What If China Fails?

More From This Issue

Table of Contents

In Essence

“The Pragmatic Rebels” by Maureen Tkacik, in Bloomberg Businessweek, July 2, 2010, and “The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con Out of Econometrics” by Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, in The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2010.

“Ready to Lead on Day One: Predicting Presidential Greatness From Political Experience” by John Balz, in PS: Political Science and Politics, July 2010.

“Burke, Paine, and the Great Law of Change” by Yuval Levin, in The Point, Fall 2010.

“A Modified National Primary: State Losers and Support for Changing the Presidential Nominating Process” by Caroline J. Tolbert, Amanda Keller, and Todd Donovan, in Political Science Quarterly, Fall 2010.

“Defining Success in Afghanistan” by Stephen Biddle, Fotini Christia, and J. Alexander Thier, in Foreign Affairs, July–Aug. 2010.

“Why Intelligence and Policymakers Clash” by Robert Jervis, in Political Science Quarterly, Summer 2010.

“Evaluating the Quality of Care Provided by Graduates of International Medical Schools” by John J. Norcini, John R. Boulet, W. Dale Dauphinee, Amy Opalek, Ian D. Krantz, and Suzanne T. Anderson, in Health Affairs, Aug. 2010.

“Effects of Prenatal Poverty on Infant Health: State Earned Income Tax Credits and Birth Weight” by Kate W. Strully, David H. Rehkopf, and Ziming Xuan, in American Sociological Review, Aug. 2010.

“Five Boys: The Story of a Picture” by Ian Jack, in Intelligent Life, Spring 2010.

“A Humanist on Thin Ice” by Tom Griffiths, in GriffithREVIEW, Spring 2010.

“The New Normal” by Emma Marris, in Conservation, April–June 2010.

“The Pevearsion of Russian Literature” by Gary Saul Morson, in Commentary, July–Aug. 2010.

“The Powerhouse of the New” by Martin Filler, in The New York Review of Books, June 24, 2010.

“Asia’s Declining Death Penalty” by David T. Johnson, in The Journal of Asian Studies, May 2010.

“State of Play: How South Africa Became South Africa” by Matthew Kaminski, in World Affairs, July–Aug. 2010.

Book Reviews

No-Brainer?  Image

THE SHALLOWS:
What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.
By Nicholas Carr.
W.W. Norton. 276 pp. $26.95

COGNITIVE SURPLUS:
Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.
By Clay Shirky.
Penguin Press. 242 pp. $24.95

World Leader  Image

A GLOBAL LIFE:
My Journey Among Rich and Poor, From Sydney to Wall Street to the World Bank.
By James D. Wolfensohn.
PublicAffairs. 462 pp. $29.95

American Conspiracy  Image

WASHINGTON RULES:
America’s Path to Permanent War.
By Andrew J. Bacevich.
Henry Holt. 286 pp. $25

Poor Man's Bank  Image

BROKE, USA:
From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.
How the Working Poor Became Big Business.
By Gary Rivlin.
HarperBusiness. 358 pp. $26.99

THE DISAPPEARING CENTER:
Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy.
By Alan I. Abramowitz.
Yale Univ. Press. 194 pp. $35

A Law Unto Itself  Image

THE LAST UTOPIA:
Human Rights in History.
By Samuel Moyn.
Belknap/Harvard. 337 pp. $27.95

Paper Trails  Image

THE PASSPORT IN AMERICA:
The History of a Document.
By Craig Robertson.
Oxford Univ. Press. 340 pp. $27.95

Tortured Artist  Image

GRANT WOOD:
A Life.
By R. Tripp Evans.
Knopf. 402 pp. $37.50

NewTube  Image

INVASION OF THE MIND SNATCHERS:
Television’s Conquest of America in the Fifties.
By Eric Burns.
Temple Univ. Press. 342 pp. $35

Story Material  Image

THE CONCISE DICTIONARY OF DRESS.
By Judith Clark and Adam Phillips.
Photographs by Norbert Schoerner.
Violette Editions. 136 pp. $39.95

Food Police  Image

KOSHER NATION:
Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.
By Sue Fishkoff.
Schocken. 364 pp. $27.95

The Long Goodbye  Image

VOYAGER:
Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery.
By Stephen J. Pyne.
Viking. 444 pp. $29.95

Essays

What if a man who is sentenced to die claims to have evidence of his innocence? Common sense cries out for the case to be tried again, but important legal principles say otherwise.

William Baude

Like many other countries, the United States is buried under a pile of mounting debt. Tunneling out will mean making some tough choices that can’t be put off much longer.

Douglas J. Besharov & Douglas M. Call

Behind the rise of Mahatma Gandhi was a little-recognized team of followers he carefully recruited including his secretary, Mahadev Desai.

Ian Desai

A simple Google query leads a Web wanderer to discover an unexpected narrative in the Internet’s cascades of information.

Jeff Porter

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