The American Quest for Redemption

America’s Prisons: The End of Second Acts?

– Charles Barber and Shadd Maruna

The mass warehousing of convicts is a sign of America’s faltering belief in second chances. Considering how individuals atone for their crimes can help us restore rehabilitation as an ideal.

What Qualifies Someone to Write a ‘Self-Help’ Book?

– Sarah L. Courteau

Feel free to help yourself: there is a booming market for self-improvement guides.

Star Wars: the Rise of Online Review Culture

– Tom Vanderbilt

Online review culture — on sites like Yelp, Amazon, and IMDb — is dotted with black holes of bad taste.

How American Isolationism Would Make the World Less Safe

– The Wilson Quarterly

Pulling back from America’s global commitments would amount to a “massive experiment.”

Hawaii’s unexpected role in American blues music

– The Wilson Quarterly

The unlikely origins of the slide guitar.

Burning Encyclopedia Britannica

– The Wilson Quarterly

Print encyclopedias once occupied a privileged cultural position — even if owners seldom consulted them.

Is the modern environmental movement too moderate?

– The Wilson Quarterly

The folly of neo-environmentalism.

Are genetically diverse countries more successful?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Did genetic diversity play a decisive role in determining which lands would hit the economic jackpot?

Are drugs bought online more dangerous than drugs bought in person?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Swallow at your own risk.

The wrong way to move people out of the ghetto

– The Wilson Quarterly

Moving poor people to better neighborhoods has a surprising effect.

How soldiers got the right to a burial in a cemetery

– The Wilson Quarterly

Until the Civil War, hasty burials on the battlefield were the norm.

There’s no 50/50 political split in America. It’s more like 35/25/40.

– The Wilson Quarterly

A growing number of Americans don’t identify with either political party.

Has the patent outlived its usefulness?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Patents used to protect intellectual property. Now they stifle innovation.

One-third of the world’s poor weren’t born poor; they fell into it

– The Wilson Quarterly

One effective way to fight poverty: prevent people from falling into it.

Has congress surrendered its constitutional powers to the president?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Congress has shirked its weighty constitutional responsibilities, says one former senator.

Does hearing a word like “wrinkle” cause you to walk like an old man?

– The Wilson Quarterly

Social psychologists call it “priming,” and it’s a topic of much debate.

Kabul’s coming economic meltdown

– The Wilson Quarterly

The Afghan economy isn’t strong enough to stand on its own.

The secret to early Jewish success: literacy

– The Wilson Quarterly

Call it the Jewish Head Start.

The rewards of being wrong about nuclear war

– The Wilson Quarterly

America’s Cold War wizards botched many predictions. But that was often for the better.

What’s the key to happiness? Ask Nicaragua’s garbage-pickers.

– The Wilson Quarterly

Thwarting conventional wisdom, the impoverished of León report high rates of happiness. Why?

Study: when parents pay for college, students’ grades tend to slip

– The Wilson Quarterly

Students whose parents help pay are also more likely to graduate.