160 Years of the American Idea
A collection of articles from every year of The Atlantic’s history traces the evolution of the magazine, and of America.
/media/img/specialreports/deluxe/2017/10/31/160_2/original.gif)
When Einstein Warned the World
Seventy years ago, Albert Einstein presaged atomic war.
America's Most Widely Misread Literary Work
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” originally published in The Atlantic in 1915, is animated in a new video.
The Double-Consciousness of a Dark Body
An animated excerpt of an article from W.E.B. Du Bois depicts the “double-consciousness of a dark body.”
This Is Helen Keller’s 1932 'Modern Woman'
In 1932, Hellen Keller offered some advice for the “perplexed businessman.”
On Turning 160
The Atlantic was first published in November of 1857. Its 160th anniversary calls for a celebration.
My President Was Black
A history of the first African American White House—and of what came next
The Obama Doctrine
The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world.
The Killing Machines
How to think about drones
Can the Middle Class Be Saved?
The Great Recession has accelerated the hollowing-out of the American middle class. And it has illuminated the widening divide between most of America and the super-rich. Both developments herald grave consequences. Here is how we can bridge the gap between us.
The End of White America?
The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided—or more so?
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
What the Internet is doing to our brains
The Rove Presidency
Karl Rove had the plan, the power, and the historic chance to remake American politics. What went wrong?
How Do I Love Thee?
A growing number of Internet dating sites are relying on academic researchers to develop a new science of attraction. A firsthand report from the front lines of an unprecedented social experiment
North Korea: The War Game
Dealing with North Korea could make Iraq look like child's play—and the longer we wait, the harder it will get. That's the message of a Pentagon-style war game involving some of this country's most prominent foreign-policy strategists
Welcome to the Green Zone
The American bubble in Baghdad
The Logic of Suicide Terrorism
First you feel nervous about riding the bus. Then you wonder about going to a mall. Then you think twice about sitting for long at your favorite café. Then nowhere seems safe. Terrorist groups have a strategy—to shrink to nothing the areas in which people move freely—and suicide bombers, inexpensive and reliably lethal, are their latest weapons. Israel has learned to recognize and disrupt the steps on the path to suicide attacks. We must learn too.
The Fifty-First State?
Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders—and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?
One Nation, Slightly Divisible
The electoral map of the 2000 presidential race became famous: big blocks of red (denoting states that went for Bush) stretched across the heartland, with brackets of blue (denoting states for Gore) along the coasts. Our Blue America correspondent has ventured repeatedly into Red territory. He asks the question—after September 11, a pressing one—Do our differences effectively split us into two nations, or are they just cracks in a still-united whole?
An Acquired Taste
Al Gore is the most lethal debater in politics, a ruthless combatant who will say whatever it takes to win, and who leaves opponents not just beaten but brutalized. But Gore is no natural-born killer. He studied hard to become the man he is today.
When They Get Out
How prisons, established to fight crime, produce crime.
Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?
The sensational revelations of recent years about the Central Intelligence Agency almost obscure a larger point: The Agency is just no good at what it's supposed to be doing. So writes the author, a former CIA officer, who describes a corrosive culture in which promotion-hungry operatives collect pointless intelligence from worthless foreign agents. Reform, the author warns, may be impossible.
Was Democracy Just a Moment?
The global triumph of democracy was to be the glorious climax of the American Century. But democracy may not be the system that will best serve the world—or even the one that will prevail in places that now consider themselves bastions of freedom.
Why Americans Hate the Media
Why has the media establishment become so unpopular? Perhaps the public has good reason to think that the media’s self-aggrandizement gets in the way of solving the country’s real problems.
In the Strawberry Fields
The management of California's strawberry industry offers a case study of both the dependence on an imported peasantry that characterizes much of American agriculture and the destructive consequences of a deliberate low-wage economy.
The Wild East
Organized crime has Russia even more firmly in its grip than has been reported. Lawlessness has made Americans in Moscow fear for their lives, thrown obstacles in the way of businesses both foreign and domestic—and eroded the government’s control over its nuclear weapons and materials.
The Story of a Gun
After 60,000 deaths from firearms use over the past two years, America is in a gun crisis. Yet gun laws remain weak, gunmakers continue to promote killing power, and gun dealers accept no responsibility for the criminal use of what they sell.
Crashing the Locker Room
Why are there so few women in Congress? Why is it especially difficult for women to make it to the Senate? With a record number of women running for the Senate this year, our reporter takes a careful look at the obstacles in the way of women candidates and at their emerging advantages.
Waiting for the Weekend
A whole two days off from work, in which we can do what we please, has only recently become a near-universal right. What we choose to do looks increasingly like work, and idleness has acquired a bad name. Herein, a history of leisure.
What Kind of Democracy?
At a time when citizens in Eastern Europe and elsewhere were demanding the right to self-determination and converting their governments to democracies, a social scientist considered the degree to which civil liberties within a democracy require protection.
Ethics and Animals
"Suppose, just suppose, that the Animal Welfare Act were replaced by an animal-rights act, which would prohibit the use by human beings of any animals to their detriment. What would be the effect on medical research, education, and product testing?"
Picasso: Creator and Destroyer
Picasso’s art enacted the violent passions and twisted energies of the twentieth century. So did his life.
Living With Fallout
An American abroad in Chernobyl’s aftermath confronts the half-life of truth
Thinking About Terrorism
Two stereotypes dominate discussions of terrorism. They cloud thought and inhibit effective action.
The Ordeal of Afghanistan
An overview of the history and geopolitical significance of the Soviet invasion and occupation
Coercion in the Classroom Won't Work
Learning by doing and sensitivity to feelings are the keys to academic progress
The Pardon
Nixon, Ford, Haig, and the transfer of power.
Broken Windows
The police and neighborhood safety
The Education of David Stockman
“None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers.”