The United States government once employed a great deal of time, effort, and money to promote its image abroad. That—and more—may be necessary in the world of today.
The Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera has become a notorious outlet for terrorist images, but less well known is its role as a forum for democratic reform in the Arab world.
In the decades since Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, Americans have come to believe that FDR hid from the public the crippling effects of his polio. That myth about the man in the wheelchair says more about our own time than it does about his.
Americans so idolize the thin and the beautiful that it’s become something of a national embarrassment. What’s even more embarrassing is how bad most Americans actually look. There are good reasons why they should fret more, rather than less, about appearances.
America’s once-mighty news media institutions are in decline, with network news shows losing viewers and newspapers suffering steep drops in circulation. They have lost prestige and much of the public’s trust. Is the era of Big Media over?
The mainstream news media is not attracting younger viewers. Can anything be done to reverse the trend?
We expect nothing less from music than that it give meaning to our lives. And for centuries, Western classical music did just that. But in the 20th century many composers turned in a new and less satisfying direction, and it’s unclear whether music will ever regain what was lost.
For the first time in human history, a majority of the earth’s population lives in cities. But though great cities have been among humanity’s supreme achievements down through the ages, they now face an uncertain future, threatened by forces that could undermine the very things that have made them great.
Sixty years after the Allies’ bombing of Dresden enveloped the city in flames, controversy persists over whether the attack was militarily justified or morally indefensible. But another question, no less crucial, is seldom asked: Did wartime conditions allow military leaders to look away as they violated their own principles?