Jack Beatty Author Index Articles & Commentary (Print and Web only) Executive Decision (Web only) Related Links Politics & Prose Index Articles & Commentary "Governing from His Biography" -- The Atlantic Monthly, May 2002 A President for whom tomorrow never comes. "Order in the Family" -- The Atlantic Monthly, Nov 2001 Not our politicians but our public servants have called us to a higher standard. "Bill Clinton and His Consequences: The Way It Wasn't" -- The Atlantic Monthly, Feb 2001 An alternative history of the Clinton Administration. "Defeat in Victory" -- The Atlantic Monthly, December 2000 A review of Crucible of War, by Fred Anderson. Politics & Prose: Be Afraid -- April 2000 If the digital revolution produces the dystopian nightmare envisioned in the April issue of Wired, humanity's only hope may be the end of capitalism as we know it. Try selling that in an election year. Politics & Prose: Bush vs. Gore -- March 2000 Scenes from the first presidential debate of the 2000 election campaign. Politics & Prose: Reform Politics! (Then What?) -- February 2000 Does John McCain have an agenda beyond reforming the political process? What would a McCain Administration do Politics & Prose: A New Deal for the New Economy -- December 1999 Is this the best economy in years? It depends on whom you ask and where in the world they live. Politics & Prose: The Billionaire's Curse -- September 1999 Jack Beatty reviews Michael Lewis's The New New Thing -- a profile of Jim Clark, the malcontented founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics. Politics & Prose: Sex and the Social Critic -- August 1999 Jack Beatty on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut -- and what the film's detractors failed to see. Politics & Prose: Most Valuable Player -- July 1999 A look at Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism, a new book examining the economic impact of his Airness. Politics & Prose: All the Presidents' Man -- June 1999 Jack Beatty reviews Name Dropping, the new book by John Kenneth Galbraith, and recalls the days when liberals were cool. Seriously. Politics & Prose: Slaves' Wages -- May 1999 What price can be put on the exorbitant theft of labor that was American slavery? A look at a new work of history that suggests an answer. Politics & Prose: Playing Politics With the Planet -- April 1999 A forecast of the 2000 election predicts squalls and continued global warming. Politics & Prose: How Big Business Got a Soul -- March 1999 Early in this century, advertising and public relations helped give corporate monoliths a new image, shaping public opinion in the process. A look at a new history of how it happened. Against Inequality -- The Atlantic Monthly, April 1999 A valiant proposal to give every American twenty-one-year-old the same chance to prosper (or fail). Politics & Prose: What Work Costs Us -- February 1999 Richard Sennett's The Corrosion of Character, a book that examines the demoralizing effects of the new "flexible" economy. Politics & Prose: Downsizing Days Are Here Again -- January 1999 The return of big corporate layoffs -- and what the government can do. Politics & Prose: Unsparing Witness -- December 1998 Most of us know that transgressions like Thomas Jefferson's were common. But few are aware that the topic of sex and slavery was treated openly and unflinchingly in the nineteenth century by an Englishwoman named Harriet Martineau. Politics & Prose: Newt's Last Stand -- November 1998 Christopher Caldwell, the author of last June's "The Southern Captivity of the GOP," on why Newt Gingrich couldn't save his party from its paralysis. Plus, Jack Beatty offers "A Modest Proposal" to Republicans in search of a unifying issue. Politics & Prose: The Last Refuge of the American Bigot -- October 1998 The murder in Wyoming and the search for the roots of anti-gay violence. Politics & Prose: The Dissipation of Decency -- August 1998 The real political scandal these days is the abandonment of those without health insurance. Politics & Prose: America, Inc. -- July 1998 Gain, the new novel by Richard Powers, makes the corporation the shaping force of American history. Politics & Prose: Do the Right Thing -- June 1998 Think globally, act ethically. Politics & Prose: The Graveyard of the American Dream -- May 1998 What's behind California's decline, and what's at stake for the rest of the country. Politics & Prose: Games of Monopoly -- April 1998 A new biography of John D. Rockefeller reminds us that capitalism, like history, repeats itself. Politics & Prose: The Price of Longevity -- March 1998 An