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April 2009

Cover Story: Reading from Left to Right

Now that we’ve emerged from our national fantasy of bipartisanship—and what a splendid two weeks it was—a strong dose of reality seems in order. And where better to begin that reality check not with Washington, where we conveniently lay the blame for all our partisan woes, but somewhere closer to home—not with our neighbors, not even with ourselves. read more

Features

Iraq's Antiques Roadshow

The past under siege in Iraq and the United States

Lane Sell

"Of all the soul’s needs," Simone Weil wrote, "none is more vital than this one for the past." In Iraq, the past itself—its record and its physical traces—is under siege. Moreover, the souls of the Iraqi people have been starved by dictatorship, genocide, three Gulf wars, and now a foreign occupation.

Toward a Starchitecture

Foundations for an architecture built on dreams

Aaron Hsieh

During the moments when the 44th president of the United States promised a brighter, shinier American future, the China Central Television Company’s live newsfeed of Obama’s inauguration became the center of media attention in that country. But at 1:17AM Beijing time, CCTV cut from the simultaneous translation of Obama’s speech back to the hosting anchor.

It Is Written

Obama, the Oscars, and the new American dream

Daniel D’Addario

In his review of the Adam Sandler Mossad-hairdressing comedy You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, David Denby declared “mutual acceptance is now the hip mode of humor” and called the film, like the Harold and Kumar movies, “un texte obamiste”: an Obamaist text.

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