Spring 2010

Articles

Solitude and Leadership

If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts

by William Deresiewicz

Reading in a Digital Age

Notes on why the novel and the Internet are opposites, and why the latter both undermines the former and makes it more necessary

by Sven Birkerts

Nabokov Lives On

Why his unfinished novel, Laura, deserved to be published; what’s left in the voluminous archive of his unpublished work

by Brian Boyd

They Get to Me

A young psycholinguist confesses her strong attraction to pronouns

by Jessica Love

When the Light Goes On

How a great teacher can bring a receptive mind to life

by Mike Rose

To Die of Having Lived

A neurological surgeon reflects on what patients and their families should and should not do when the end draws near

by Richard Rapport

Departments

Book Reviews

Truth and Consequences

In the Whitewater investigation, the biggest loser was the legal profession

Lincoln Caplan

The Imbalance of Power

How the Manhattan Project gave birth to the imperial presidency

Paul Boyer

The Lovable Leviathan

Whales hold a special place in our imagination, but their situation is dire

Sy Montgomery

A Long, Cold Road to Paris

The 2,000-mile, 40-day journey of future first lady Louisa Catherine Adams

Paul C. Nagel

The Debacle Before the Disaster

At Dien Bien Phu, the French got a lesson the U.S. would take two decades to learn

Charles Trueheart

In the Shadow of Genocide

Impressions of a Turkish town that was once in Armenia

Graeme Wood