
Cover Story
The China Model
Its economic success and rejection of democratic values have engaged leaders across the globe
by Shakhar Rahav
Cover Story
Putin’s Potemkin Paradise
The troubling appeal of Russia’s blend of political repression and bourgeois comfort
by Graeme Wood
Articles
Jacques Barzun and Friend
What did a distinguished historian, and possibly a great man, see in an unkempt young would-be writer?
by Arthur Krystal
Natural Magic
Modern medicine's roots in alchemy, astronomy, and the apothecary shop
by Ellen Wayland-Smith
Unsentimental Education
Mary Ware Dennett’s quest to make contraception—and knowledge about sex—available to all
by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
Departments
Editor's Note
Letter From …
Tuning Up
Book Reviews

Swimming the River of Song
How a young scholar demystified the ancient oral tradition