The Entrepreneurial Edge

The Scourge of Juristocracy

– James Grant

When rights are at issue, Americans instinctively turn to the courts. It is an undemocratic habit that they have exported, along with the underlying institutions, with dismaying success.

The Conscience of a Collector

– Jeffrey Scheuer

As the years go by and his first editions gain in value, a once starry-eyed book collector is faced with questions beyond price.

America's Changeable Civil War

– Christopher Clausen

A century and a half after the first state seceded from the Union, a lively debate over what caused the Civil War continues.

Poland's New Ambitions

– Andrew Curry

Two decades after Solidarity's triumph, Poland is leveraging its geography and aid dollars to pay forward the support its struggling democratic movement received from abroad.

An Entrepreneurial Recovery

– Carl Schramm and Robert E. Litan

Big business gets the headlines, but thousands of upstart companies do most of the heavy lifting in the American economy.

China's Other Path

– Yasheng Huang

For all of China's economic achievements, the heyday of its entrepreneurs lies more than 20 years in the past. Renewing that era's rural capitalism would yield more balanced growth and go a long way toward reducing today's trade tensions.

The Enterprise of Nations

– David S. Landes

Critics have tried to explain away the West's centuries-long economic domination of the globe; they would do better to study its lessons.

Recession's Lasting Impression

– The Wilson Quarterly

Not surprisingly, experiencing a recession during one's formative years can affect views on government spending for life.

The Mother of Invention

– The Wilson Quarterly

Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in England?

Measure for Measure

– The Wilson Quarterly

How can we measure happiness when it comes to assessing quality of life?

The Not-So-Long Arm of the Law

– The Wilson Quarterly

How can we define the legal status of those detained at Guantánamo Bay?

Peace Corps Follies

– The Wilson Quarterly

Is the Peace Corps sending " the wrong people to the wrong countries" for the wrong jobs?

No Martyr Left Behind

– The Wilson Quarterly

Is "leadership decapitation" an effective strategy in combating terrorist organizations?

System Failure

– The Wilson Quarterly

Time and again, California's ballot initiatives have stymied liberal aims, but the state's fiscal gridlock is a disaster for all.

Hail, Divided Government

– The Wilson Quarterly

America has two completely different modes of government: One party controls both Congress and the presidency, or each party controls one branch. Which mode is more effective?

The Paradox of the Welfare State

– The Wilson Quarterly

The paradox of the welfare state in both America and Europe is that over time its success began to undermine its appeal.

Colluding Colleges

– The Wilson Quarterly

Visible investments help buoy a college's reputation, but they don't help students learn.

The Other Insurance

– The Wilson Quarterly

While the majority of Americans who reach age 65 will eventually require long-term care, only 1 in 10 have long-term care insurance.

Do Learning Styles Matter?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Is customizing learning experiences to different learning styles a waste of time?

Catch-22

– The Wilson Quarterly

Homeless Chicagoans with a mental illness can access subsidized housing in only two weeks, where others have an average wait time of seven years. Why are there so few takers?

Chop Chop

– The Wilson Quarterly

With fierce competition between print and online news sources, ditching outdated conventions could help print break even.

Linking to the Obvious

– The Wilson Quarterly

Although many political bloggers fancy themselves cutting-edge journalists, they aren't doing the heavy lifting required by actual reporting.

Who's to Blame?

– The Wilson Quarterly

As scientists learn more about genetic predisposition, can the concept of behavioral free will remain relevant?

The Islamic Word

– The Wilson Quarterly

The Islamic world has long resisted the concept of a printed Qur’an.

Better Science Through Failure

– The Wilson Quarterly

"The problem with science isn't that most experiments fail - it's that most failures are ignored."

Skin Story

– The Wilson Quarterly

Hairless skin may not seem a very notable human trait, but it has allowed significant advantages over our closest primate relations.

Writing Into the Void

– The Wilson Quarterly

On the slow and painful death of the literary journal.

Grandeur in Stone

– The Wilson Quarterly

The sculptors of the "American Renaissance."

The Invisible Hand

– The Wilson Quarterly

Translating fiction and poetry is a thankless task, one that earns little respect in the world of academic and little pay outside of it.

For Chile, what good old days?

– The Wilson Quarterly

In only two decades, Chile has nearly eliminated the slums and shantytowns once home to more than a fifth of the residents of its capital city, Santiago. Why are so many people left feeling unsatisfied?

Saffron Sorrows

– The Wilson Quarterly

A military junta has ruled for 48 years in Myanmar, where poverty prevails and a third of children under age five suffer from malnutrition. Are monks the key to revolution?

Well, Isn't That Special?

– David Lindley

For a century or more, physicists have assumed that the universe began in a special state endowed with low entropy — but that’s an uncomfortable assertion.

Putting Theory to the Test

– Edward J. Larson

If the theory of evolution were on the ropes, we'd hear about it first from ambitious biologists seeking to promote their research findings.

Celebrity Jane

– Brooke Allen

Nearly two centuries after her death, Jane Austen's very name has become a global brand.

Matchmakers

– Kay Hymowitz

It's taken a long time to grasp the consequences of the ice storm that hit the American family in the late 1960s.

Paths of Progress

– Steven Lagerfeld

Freedom to travel is the essence of progress, and the open road remains the most alluring mode of transportation around the world.

Agents for Change

– Christina Asquith

In the traditional, deeply religious Middle East, change is coming from within. Muslim women are running for office, starting careers, and taking to university lecterns by embracing Islam, the very belief system that many in the West see as subordinating them.

Suits and Ladders

– John Prados

Who drives national security in America, and just how big should the security apparatus be?

Garden Cities

– Scott Kratz

America's relationship with food is dysfunctional.

Man on the Run

– Max Byrd

To many of Jefferson's contemporaries, his greatest scandal had nothing to do with Sally Hemings.

The Cure That Killed

– Colin Fleming

How the practical uses of arsenic in daily Victorian life led to thousands of accidental poisonings.

The Seeds of Defeat

– William Anthony Hay

The Battle of Waterloo was much more than an example of total defeat; It marked a pivotal event that made almost a century of peace possible in Europe.

Morgan's End

– James Morris

With new access to archived letters and diaries we gain a fresh perspective on E. M. Forster's private life.

A Word By Any Other Name

– Sarah L. Courteau

How has regard for the thesaurus fallen so low?

Intellectual Horsepower

– Nikolai Slivka

Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the best and most prolific authors of 19th-century America, believed that too much reading stifled the creative impulse. Why?

Jesus College

– Aaron Mesh

Correcting misconceptions about America's Christian colleges.

Lingering Questions

– Vu Tran

Human beings have a knack for engineering destructive activity and then obsessing over ways to either save ourselves, or mask that activity's catastrophic consequences.