The Arab Tomorrow by David B. Ottaway
The Arab world today is ruled by contradiction. Turmoil and stagnation prevail, as colossal wealth and hypermodern cities collide with mass illiteracy and rage-filled imams. In this new diversity may lie disaster, or the makings of a better Arab future.

Saint Cesar of Delano by Richard Rodriguez
As the leader of the farm workers’ movement, Cesar Chavez became an iconic figure of the 1960s. But his union was largely a failure. It was as a martyr who embodied the psychic contrast between Mexico and America that he commanded our attention.

Planet Pakistan by Robert M. Hathaway
In Pakistan, people see Al Qaeda as an imagined threat, and shadowy U.S. agents as the secret power behind major events. How can the United States forge a better partnership with this country that has become the epicenter of global terrorism?

Cracks in the Jihad by Thomas Rid
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are at odds, and even Internet jihadis are taking fewer cues from Osama bin Laden. Yet it is only growing more difficult to defeat the global jihad.

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.

Bullet Trains for America? by Mark Reutter
The Obama administration has revived the dream of building high-speed rail lines to rival those of Japan and Europe, but the tracks are littered with political and financial obstacles.

Rediscovering Central Asia by S. Frederick Starr
To imagine Central Asia’s future, we must journey into its remarkable past.

Saving Yourself by Daniel Akst
America’s enduring love affair with big spending is fetching up against some unromantic realities. But a lifelong saver assures us that there are worse fates than socking it away for a rainy day.

What Makes Mr. Zhang Save? by Michael Pettis
Why are the Chinese such legendary savers? The answers shed light on why that habit is about to change.

The World's New Numbers by Martin Walker
“Here lies Europe, overwhelmed by Muslim immigrants and emptied of native-born Europeans,” goes the standard pundit line, but neither the immigrants nor the Europeans are playing their assigned roles.

Can America Fail? by Kishore Mahbubani
A sympathetic critic issues a wake-up call for an America mired in groupthink and blind to its own shortcomings.

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.

McCulture by Aviya Kushner
Americans have developed an admirable fondness for books, food, and music that preprocess other cultures. But for all our enthusiasm, have we lost our taste for the truly foreign?

The Traffic Guru by Tom Vanderbilt
An unassuming Dutch traffic engineer showed that streets without signs can be safer than roads cluttered with arrows, painted lines, and lights. Are we ready to believe him?

The Right Bite by William A. Galston
There are five maxims the federal government can follow to regain the public confidence it has lost over the past four decades.

The Expeditionary Imperative by John A. Nagl
America’s national security structure is designed to confront the challenges of the last century rather than our own.

The Secret Is the System by Bruce Seely
The United States has settled for a patchwork approach to infrastructure. To stay ahead in the global economy, it needs to build adaptable networks like the 1956 Interstate Highway System.

Get Smart by Joel Garreau
Pouring more concrete will not by itself answer our infrastructure prayers. Look instead to the transformative power of information technology.

Built to Last by Alan Weisman
When our roads and bridges crumble and collapse, we have one kind of problem. When they don’t, we have another.

Call It Slavery by John R. Miller
The abolition of slavery was the great cause of 19th-century humanitarians. In the 21st century, argues a former U.S. ambassador at large on modern day slavery, it needs new champions.

A History of the Past:
'Life Reeked With Joy' by Anders Henriksson
Possibly as an act of vengeance, a history professor--compiling, verbatim, several decades' worth of freshman papers--offers some of his students’ more striking insights into European history from the Middle Ages to the present.

Current Books
Reviews of new and noteworthy nonfiction.

Card Studs
Aaron Mesh on poker.

Norway's Black Sheep
Michael McDonald on Norway's controversial writer, Knut Hamsun.

The Good and the Bad in the Ugly
Troy Jollimore on disasters' silver lining.

Three Weddings and a War
Martha Saxton on three Civil War wives.

Arts and Sciences
Britt Peterson on Romantic notions of beauty and science.

Girth of a Nation
Lynne Lamberg on the evolution of obesity.

Remember the Titan
Benjamin Wittes on Louis D. Brandeis.

How Sofas Changed the World
Winifred Gallagher on the age of comfort.

