The New Price of American Politics
Citizens United has changed our democracy. Will it lead to a populist awakening? Or a corporate recapturing of U.S. elections?
October 2012
In This Issue
James Bennet on campaign finance, James Parker on 50 Shades of Grey, a special report on American schools, and more
Election 2012
The League of Dangerous Mapmakers
How a few determined partisans rig Congress
The Ballot Cops
A controversial new organization is building a nationwide army to root out voter fraud—or suppress voter turnout.
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Brian Rea Why Kids Should Grade Teachers
New research is finding that the best way to evaluate teacher quality is by asking students a few simple questions.
Roderick Mills The Homeschool Diaries
In New York City, teaching your own kids can make the most sense.
Kyoto Hamada The Writing Revolution
When New Dorp High School was faced with closure, the principal launched a dramatic new writing initiative—one that has become a model for educational reform.
Mike McGregor The Schoolmaster
David Coleman is a poetry-loving Rhodes Scholar and former McKinsey consultant whose pending overhaul of the SAT has reignited a national debate over how much we should expect from students and schools.
A National Report Card
A visual look at the educational successes and failures of the past year
The Education Upstarts
In a field long dominated by the government and teachers unions, a new generation of activists has stepped up to lobby legislators and drive the conversation.
Feature
Courtesy of NFL Films They Taught America How to Watch Football
The father and son who, through a half century at NFL Films, mythologized modern football—and helped make it the national game
Dispatches
Alaska Stock/Corbis After the Oil Rush
In Alaska, dwindling reserves forecast a statewide identity crisis.
Eric Palma Swamped!
An island nation confronts rising sea levels—and the related flood of foreign aid.
David Degner Tea and Kidnapping
In the desert with the world’s friendliest hostage-takers
John Cuneo Pipe Dreamer
Could Gary Johnson’s turn as a pro-legalization Libertarian swing the presidential election?
Nicholas Blechman The Selfish Meme
Twitter, dopamine, and the evolutionary advantages of talking about oneself
Columns
Koji Sasahara/AP The Next Panic
Europe’s crisis will be followed by a more devastating downturn, likely beginning in Japan.
Yuko Shimizu Bad Romance
What the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon says about the modern sexual condition
Books
Wesley Bedrosian The Weaker Sex
How the new gender economics has more and more professional-class women looking at their mates and thinking: How long until I vote you off the island?
Courtesy of MIT Cover to Cover
The untold story of America's color consensus; Rachel Cusk's way with metaphors; and more
Bettman/Corbis The Conversation
Responses and reverberations
