Daniel Akst

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Competition seems to be hard-wired into humans, but is that such a bad thing? A look at where competing has gotten us. 

Strive We Must

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Daniel Akst looks at a paean to an underappreciated metal: corrugated iron. 

Peddling Metal

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America’s enduring love affair with big spending is fetching up against some unromantic realities. But a lifelong saver assures us that there are worse fates than socking it away for a rainy day.

Saving Yourself

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Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship.

America: Land of Loners?

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The Port Huron Statement launched America's New Left in 1962. Today it seems naive and in some ways misguided — yet it raised questions that still agitate Americans today.

The Port Huron Statement: a Manifesto at 50

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The automation crisis of the 1960s created a surge of alarm over technology’s job-killing effects. There is a lot we can learn from it.