January 1999
In This Issue
Toby Lester, “What Is the Koran?”; Anthony Walton, “Technology vs. African Americans”; Roger Shattuck, “When Evil is 'Cool'”; Carol Shields, “The Next Best Kiss”; and much more.
Articles
What Is the Koran?
Researchers with a variety of academic and theological interests are proposing controversial theories about the Koran and Islamic history, and are striving to reinterpret Islam for the modern world. This is, as one scholar puts it, a "sensitive business"
Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity
Norman Borlaug, the agronomist whose discoveries sparked the Green Revolution, has saved literally millions of lives, yet he is hardly a household name
The Liquid Earth
Landslides and other “ground failures” cost more lives and more money each year than all other natural disasters combined, and their incidence appears to be rising. Nevertheless, the government devotes few resources to their study—and the foolhardy continue to build and live in places likely to be consumed one day by avalanches of mud.
Going All Out for Chinese
Some of the best Chinese food in the world is being served in Los Angeles's new Sino-suburbs
When Evil is "Cool"
Our culture, in particular the institution of the university, has contrived over the past few decades to transform sin into a positive: transgression, a term that, as used by postmodern critics, refers to an implied form of greatness.
A Cataclysm of Thought
In 1905 Albert Einstein, a twenty-six-year-old clerk, published five epochal papers. One was later awarded a Nobel Prize. Reading them today, our reviewer is thrilled by their genius
Dead Souls
A prominent demographer warns that the spread of tuberculosis and AIDS in Russia will soon make Western hand-wringing over the pace of Russian "economic reform" seem quaint
Technology Versus African-Americans
From the caravel to the cotton gin, technological innovation has made things worse for blacks. Will the information revolution be any different?
The Next Best Kiss
In another time, in a more exuberant century, sadness was dignified; it was referred to as melancholy; it was described as autumnal in tone and tinged with woodsmoke. It was a real affliction, like color blindness or flat feet
Security Blanket
Senses of Place
Atlantic contributors reflect on intersections of books and travel.
Lost in Post-Reality
The national entertainment state threatens to transmogrify American life into a soap opera
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