MAY 1999 | Volume 283 No. 5   The Great Disruption (This article is no longer available online.) One of America's most provocative thinkers argues that the social ills of recent decades are neither illusion nor fluke. The rise in crime, the decline in stable families, the erosion of trust in government and fellow citizens -- these have constituted a Great Disruption in prevailing social values throughout the industrialized world. They have been brought on by the advent of the information age. The good news: Human beings are designed to create moral rules and social order. A Great Reconstitution may already be under way. by Francis Fukuyama Combinations of Jacksons (This article is no longer available online.) Smackover Creek. "Fangs of Doom!" Uncle Alec and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Flying squirrels gliding from oak to oak. The picture show at El Dorado. A stinging snake. The author of Norwood and True Grit recalls aspects of life in a small Arkansas town during the Second World War. by Charles Portis   Reports Notes & Comment: Flouting the Convention Anti-whaling nations are using the International Whaling Commission to ban all commercial whaling no matter what the law says -- an effort that could undermine future environmental agreements. by William Aron, William Burke, and Milton Freeman Medicine: The Clinical-Trials Bottleneck All new cancer therapies must be subjected to randomized clinical trials. Why is resistance to such trials so widespread -- among patients, doctors, and insurers? by Francine Russo Personal File: Six Days The author teaches a child one kind of alphabet, even as he himself learns another. by Jesse Wegman Humor, Fiction, & Poetry Woodcock A poem by Erica Funkhouser Term A poem by W. S. Merwin The Deacon A short story by Mary Gordon Web-Only: Catholic. Woman. Writer. An Atlantic Unbound interview with Mary Gordon. In the Tube A poem by Mark Jarman Deus ex Machina A drawing by Guy Billout Arts & Leisure Travel: Fresh and French A guide to the potagers, or kitchen gardens, of France, by turns shamelessly ostentatious and reassuringly practical. by Hatsy Shields Music: Napoleon in Rags Bob Dylan's creative peak lasted only three years, the author writes, but in that brief span "Dylan altered the course of popular music more fundamentally than even Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, or the Beatles." by Francis Davis Books Was the Great War Necessary? The Pity of War, by Niall Ferguson by Benjamin Schwarz Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 77 North Washington Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The May Almanac The Puzzler by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon Word Court by Barbara Wallraff The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with audio, an author interview, or other Web-only sidebar. Browse and search The Atlantic's online archive. All material copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.