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.

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.

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.

Robots at War: The New Battlefield by P. W. Singer
A new way of war is on the horizon. Already, robots and drones are replacing human pilots and foot soldiers in some roles, and in the future they will take over many more. The benefits of removing human soldiers from harm’s way are obvious. But there’s a price to pay when a society can wage war by remote control.

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 Dollar's Day of Reckoning by Robert Z. Aliber
America’s financial crisis is the inevitable product of dysfunctional international financial arrangements.

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 Day the TV Died by Stephen Bates
In February 2009, American television will go digital, and millions of sets will fade to fuzz. It’s but the latest episode in TV’s colorful history, as the living-room set has evolved from a clunky box to a sleek rectangle on the wall.

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.

Why Can't We Build an Affordable House? by Witold Rybczynski
One explanation of America’s housing market collapse is that too many people bought too much house. The solution: build more affordable houses. Here’s what stands in the way.

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.

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

The Winning Forrmula
Thomas Rid on counterinsurgencies.

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

Ghosts of the Heartland
Sarah L. Courteau on the emptying heartland.

Stalking the Umwelt
Rob Dunn on taxonomy.

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

Remember the Titan
Benjamin Wittes on Louis D. Brandeis.

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

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

A God of the Times
Jeffrey Burton Russell on human perceptions of the divine.

A Modern Problem
Martin Walker on Islam and the modern world.

Changing Tunes
Grant Alden on the commercial revolution in American music.

Frustrated Spy Catchers
John Prados on the KGB in America.

Rubber Baron
Paul Maliszewski on Henry Ford's lost city.

The Camera Speaks
Andrew Starner on photography and literature.

What's It All About?
Edward Tenner on the good life.

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

The Higher-Ed Bubble
Is the cost of higher education nearing a tipping point?

No Double Beds for Boris
The Soviets mandated health spa retreats for their workers, but never quite understood that sometimes people just want to enjoy a little quality time with their spouse and family.

The First Rule of Holes
There are some lessons that never seem to get learned: When you realize you're fighting a lost cause, it's time to quit.

Broadband Hype?
Bringing high-speed Internet access to the hinterlands has not—so far—paid off huge dividends.

Africa's Orphans
Clamping down on foreign adoptions seems to many African leaders like a relatively cost-free way to stand up to Uncle Sam.

The Grammarians Have No Clothes
Strunk and White may have been influential, but one scholar thinks they based their grammar rules on "intuition and prejudice."

Winging It
General David Petraeus's views on the importance of higher education don't seem to have penetrated the leadership of the Air Force.

Cashiering the Critics
The newspaper film critic may be well along the path of the ichthyosaurs, soon to be extinct.

$43 Million for What?
The average Superfund site costs $43 million to clean up, but the overall economic benefits remain elusive.

Corruption's Hidden Benefit
A high level of corruption in an oil-producing economy, oddly, can actually lessen the chances of armed conflict.

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

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.

Is Sociology Dead?
With so much of human behavior being linked to human DNA, what's a sociologist to do if everything is inherited?

Medicine Meets the Computer
In the effort to modernize the medical establishment, there are monumental challenges in installing adaptable systems that will truly improve patient care and cut costs.

Money for Metros
A study suggests that all that stimulus money would be better spent on metropolitan areas than given to states.

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

Repeating History in Juárez
Ciudad Juárez has a long history of violence between competing drug kingpins.

Saint Chávez
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has attached himself like glue to the nation's secular saint, Simón Bolívar.

Speedy Spillovers
Placing even a single superworker among slower ones will boost the speed of the entire group.

Terror Intelligence
The attacks of 9/11 seem like fanatical acts, but they were meticulously planned for more than five years, with the terrorists training on U.S. soil.

The Eight-Year Itch
Term limits in Florida and other states were supposed to boost competition, remove the incumbency advantage, and speed up turnover. So far, none of that has come to pass.

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.

Who Voted for Hitler?
The Nazi rise to power in Germany was largely due to voters opting for what they perceived as their economic self-interest.

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.

Saving Africa
Development ideas cycle through Africa like the tides, but half of all Africans subsist on $1.25 a day or less.