Ready for Her Close-Up
Nick Gillespie on Ayn Rand.

America's Namesake
Felipe Fernández-Armesto on the map that named America.

The City's Limits
Catherine Tumber on green cities.

Living on the Edge
Tom Vanderbilt on America's changing demographics.

Quiet Desperation
Andrei Lankov on life in North Korea.

A Revolutionary Woman
Frank Shuffelton on Abigail Adams.

Monochrome Life
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington on white America.

Know Thy Neighbor
Peter Skerry on Muslims in America.

Personal Compositions
Louis Bayard on letters.

Jews in America
Amy E. Schwartz on American Judaism.

Song of Myself, Sung Again and Again
Eric Liebetrau on memoirs.

Tame Rebellion
Michael Anderson on the 1950s.

In Essence
Our review of notable articles in other magazines and journals.

Land of the Rising Fun
Japan now shows itself to the world as a country of "pink-clad girls, animated fantasies, and winking Kitty logos," writes University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine R. Yano.

Lincoln's Rabble-Rousers
The Wide Awakes, the political group that helped elect Abraham Lincoln, had a larger role in bringing about the Civil War than historians give them credit for.

O Nunavut!
Nunavut has been Canada's northernmost territory for 10 years, but is struggling to bring down sky-high levels of suicide, poverty, and illiteracy.

The Wrong Fix for Foreclosures
A new study shows that rewriting the terms of mortgages nearing foreclosure would be bad business for banks.

Can a Free Press Hurt?
One USC political scientist argues that in countries with autocratic regimes, a free press may actually incite an increase in human rights abuses.

The Politics of Complexity
Creating more diverse congressional districts doesn't lead to more competition in elections.

Writing on the Brain
The current obsession with neuroscience is now the stuff of fiction, but that's not necessarily great news for literature.

Transparency Traps
Without transparency in government, it's impossible to discern the corrupting effects of money on a legislator's decisions, but with transparency it's too easy to see impropriety everywhere.

No Method for Madness
The average clinical psychologist's practice today doesn't look much different than it did 60 years ago, but the patients keep coming.

Oil for Containment
A key component of the Marshall Plan shifted Europe from coal to oil, and made Europeans dependent on Middle East oil.

The Graduate Fixer
India has more university graduates than jobs to give them, and the problem is especially acute among the lower-middle-class farming caste.

Europe's Envelope Economy
As the EU welcomes more Eastern and Central European countries into the fold, they are dealing with a reality of the Soviet period, the pervasiveness of the underground economy.

Finding Happiness After Harvard
A long-time study of a group of Harvard men provides some clues to happiness.

War and Warming
Around the world, security experts are starting to cast worried eyes on climate change as a possible source of future conflict.

L. Paul Bremer, Scapegoat
The administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq made many mistakes, but he does not deserve all the condemnation he has received.

Damned Either Way
Elected officials cannot win when they have to choose between bad alternatives.

Immigrating to Obesity
Immigrants to America help the national obesity numbers, at least for awhile.

The Cult of Experts
Experts may have a vital role to play in a democratic society, but, Wilfred McClay writes, "we need to cultivate a judge's skill in evaluating them."

Three Flags
A retired air force colonel reflects on the true meaning of the American flag.

No One Died in Malerkotla
The Indian tomb of a 15th-century Sufi Muslim draws worshipers from three faiths.

Dissembling Defoe
Novelist Daniel Defoe was a legendary liar, but, Nicholson Baker says, he also "had an enormous appetite for truth and life and bloody specificity."

Stop Scribbling!
The academic world is awash in literary criticism, and one English professor thinks it's time to close the floodgates.

Cheek Swabs for Hamlet
A small but militant group of literary Darwinists insists that great literature is a product of evolution.

Blind-Sided
Why did so many economists fail to anticipate the economic crisis of 2008?

Clipping the President's Wings
Today, 80 percent of America's international commitments are made by the president acting alone, but Oona Hathaway believes it would be better if Congress was brought back into the process.

Good Vibrations
Is the Internet eroding the connections that keep society together? Not according to political scientist Diana C. Mutz.

Ditch the Dollar
An international economist believes that the dollar's role as the world's dominant currency is no longer in America's national interest.