Return the National Parks to the Tribes
The jewels of America’s landscape should belong to America’s original peoples.
May 2021
In This Issue
Return the national parks to the tribes, how we’ll remember the pandemic, a kidnapping gone wrong, and the women reinventing the Western. Plus American exclusion, Zoom justice, Andrew Yang, puberty TV, first ladies, giant closets, and more.
Cover Story
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A Kidnapping Gone Very Wrong
In 1974, John Patterson was abducted by the People’s Liberation Army of Mexico—a group no one had heard of before. The kidnappers wanted $500,000, and insisted that Patterson’s wife deliver the ransom.
You Won’t Remember the Pandemic the Way You Think You Will
The stories you hold on to will be colored by your own experience—but also by the experiences of those around you.
The Western Rides Again
A new cohort of directors, all women, is exploring the death wish that infuses the genre—and proposing visions of repair.
Dispatches
Lucas Dörre America Never Wanted the Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses
The U.S. is a diverse nation of immigrants—but it was not intended to be, and its historical biases continue to haunt the present.
Lauren Tamaki What If Andrew Yang Wins?
His proposals are radical. He’s obsessed with robots. He’s never even worked in government. And next year he might be running New York.
Somnath Bhatt Zoom Court Is Changing How Justice Is Served
For better, for worse, and possibly forever
Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin Americans Are Turning Spare Bedrooms Into Giant Closets
As stores disappear, shopping in your own wardrobe becomes the ultimate luxury.
Dawoud Bey ‘Very American Photographs’
Street photography as collaboration
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Oliver Munday; Christine Schneider / Brigitte Sporrer / Getty Hormone Monsters
Television turns to magical realism to explore the trials of early adolescence.
Frank Muto / LBJ Presidential Library Don’t Underrate the Political Spouse
How Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan advanced their husbands’ ambitions—and their own
Alec Soth / Magnum The True Costs and Benefits of Fracking
New York is getting more out of the domestic oil boom than North Dakota ever will.
Gérard DuBois The Awful Wisdom of the Hostage
What a new memoir reveals about endurance—and extreme remorse
Departments
Katie Martin The Commons: We Mourn for All We Do Not Know
Readers respond to our March 2021 issue.
Tim Lahan An Ode to the Left Hand
Get in touch with your nondominant side.
Poetry
Paul Spella / The Atlantic
