Ukrainians Are Defending the Values Americans Claim to Hold
“You cannot just remain silent, you cannot remain still. You have to do something.”
October 2022
In This Issue
Ukraine defiant: George Packer, Anne Applebaum, and Franklin Foer on democracy’s front lines. Plus the myopia generation, the Benin bronzes’ contested return, Ian McEwan’s anti-memoir, cursive’s demise, redshirting boys, John Roberts v. the Voting Rights Act, the GOP’s extremist history, and more.
Cover Stories
‘Lukashenko Is Easier to Unseat Than Putin’
A band of Belarusians is resisting the threat of a neo-Soviet empire by taking up arms in Ukraine.
The Man Who Chased History
The Ukrainian journalist Sergii Leshchenko has a nose for a story and a knack for being in the right place at the right time. I wanted to see the war through his eyes.
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
Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?
The repatriation of stolen objects has become a ritual of self-purification through purgation—but who it really serves is less clear than it might seem.
The Myopia Generation
Why do so many kids need glasses now?
Ian McEwan’s Anti-Memoir
The author reflects on a charmed life—and all that could have gone wrong.
Dispatches
Danielle Del Plato Redshirt the Boys
Why boys should start school a year later than girls
Photo-illustration by Mark Harris. Sources: Alabama Secretary of State’s Election Division; Photka / iStock. John Roberts’s Long Game
Is this the end of the Voting Rights Act?
Elena Subach The Angels of Lviv
Scenes from the effort to save Ukrainian art from destruction
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Katie Martin. Source: Library of Congress. Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive
How will they interpret the past?
Hoi Chan The Diagnosis Trap
Doctors have their stories to tell about mental illness. But what about the stories we tell ourselves?
Illustration by Paul Spella* The Long Unraveling of the Republican Party
Three books explore a history of fractious extremism that predates Donald Trump.
Departments
Katie Martin ‘I Have Spent Most of My Life Worrying About Nuclear War’
Readers respond to our July/August 2022 issue.
Tim Lahan An Ode to Being Read To
Bedtime stories aren’t just for children.
Poetry
Gabriela Pesqueira / The Atlantic; Getty
