My Race Problem -- and Ours A prominent black intellectual asks: Should American blacks embrace any measure of racial unity, racial loyalty, racial solidarity, racial kinship -- as many black leaders explicitly urge or implicitly countenance? No, they should not, he argues, for reasons that are at once practical and philosophical. by Randall Kennedy
The Man Who Counts the Killings The statistical litany about violence on television is by now as familiar and ritualized as ... well, as violence on television. George Gerbner -- brooding emigré, visionary academic, aging zealot -- has probably spent more time than anyone else in America evaluating the effect of television on individuals and society. Now he has launched a crusade. by Scott Stossel

 

Reports Notes & Comment: The Disunited States Transferring power and responsibility from Washington to the state capitals is a popular idea these days, but "devolution" will bring new problems -- and exacerbate old ones. by John D. Donahue Foreign Affairs: Hidden Colors As Berlin rebuilds, the old buildings on one desolate city block tell their stories. by David Lawday Psychology: So Long to Bad Dogs Animal-behavior therapists don't say "Tell me about your childhood," but they can change the habits of troublesome or dangerous dogs. by Mark Derr Humor, Fiction, & Poetry The Embrace A poem by Mark Doty A Word on Statistics A poem by Wislawa Szymborska Puttermesser in Paradise A short story by Cynthia Ozick My Daughter at Chess A poem by David Solway Green A drawing by Guy Billout The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with additional Atlantic material, such as related articles, audio, or special online sidebars. Browse previous issues of The Atlantic Monthly.		Arts & Leisure Travel: Off the Maine Coast A poet savors the manifold qualities of island life. "The most noticeable quality out there is the silence -- a silence broken by birdcalls, breeze-hiss in the firs, or the indoors whicker of the refrigerator." by Peter Davison Sport: Underwater Daredevils The quest to secure the record for the deepest dive on a single breath. by Colin Beavan Books Abortion in American History When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973, by Leslie J. Reagan by Katha Pollitt The Crisis of Electoral Politics The New American Voter, by Warren E. Miller and J. Merrill Shanksk by Martin P. Wattenberg Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 77 North Washington Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The May Almanac At Last Count The Salsa Sectors by Michael J. Weiss The Puzzler by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon Word Court by Barbara Wallraff
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