Inside Israel

Summer 2010

Inside Israel

Inside Israel Cover Image

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Conflict often puts Israel at the world’s center stage, but the country’s inner life tends to go unexamined. In addition to the hostility of its neighbors, it is grappling with political gridlock and a changing population, even as it enjoys a vibrant democracy and overachieving economy.

More From This Issue

Table of Contents

In Essence

“The Role of the Military in Presidential Politics” by Steve Corbett and Michael J. Davidson, in Parameters, Winter 2009–10.

“Economic Development and Military Effectiveness” by Michael Beckley, in The Journal of Strategic Studies, Feb. 2010.

“Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence From a Social Experiment in Harlem” by Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer Jr., in The NBER Digest, March 2010.

“Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge and the Role of Media Access” by Lee Shaker, in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Winter 2009.

“Rush Hour for the Gods” by William Dalrymple, in The National Interest, May–June 2010.

“Breeding Cassava” by Nagib Nassar and Rodomiro Ortiz, in Scientific American, May 2010.

“Open Sesame” by the editors of Nature and “U.S. Seeks to Make Science Free for All” by Declan Butler, in Nature, April 9, 2010.

THE SOURCE: "American Literary Style and the Presence of the King James Bible," by Robert Alter, in New England Review, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2009-10).

“The Art Is Alive” by Emily Voigt, in Isotope, Fall–Winter 2009.

“Unapproachable Light” by Dimiter Kenarov, in Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2010.

“Political Institutions and Foreign Debt in the Developing World” by Thomas Oatley, in International Studies Quarterly, March 2010.

Book Reviews

Prime Mover  Image

MURIEL SPARK:
The Biography.
By Martin Stannard.
W.W. Norton. 627 pp. $35

Pulse of the People  Image

MADE IN AMERICA:
A Social History of American Culture and Character.
By Claude S. Fischer.
Univ. of Chicago Press. 511 pp. $35

Islam’s Political Problem  Image

THE FLIGHT OF THE INTELLECTUALS.
By Paul Berman.
Melville House. 299 pp. $26

THE OTHER MUSLIMS:
Moderate and Secular.
Edited by Zeyno Baran.
Palgrave Macmillan. 211 pp. $30

Life Chances  Image

THE OTHER WES MOORE:
One Name and Two Fates.
By Wes Moore.
Spiegel & Grau. 233 pp. $25

Listening Tour  Image

IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE:
Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise.
By George Prochnik.
Doubleday. 342 pp. $26

THE UNWANTED SOUND OF EVERYTHING WE WANT:
A Book About Noise.
By Garret Keizer.
PublicAffairs. 375 pp. $27.95

Germany, With a Side of Quirk  Image

GERMANIA:
In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History.
By Simon Winder.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 454 pp. $25

BOOKS AS WEAPONS:
Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II.
By John B. Hench.
Cornell Univ. Press. 333 pp. $35

Doctoring History  Image

SEEKING THE CURE:
A History of Medicine in America.
By Ira Rutkow.
Scribner. 356 pp. $28

Up to Here  Image

STUFF: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. By Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 290 pp. $27

Sweat Equity  Image

THE GREAT OOM:
The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America.
By Robert Love.
Viking. 402 pp. $27.95

Meeting of the Minds  Image

STRANGER FROM ABROAD:
Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Friendship and Forgiveness.
By Daniel Maier-Katkin.
W.W. Norton. 384 pp. $26.95

Essays

Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship.

Daniel Akst

As America debates immigration reform, it is in danger of repeating the mistakes made a century ago when the flawed foundations of today’s policies were established.

Katherine Benton-Cohen

In Turkey, secularists cling to a decaying old order while pious Muslims lead the way toward modernization. But will the upstarts create a genuinely pluralist new order?

Michael Thumann

For centuries, the passionate and sometimes persecuted Irish have felt a peculiar sympathy with Europe’s self-anointed capital of sophistication.

Max Byrd

Any effort to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians must reckon with the fact that bitter experience has taught many Israelis to doubt that their foes want a lasting concord.

Walter Reich

Israelis are increasingly unhappy with a political system that seems to deliver nothing but strife and division.

Yoram Peri

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