Magazine

In their new book, Susan Sheehan and Howard Means present 42 individual profiles of collectors and extreme hobbyists. Aside from a perfunctory introduction, the authors offer little in the way of analysis, but instead let each individual get to the heart of their lives in generous-sized monologues. They include a man restoring a steam locomotive […]

By the way, the “quiet car” on Amtrak’s Acela Express is a myth. I’ve been teaching at Columbia this spring and have returned to Washington on that train several times. The 5 p.m. Acela in particular has been so crowded that the quiet car has been taken over by cell phone users. But here’s a […]

Now, in the conference room at union headquarters, Romer, 72, flanked by 10 district colleagues, faced a phalanx of union reps across the table. Union president Day Higuchi walked Romer through page after page of demands. Eliminate travel for certain types of training, establish a “classroom bill of rights,” cap class size permanently in all […]

According to Texas state law, everywhere within 1,000 feet of a school constitutes a “drug-free zone.” Anyone convicted of selling or possessing drugs within such a zone is subject to an enhanced sentence–a five-year mandatory minimum over and above the sentence imposed for the original offense. Unfortunately for Young, the Sunset was within 1,000 feet […]

His predictions were wrong as often as they were right; his poll-obsessions and willingness to work for racist Jesse Helms verged on nihilism. But, on the very biggest strategic questions, Morris gave Clinton advice that helped save his presidency. He understood that Clinton had blurred his political identity as a New Democrat in his first […]

Yet for those of us who served in the early Clinton White House, the little ways the Bush administration has tried so hard to look different are less striking than the one big way it looks familiar. A Southern governor with lots of charm but an uncertain mandate wins the presidency by promising to take […]

As her new book, Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism, reveals, that’s about par for the course. Ross’s journalism follows a conspicuous pattern: She meets a delightful subject, joins them on an exotic outing, and emerges with a sparkling piece of writing and a new friend. Examples here include, but are not limited to, Adlai Stevenson, […]

To divine whether Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is running for president, look no further than his garage. Kerry recently swapped his Italian-made Ducati racing motorcycle for an all-American Harley-Davidson. While it might help his populist appeal, motorcycling pols rarely find hog heaven: According to the company, no U.S. president has ever ridden a Harley-Davidson. Two […]

On March 4, 1841, about an hour and a half into the longest inaugural address in American history, President William Henry Harrison turned from his clause-by-clause celebration of the Constitution to warn of the lessons posed to the American republic from ancient Rome: “[T]he senate continued to meet in the temple of liberty to talk […]

In Supreme Command, Eliot A. Cohen, professor and director of strategic studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, offers a look at the matter of civilian control of the military. Mercifully, his book enjoys a brevity that his title lacks. Cohen, who writes with concision and insight, […]