The Minister of Chaos
Boris Johnson knows exactly what he’s doing.
July/August 2021
In This Issue
Boris Johnson, the world Kodak made, six months in a meatpacking plant, and George Packer on the four Americas. Plus drinking alone, police unions, Top Gun, the war on Bollywood, an ode to procrastination, and more.
Cover Story
Get the digital edition of this issue.
Subscribers can access PDF versions of every issue in The Atlantic archive. When you subscribe, you’ll not only enjoy all of The Atlantic’s writing, past and present; you’ll also be supporting a bright future for our journalism.Features
The Rise and Fall of an American Tech Giant
Kodak changed the way Americans saw themselves and their country. But it struggled to reinvent itself for the digital age.
6 Months Inside One of America’s Most Dangerous Industries
What I learned on the line at a Dodge City slaughterhouse.
How America Fractured Into Four Parts
People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?
America Has a Drinking Problem
A little alcohol can boost creativity and strengthen social ties. But there’s nothing moderate, or convivial, about the way many Americans drink today.
Dispatches
Illustration by Danielle Del Plato The Authoritarian Instincts of Police Unions
They condition their members to see themselves as soldiers at war with the public they are meant to serve, and above the laws they are meant to enforce.
Tomi Um The Psychological Benefits of Commuting to Work
Many people who have been working from home are experiencing a void they can’t quite name.
Illustration by Geoff Kim; images by Raveendran / AFP; Visual China Group / Getty; Chirag Wakaskar / Getty; Manoj Verma / 'Hindustan Times' / Getty The War on Bollywood
Its films have always celebrated a pluralistic India, making the industry—and its Muslim elite—a prime target for Narendra Modi.
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Paul Spella; images by Mary Evans / Ronald Grant / Everett Collection Top Gun Is an Infomercial for America
Reconsidering the meaning of Maverick
Illustration by Kensuke Koike; Bettmann / Getty Edgar Allan Poe’s Other Obsession
Known as a master of horror, he also understood the power—and the limits—of science.
A Better Way to Look at Trees
What pioneering new research has revealed about the forest
Illustration by Oliver Munday; images from François Duhamel / Lucasfilm Ltd.; FilmPublicityArchive / United Archives / Getty How Disney Mismanaged the Star Wars Universe
And how The Mandalorian can restore the true power of George Lucas’s galaxy
Departments
Katie Martin The Commons: The Unintended Consequences of Returning the National Parks to the Tribes
Readers respond to David Treuer’s May 2021 cover story.
Tim Lahan An Ode to Procrastination
The existential exhilaration of playing chicken with Time
Poetry
Paul Spella / The Atlantic
