Jefferson’s Patsy? Jefferson’s Patsy?
No one has contributed more to the United States than James Madison. He was the principal architect of the Constitution, the brilliant theorist who, more than any other single ind...
Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Carl T. Bogus
Too Much Monkey Business Too Much Monkey Business
I received the news of paleontologist and popular science writer Stephen Jay Gould's death, at age 60, in the week I was reading Jonathan Marks's new book on genetics, human evolu...
Jun 20, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Micaela di Leonardo
Backbeat in China Backbeat in China
A hundred days ago Wu'er Kaixi was a fugitive.... Yesterday, before an audience of 800 Americans and Chinese at Brandeis University, he showed what brought a 21-year-old Beijing N...
Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Jeffrey Wasserstrom
A Whole Earth Catalogue A Whole Earth Catalogue
In the United States a deeply rooted bias toward the practical renders all knowledge, even the most sublime forms of wisdom, merely an instrumental good. This pragmatic streak ten...
Jun 13, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Eric Zencey
Testing Times in Higher Ed Testing Times in Higher Ed
The SAT has been on the ropes lately. The University of California system has threatened to quit using the test for its freshman admissions, arguing that the exam has done more ha...
Jun 6, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Peter Sacks
The Browning of America The Browning of America
In the past two decades, Richard Rodriguez has offered us a gamut of anecdotes, mostly about himself in action in an environment that is not always attuned to his own inner life. ...
May 30, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
The Evolution of Darwinism The Evolution of Darwinism
Popular perception notwithstanding, the theory of natural selection was accepted by every serious evolutionist long before Darwin. Earlier scientists interpreted it as the cleares...
May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / David Hawkes
Grabitization (Don’t Look) Grabitization (Don’t Look)
Almost everything that is wrong with Washington Post foreign editor David Hoffman's new book about Russia's transformation into a capitalist system, The Oligarchs, can be discerne...
May 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Matt Taibbi
Renewing Urban Renewal Renewing Urban Renewal
One of the things we do not do well in this country is learn from our mistakes. This is particularly true in the strengthening and rejuvenating of cities.
May 16, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Roberta Brandes Gratz
Only the Dead Know Brooklyn Only the Dead Know Brooklyn
For more than a century, a recognizable pattern existed among those migrating to New York City: They came first either through Ellis Island or up from the American South, and m...
May 16, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Theodore Hamm