Selected Essays

Additional online essays are available only to subscribers. See instructions below.

E Pluribus Hispanic? by Peter Skerry
Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and others now comprise eight percent of the U.S. population, yet have no clear collective Hispanic identity. Will they become a racial minority, an ethnic group, or some combination of the two?

Goodwill Hunting by Martha Bayles
The United States government once employed a great deal of time, effort, and money to promote its image abroad. That—and more—may be necessary in the world of today.

Are Video Games Evil? by Chris Suellentrop
Violent video games teach our kids to point and shoot, say their critics. The truth may be every bit as frightening to members of a generation raised to believe they’re thinking outside the box.

Lines in the Sand by F. S. Naiden
Growing violence in Baghdad prompts many to question whether Iraq can survive or should be divided among its Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The first questions to ask ought to be historical: Is modern Iraq built on a solid foundation or is it largely a patchwork cobbled together by European grandees nearly a century ago? What precedents exist for a divided Iraq?

Other People's Maps by Reidar Visser
An American-inspired redrawing of the Iraqi map along sectarian lines would do violence to the facts of Iraqi history.

Lux Populi by James B. Twitchell
If rich old King Croesus were living in America today, he’d be hard-pressed to keep up with the Joneses.

The Revenge of the Shia by Martin Walker
Every increase in the violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq raises the threat of a wider sectarian upheaval that could vault Iran to dominance in the Middle East.

Hindsight into the Future by Anders Henriksson
The millennium has spawned many reappraisals of human history but none quite like the narrative that Professor Anders Henriksson has assembled from choice insights found in student papers over the years. In the hands of these young scholars, the past truly does become a foreign country.

Soldiering Ahead by Holly Yeager
Since women began advancing into its upper ranks, the U.S. military has become both a more humane workplace and a more lethal fighting force. What role has female leadership played?

Africa's Village of Dreams by Sam Rich
A small Kenyan village is the laboratory for celebrity economist Jeffrey Sachs’s ambitious scheme to lift Africa out of poverty. Can big money buy the continent’s poorest people a better future?

The New Invisible Competitors by Tyler Cowen
In our globalized economy, competitors can suddenly appear out of nowhere—if we can see them at all. The new environment spells trouble for some people, opportunity for others.

Strive We Must by Daniel Akst
Competition seems to be hard-wired into humans, but is that such a bad thing? A look at where competing has gotten us.

Globalization 3.0 by Martin Walker
A new era of globlization dawned in December 2001, with the West passing the torch to China and India.

In Praise of the Values Voter by Jon A. Shields
Political scientists and liberal reformers want to remove highly charged moral issues to the sidelines, but what is the purpose of politics if not to address fundamental moral questions?

The New Kindergarten by Douglas J. Besharov and Douglas M. Call
The case for universal pre-kindergarten isn’t as strong as it seems.

The Coming Revolution in Africa by G. Pascal Zachary
A rising generation of small farmers promises not only to put food on the African table but to fundamentally change the continent’s economic and political life.

Pakistan Picaresque by Samia Altaf
A surreal encounter in an Islamabad office reveals in an instant why billions of dollars spent on aid to Pakistan have made so little difference in the lives of the country’s poor.

The Brain: A Mindless Obsession? by Charles Barber
Despite stunning advances in neuroscience and bold claims of revelations from new brain-scan technologies, our knowledge about the brain’s role in human behavior is still primitive.

The Micromagic of Microcredit by Karol Boudreaux and Tyler Cowen
It’s wishful thinking to believe that tiny loans to people in developing countries can end poverty, but microcredit does improve the lives of millions in small but meaningful ways.

Teaching a Hippo to Dance by Amy Wilkinson
The most brilliant policies will fail if government does not attract talented people and free them to do their best work.

The Climate Engineers by James R. Fleming
The next big debate in the global warming arena is going to be about climate engineering. But efforts to manipulate the climate and weather have a long history of exaggerated claims and beliefs, and a dangerous tendency to become militarized. Even if they succeed, who will control the global thermostat?

Last Man Standing by Tyler Cowen
It’s no cause for celebration, but the global financial crisis shows why the United States remains the indispensable nation.

A Fighting Chance by Alfredo Corchado
As Mexico steps up its war against the brutal cartels that supply the United States’ drug habit, leaders on both sides of the border face tough questions about how to combat a problem that threatens the very fabric of Mexico’s democracy.

Citizen Canine by Edward Tenner
It is often said that people come to resemble their dogs, and dogs their masters. But we humans do not stop at searching for reflections of our individual qualities in our canine companions. We are also eager to find the representative virtues of entire nations and ethnic groups.

The Technological Imperative by Edward Tenner
Technology and sports have become inseparable, but will professional advances ruin the games?

How the Chair Conquered the World by Edward Tenner
It was not inevitable that the chair would become the world's most widely used tool for sitting.

The Environmental Factor by Geoffrey D. Dabelko
Should American foreign policy address deforestation in Haiti and population growth in Africa?

The Future Is a Foreign Country by Edward Tenner
How we choose to think about what lies ahead may be more important in creating a future we can comfortably inhabit than all the technological change tomorrow will bring.

Before the Fall by Andrew Curry
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a dramatic moment in time. In the minds of many East Germans, it was years in the making.

Three Tweets for the Web by Tyler Cowen
Welcome the new world with open arms—and browsers.

WQ Archive

For information about how to access the archives, click here.