OUR READERS WRITE BACK

Taking Time for Proust and Caesar

 

FROM THE EDITOR

A Manifesto for the Common Reader

 

EDUCATION WATCH

Mrs. Jellyby and Me, by Leslie Haynsworth

One professor’s rage against the Dickensian machine.

 

FEATURES

A Natural Selection: The Ascent of Literary Darwinism by Jonathan Gross

A theory of everything, or a theory du jour?

 

That’s Not Writing—That’s Hyping, by by Kevin Mattson

What the New Journalism gave us—in spite of its excess.

 

The Big What If? Giving Alternate History a Fair Shake, by Ian Williams

Suppose the South had actually won. Then what?

 

An Essay (Wasted) on Tom Lehrer, by Dana Heller

Leaving the music for the math.

 

REVIEWS

No Confidence, No Competence, by Mark Bauerlein

A review of Education’s End: Why Our Colleges Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life, by Anthony Kronman.

 

Cracks in the Quartz, by Nicholas Sabloff

A review of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire, by Mike Davis.

 

The Company We Keep, by Stephen Hartnett

A review of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner.

 

Just Flipping the Switch, by Maureen Callahan

A review of Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, by Michael Neufeld.

 

Beautiful Fragments, by Béa Gonzalez

A review of Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatje.

 

POEMS

Dispatches, by Lori Shine

The Simple Life, by Jean Janzen

 

EDITOR’S CHOICE

The best of recent books.

 

BOOKENDS

On the Trail of Clifton Fadiman, by Everett Mattlin

 

CONTRIBUTORS

A who’s who of this issue.