Patchett and take a tour of Parnassus Books.

Dispatches

A Boat of Biblical Proportions
For a new theme park, creationists (with a little help from a geneticist, some Amish men, and generous tax breaks) are building a replica of Noah's ark--exactly as God instructed--40 miles outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. Amanda Petrusich checks in on the multimillion-dollar tourist attraction that's been years--some might say a few thousand years--in the making.
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Kisses and Hugs in the Office
XOXO, a sign-off once reserved for sweethearts and loved ones, is popping up more and more in professional correspondence. Jessica Bennett and Rachel Simmons examine how the once-intimate expression is feminizing the workplace, for better or worse.
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Perks and Recreation
In Silicon Valley, a new breed of tech company is trying to enforce fun--and recruit and retain talented employees in the process. From YouTube's indoor slide to Skype's pool-and-foosball room, Megan Garber explores these perks-with-a-purpose.
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Digital exclusive: view the wacky/fun/luxurious office spaces that tech start-ups are using to lure and keep workers.

The Data Vigilante
Students aren't the only ones cheating--some professors are, too. As Christopher Shea reports, a truth-seeking Wharton psychologist is out to bust academics employing loose methodology and, at times, flagrantly dishonest research practices.
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Columns

What Makes Her Click
In The Atlantic's technology column, Intel's Genevieve Bell talks with Alexis Madrigal about why we adopt some new devices and spurn others--and why tech companies underestimate female users.
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The Demonic Genius of Daniel Tosh
Is Tosh.0, Comedy Central's bawdy Web/stand-up/variety show, America's Funniest Home Videos for a new generation? For James Parker, the answer is yes. And Daniel Tosh, the show's host, is exploiting the oddities of the Internet in all their gory glory.
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Digital exclusive: watch scenes from Tosh.0 and America's Funniest Home Videos, with commentary by Parker.

Fiction

"Reply to a Dead Man," by Walter Mosley
Roger's heart started beating rapidly after the third time he read the letter. Six months after his brother had died of a heart attack, it was delivered from the grave. Never in a hundred years would Roger have guessed its contents, or a long-held family secret that would change his life.
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These articles and more are featured in the December issue of The Atlantic, available today, November 29, 2012, on TheAtlantic.com and newsstands.

About The Atlantic

Since its founding in 1857 as a magazine about "the American Idea" that would be of "no party or clique," The Atlantic has been at the forefront of brave thinking in journalism. One of the first magazines to launch on the web in the early 1990s, The Atlantic has continued to help shape the national debate across print, digital and event platforms. With the addition of its news- and opinion-tracking site, TheAtlanticWire.com, and TheAtlanticCities.com, The Atlantic is a multi-media forum on the most critical issues of our times, from politics, business, and the economy, to technology, arts, and culture. The Atlantic is the flagship property of Washington, D.C.-based publisher Atlantic Media Company.