California's Improbable Navel-Orange Queen
Eliza Tibbets was a suffragist, abolitionist, and spiritualist—and the mother of California's orange industry.
City Makers: American Futures
The people, organizations, and ideas reshaping the country. A journey piloted by James Fallows with Deborah Fallows.
Fresno to South Bend to Louisville: The Elusive Elements of Civic Success
More cities, more assessments of what works, and why
Can Cars Save Downtown?
Fresno, California prepares to rip up its landmark pedestrian mall and replace it with a street.
A Word Cloud of Ajo, Arizona
The words we use about ourselves reveal surprising truths.
'Generation Now'—What People Do, When There Seems to Be Nothing to Do
The frustrations and inequalities of America's second Gilded Age are as apparent in San Bernardino, California, as anywhere else in the country. Here is how one group of young people has chosen to respond.
Asheville Just 'Happened' to Develop a Nice Downtown—or Did It?
In the immortal words from Liberty Valance, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Herewith the legend and reality of Asheville.
Equal Time for Tampa, and More on Asheville Too
Catching up with changes in major cities, and in the Atlantic's own web site
A Visit to the Shanghai Public Library
Aging manuscripts share the building with makerspaces.
More on Nice Downtowns: Do They Just Happen? Or Are They Made?
Tampa has kept trying to revive its downtown, and has kept failing. Asheville has been wildly successful—but was it even trying at all?
The Dilemmas of Maker Culture
Thinking through the consequences of the proliferation of powerful tools and technologies