America's Schools: 4 Big Questions

Who should rule American schools?

– Thomas Toch

The national drive for education reform has touched off many power struggles, but one has emerged as fundamental.

College for All?

– Kevin Carey

The college-educated share of America’s population has barely increased in years. The key to reviving mass higher education may be to rethink the divide between high school and college.

Is $600 Billion Enough to Fund American Schools?

– Peter W. Cookson Jr.

Today’s new austerity may have an upside if it prods schools to embrace new technologies that cut costs and improve learning.

The Paradox of PTSD

– Katherine N. Boone

Thousands of soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with deep psychological scars. PTSD is a common diagnosis, but is it the right one?

The World Trade Revolution

– Martin Walker

To see how the world will eventually right today’s massive trade imbalances, look to the Atlantic, not the Pacific.

In the Footsteps of Giants

– Michael McDonald

The acclaimed biographer Michael Scammell discusses the peculiar challenges and delights of his craft.

What 9/11 Did Not Change

– The Wilson Quarterly

Looking back, it’s easy to think of September 11 and its immediate aftermath as a time when U.S. officials made strategic choices that fundamentally changed the nation’s course.

Afghanistan's Fateful Border

– The Wilson Quarterly

The Pashtun ties of clan, tribe, and faith were far denser than the British understood.

Energy From Algae?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Lots of problems must be resolved before algae-based biofuels become more than a novelty.

Beethoven's Secret

– The Wilson Quarterly

Even when everything seems to have been said, Beethoven’s music will speak to a listener anew.

Against Biologism

– The Wilson Quarterly

Humans are not organisms simply acting out innate drives. Capabilities such as memory and intention make us an animal apart.

The Grim Dawn of the Republic

– The Wilson Quarterly

From 1774 to 1800, the U.S. experienced a decline almost as steep as the Great Depression.

The Budget's Next Battlefront

– The Wilson Quarterly

Unlike many fields, health care and education will enjoy solid demand and wage growth for the foreseeable future.

Study: Congresswomen are more effective than their male counterparts

– The Wilson Quarterly

It may be the result of the fact women have to work harder to get into Congress.

Getting a more accurate read of the male-female wage gap

– The Wilson Quarterly

It’s wrong simply to attribute this discrepancy to the straw man of gender discrimination, argues Kay S. Hymowitz.

The Demise of Don Juan

– The Wilson Quarterly

The early "Don Juan" offered commentators the opportunity to weigh in on society’s morals.

How did economists fail to predict the "Great Recession"?

– The Wilson Quarterly

While economists strove to perfect theoretical models of how markets function, they neglected the human, historical, and political forces that shape economies.

Calming the IED Storm

– The Wilson Quarterly

Having come to regard IEDs as a permanent threat in warfare, the Pentagon is no longer settling for stopgap measures.

Sex offender registries have virtually no effect on public safety

– The Wilson Quarterly

Stigma, not safety.

The Mighty Spud

– The Wilson Quarterly

The population increase and urbanization in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries owes much to the potato.

Study: Poor Air Quality Leads to Poor Student Performance

– The Wilson Quarterly

Polluting young minds (literally).

Inside the FBI's decades-long effort to court allies in the media

– The Wilson Quarterly

J. Edgar Hoover's hidden wordsmiths

Do political pundits' fiery words inspire their viewers to action?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Partisans of both parties who frequently watched like-minded shows become politically active earlier in the campaign cycle than others.

Philosophy's Inertia

– The Wilson Quarterly

Philosophy may modernize, but it doesn't really evolve.

The Internet hasn't so much diminished our memory as tweaked it

– The Wilson Quarterly

When you know you have the Internet at hand, your memory relaxes.

India's Sensual Past — and Puritan Present

– The Wilson Quarterly

India has a rich tradition of eroticism, and an equally old tradition of what Doniger calls “Hindu Puritanism.”

The Islamist Bogeyman

– The Wilson Quarterly

By portraying Islamists as a greater threat to society than the status quo, authoritarian regimes dampened the ambitions of democratically oriented opposition groups.

Russia's widespread alcoholism is not a joke

– The Wilson Quarterly

The life expectancy of a Russian male born this year is just 60 years. Alcohol is a major reason why.

For books, the term "bestseller" has no consistent meaning

– The Wilson Quarterly

A book’s “popularity can be understood as both proof and negation of its value.”

When did the South China Sea become valuable? 1995.

– The Wilson Quarterly

For much of history, the South China Sea was an “obscure afterthought.” That changed in 1995.

Animals Are Us

– Emily Anthes

For humans, driving other species out of our lives has had some unintended consequences.

God's Experts

– Kevin M. Schultz

To those on the outside, America’s evangelical community might look like an uneducated mass of people who subscribe to beliefs that defy common sense.

Where the Writers Live

– Leonard Benardo

Brooklyn not only has a literary tradition; its past is also consonant with the social currents coursing through American urban history.

China's Great Leader

– J. Stapleton Roy

More than any other individual, Deng Xiaoping made China’s modern rise possible.

The Natural

– Aaron Mesh

I loved the movies, and I loved Roger Ebert.

Water Over the Bridge

– Edward Tenner

“The Thousand-Year Flood” masterfully brings a turning point in American history back to life.

Heroic Reader

– Gerald R. Russello

Twenty years ago, asking why Lionel Trilling mattered would not have seemed necessary.

A Singular Voice

– Michael O'Donnell

For years, it has been easy to take Christopher Hitchens for granted, and now we are losing him.

Land Trust

– Ginger Strand

The periodic urge to embrace bucolic self-sufficiency — or at least to dream of doing so — is upon us once more.

The Lunacy to Lead

– Charles Barber

Leaders who have mental illness or have experienced periods of mental abnormality are often better able to handle crises than their mentally healthy peers.

The Marriage Gap

– Emily Bernard

Divorce rates among African-Americans are double those of whites. Why?

Peace on Earth

– Vaughan Bell

Brutality is still endemic, but the fact that we have gotten to the stage where violence is considered unnecessary is, historically, an astounding transformation.