examination of the price of long life. Politics & Prose: The King of Drudge -- February 1998 A look at a new biography of the man behind the assembly line -- whose ideas need to be acknowledged and abandoned. Politics & Prose: Color Us Green -- January 1998 A heretical new approach to economics puts ecology first -- and may change the way we think about growth. Politics & Prose: The Deep Slumber of Decided Opinion -- December 1997 Those who hail the virtues of trade without limits are this era's reactionaries. Politics & Prose: A Barbarous Frenzy -- November 1997 A review of The Rape of Nanking, a new book documenting China's "forgotten Holocaust." Politics & Prose: Let Them Eat Empathy -- October 1997 The era of big government has given way to the era of sharing leftovers. Politics & Prose: Down With Majority Rule -- September 1997 Imagine an America where the majority does not rule. That may be what's needed to resuscitate our political system. Politics & Prose: Talkin' About a Coalition -- August 1997 Is there a new Democratic majority in the making? Perhaps, but what will it stand for? Politics & Prose: Nasty NAFTA -- July 1997 It's time for Congress to rein in NAFTA. Politics & Prose: The Full-Court Press of Reason -- April 1997 On newspapers and gut reactions. Politics & Prose: They Both Do It -- March 1997 When it comes to campaign finance, there's just not much difference between Republicans and Democrats. Politics & Prose: "Hunting, Hunting, Hunting" -- February 1997 A hefty, riveting profile of David Lean, one of this century's great filmmakers. Politics & Prose: Flight or Fight -- January 1997 Wealthy Americans are evading taxes in unprecedented numbers, and the result is class warfare -- fought by the rich, not the poor. Politics & Prose: Victories without Victors -- December 1996 At the end of a century of liberal triumphs, nobody wants to take the credit. A musing on the curious transformation of the term "liberal" -- from a description to an accusation. Comment: The End of Serious Public Policy -- September 1996 Jack Beatty finds the Democrats at their convention guilty of "laychrymose exploitation." Where was the substance? he asks. Comment: Platform? What Platform? -- August 1996 Something was missing from the second week of the GOP convention. Jack Beatty marvels at how quickly the first week's proceedings were forgotten. The Year of Talking Radically -- The Atlantic Monthly, June 1996 For the first time since the New Deal, ordinary Americans are asking what our economy is for. What Election '96 Should Be About -- The Atlantic Monthly, May 1996 Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial "Downsizing," by David M. Gordon. Wages Matter Most -- The Atlantic Monthly, March 1996 They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era by E.J. Dionne Jr. The Transatlantic Look -- The Atlantic Monthly, December 1995 A visit with the designer Joseph Abboud. From Out of the South -- The Atlantic Monthly, November 1995 All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence, by Fox Butterfield. The Road to a Third Party -- The Atlantic Monthly, August 1995 The golden rule of political analysis is that in order "to discover who rules" you must "follow the gold (i.e., trace the origins and financing of the campaign . . .). Who Speaks for the Middle Class? -- The Atlantic Monthly, May 1994 Whatever their rhetoric may be, as a practical matter the Democrats think first of the less fortunate, the Republicans of the well-to-do. Meanwhile, the nation-breaking crisis of the middle class continues. The Exorbitant Anachronism -- The Atlantic Monthly, June 1989 A conceptual guide to the major East-West issue for the rest of the century--how to cut the price of a military standoff that costs the two sides $600 billion a year to sustain. Executive-Decision Memos Is It Time to Confront Russia? -- 1/26/00 - 2/9/00 Will You Resign? -- 9/24/98 - 10/8/98 Who Should Lead America Into the Next Century? -- 10/22-11/5 Can We End the Siege of Iraq? -- 10/8-10/22 A Right to Late-Term Abortions? -- 9/10-9/24 Should We Worry About the Income Gap? -- 8/13-8/27 What To Do About Welfare -- 7/15-7/30 Smoking: On the Path to Prohibition? -- 6/17-7/1 Campaign-Finance Reform: Field Goal or Touchdown? -- 5/20-6/3 Entitlements? Or Boomer Burden? -- 4/22-5/6 Should NATO Expand Eastward? -- 3/25-4/8 Who Should Run the Federal Reserve? -- 3/8-3/25 Related Links A speech by Jack Beatty about his new book, Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America. Copyright © 1997 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.