Winter 2008

Articles

Who Cares About Executive Supremacy?

The scope of presidential power is the most urgent and the most ignored legal and political issue of our time

by Lincoln Caplan

Moral Principle vs. Military Necessity

The first code of conduct during warfare, created by a Civil War–era Prussian immigrant, reflected ambiguities we struggle with to this day

by David Bosco

Dreaming of a Democratic Russia

Memories of a year in Moscow promoting a post-Soviet political process, an undertaking that now seems futile

by Sarah E. Mendelson

The Daily Miracle

Life with the mavericks and oddballs at the Herald Tribune

by William Zinsser

Cuss Time

By limiting freedom of expression, we take away thoughts and ideas before they have the opportunity to hatch

by Jill McCorkle

Alone at the Movies

My days in the dark with Robert Altman and Woody Allen

by Mark Edmundson

Balanchine’s Cabinet

A young woman wins a drawing and learns to give and to receive

by Ann Hagman Cardinal

Confluences

As a beloved uncle makes his final journey in the wilderness, a new life begins

by Jennifer Sinor

Departments

Book Essay

Souls Hungering After Meaning

In Aegypt, John Crowley's just-completed four-book masterwork, ordinary people bear a faint symbolic glow through real and mythological realms

Michael Dirda

Book Reviews

The Work of Death

How the Civil War changed forever Americans’ relationship with mortality

Ernest B. Furgurson

Subjectivity Is All

Using a lifetime of colorful examples to define the undefinable

Robert Campbell

The Casserole Inquisition

Chronicles from America’s culinary transformation

Sandra M. Gilbert

Wry Eye on the Bard

Sorting through the little we know about the best we’ve got

John F. Andrews

Latin’s Eminent Career

Is the language of empire, the church, scholarship, and Europe nearing retirement?

A. E. Stallings

A Long Walk in the New World

Of 300 Spaniards sent to settle Florida, only four survived

Robert Wilson