Summer 2016

Cover Story

The Taming of the Wild

As we celebrate the centenary of the National Park Service, a meditation on “the best idea that America ever had”

by David Gessner

Articles

The FBI, My Husband, and Me

What I know now about Ted, whose photographs documented the 1960s, and about J. Edgar Hoover’s attempts to label him a Soviet spy

by Shirley Streshinsky

The Truth About Dallas

Looking back at the investigation of the Kennedy assassination and the controversies that dogged it from the start

by Howard P. Willens and Richard M. Mosk

The Other Woman

A mother’s devastating secret, and its many reverberations, present and past

by Sheila Kohler

Flight Behavior

A restless traveler finds solace in the quiet beauty of the annual sandhill crane migration

by Amy Butcher

Waiting for Fire

As smoke thickens and ash falls, an esteemed Napa vintner prepares to save his home and livelihood

by James Conaway

Departments

Book Essay

Living With Dante

Living With Dante

A writer reflects on how the poet’s vision served as a vade mecum amid the horrors of the Holocaust

Louis Begley

Book Reviews

Manifest Poverty

Manifest Poverty

Poor southern whites have long been a people without a country

Dennis Covington
Courting All Voters

Courting All Voters

The judicial effects of American civic engagement

Lincoln Caplan
With Noses Held High

With Noses Held High

Personal aspiration need not always lead to snobbery

Becca Rothfeld
Annals of Human Oddity

Annals of Human Oddity

Casting an eye on “freaks” with sensitivity and compassion

Andy Grundberg
The Great Summing Up

The Great Summing Up

The volumes that compiled the knowledge and spirit of an age

James Gibney
The Lives Aquatic

The Lives Aquatic

There is much more to gilled creatures than meets the eye

Eugene Linden
Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody

The troubled homeless historian who beguiled and bedeviled

Sridhar Pappu