February 1977
In This Issue
Explore the February 1977 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
The Right to Bear Arms
A satire of Second Amendment activism
Tidying Up After an Act of God
Danger: Pendulum Swinging: Using the Courts to Muzzle the Press
An expert in the delicate interplay of publishing, individual rights, and the First Amendment warns that recent Supreme Court rulings in matters dealing with libel and privacy invite “the most far-reaching and insidious” censorship of all, self-censorship.
Rats
The Partisan
The Editor's Page
Science That Frightens Scientists: The Great Debate Over Dna
Molecular biologists now can alter the very stuff of life—they can combine genes into wholly new substances called “recombinant DNA.” Such experiments are the most exciting in contemporary science. They are also the most awesome, and they have provoked a grave debate among scientists. Many fear that their work may create dangerous and uncontrollable forms of life.
Washington
Nettles
Onion
Potatoes
Giving It Back to the Indians
Maine’s 3000 Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians claim they are the rightful owners of more than half the state (12.5 million acres) and have asked for $25 billion in back rents and damages. Here is the story of a case that may change the economy of Maine and the lives of its people.
Lift Your Feet
“Nature abhors a vacuum. ” Spinoza, Ethics (1677)
Strutting Pasta
“Why build 24 miles of open fence no sooner erected than dismantled?"—from “A Sublime Folly: Christo’s Running Fence,” The Atlantic, September 1976.
This Side of Hollywood
Private Places, Public Faces
Henry and Cato
The Oranging of America and Other Stories
The Boardwalk
The Adventures of Jonathan Corncob, Loyal American Refugee
Disaster by Decree: The Supreme Court Decisions on Race and the Schools
The Alteration
Infamous Woman
The Face of Battle
People of the First Man
New Collected Poems
Porporino or the Secrets of Naples
Days and Nights in Calcutta
Turner
They Came Before Columbus
Myths
Railroad
The Taste of America
