Travels Into America's Future The powerful social and economic currents that are irrevocably transforming the United States -- and all of North America -- are most visible along the Pacific coast. A dynamic mixture of peoples, especially Asians and Latinos, is creating a new "international civilization" with rapidly strengthening ties throughout the world. The American "imperium" that we have known for a century will not collapse the way ancient Rome did, the author writes, but the peaceful molting of American society is no less revolutionary. by Robert D. Kaplan

"Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair" The author of this memoir was born into an haute bourgeois family in the Germany of Kaiser Wilhelm I. She inhabited a world whose special charms and horrors are today nearly lost to living memory. At the center of this stratified social world stood the author's mother -- at once prod and obstacle to an intrepid young woman's ambitions. by Doris Drucker

Reports Notes & Comment: Road Rage Versus Reality Has the alliterative appeal of the term itself conjured a phantom reality? No data support the existence of road rage as an epidemic, or even as a growing phenomenon. Indeed, the data contradict such findings. by Michael Fumento Foreign Affairs: The Libel of Moral Equivalence Observers writing in the Western press imply that the Algerian government is responsible -- directly or indirectly -- for the recent massacres of villagers by Islamic terrorists. The charge is nonsense, the author argues, and reveals a deep ignorance of Algerian society. by Roger Kaplan Fiction & Poetry Par A short story by Richard Bausch Passive Aggressive A poem by Martin Galvin When You Tell Me A poem by Laurie Lamon Browse and search The Atlantic's online archive. The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with audio, an author interview, or other Web-only sidebar.		Arts & Leisure Travel: Paris at Your Feet The best transportation in Paris is the kind you can take anywhere. And walkers can avail themselves of more good guidebooks than ever. by Francine Prose Food: Pesto by Hand When it comes to food preparation, doing things the "old-fashioned way" often means enormous labor and meager payoff. But handmade pesto offers great rewards for not much extra work. by Corby Kummer Music: Craft's Stravinsky Robert Craft is far more than the alter ego of the century's greatest composer. by Allen Shawn Books The Torch and the Hearth Vestal Fire, by Stephen Pyne by Steven Stoll The Burden of James Dickey Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son, by Christopher Dickey by Peter Davison Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 77 North Washington Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The August Almanac The Puzzler by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon Word Watch by Anne H. Soukhanov
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