Postwar urban and suburban development in the United States can be summed up as follows: Almost everywhere laws have prohibited the building of the kinds of places in which human beings have traditionally felt good and can afford to live. We know enough now, the author writes, to begin designing our way out of this situation -- and some architects and planners are trying to do so.

by James Howard Kunstler

Fort Leavenworth and the Eclipse of Nationhood

Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas, has for more than a century been the place where the Army has prepared its most promising commanders to "fight the next war." Today, when military intellectuals at Fort Leavenworth ponder America's future -- as much through the reading of ancient history as through the analysis of computerized scenarios -- they are profoundly unsettled by what they see.

by Robert D. Kaplan

Reports

Notes & Comment: The E Word
Why euphemisms warrant a statistical index all their own.
by Cullen Murphy

Politics: In the Land of Conservative Women
They are skeptical of government and yet active in politics. They defy easy stereotyping. However the Republicans fare nationally come November, the influx of women into the Republican leadership at all levels will increasingly shape the party's dynamics.
by Elinor Burkett

Web-Only Sidebar: A Conversation With Pat Schroeder
The Congresswoman from Colorado responds.

Fiction & Poetry

D'Accord, Baby
A short story
by Hanif Kureishi

Deer
A poem
by Linda Pastan

Central and Main
A poem
by Christopher Jane Corkery

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Arts & Leisure

Travel: Vessel of Last Resort
Travel on the Congo, the greatest of all sub-Saharan Africa's rivers, has never been easy, and it is now more difficult than ever. The author reports on a 1,100-mile journey through some of the steamiest, most disease-ridden terrain on earth.
by Jeffrey Tayler

Web-Only Sidebar: Through Western Eyes
From the writings of Henry Morton Stanley and Joseph Conrad.

Theater: Victim Kitsch
The rock opera Rent has won a Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award for best musical, and nearly unanimous critical acclaim. Its success, the author believes, represents the most pervasive case of wishful thinking in years.
by Francis Davis

Web-Only Sidebar: Renaissance or Wishful Thinking?
Selections from the music of Rent and links to reviews.

Food: Molten Gold
A guide to the beehive's sweet spoils.
by Corby Kummer

Books

A Magisterial History
Grand Expectations: The United States,
1945 - 1974, by James T. Patterson
by Jack Beatty

Brief Reviews
by Phoebe-Lou Adams

Other Departments

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The September Almanac

Word Court
by Barbara Wallraff