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Regulate Weapons Like We Do in the Military, Says an Army Officer
For the list of previous entries in this series, please see the index at the end of the post. But: if you’re revving up to send me a note explaining what kind of ammunition the AR-15 uses, and how it...
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Why Stop With the AR-15?
Here are two pro-gun arguments, from people who are not bots and who don’t go in for the “you libtard cuck!” style of discourse. Obviously I disagree with their perspectives. But because they’re making...
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The Iraq War and the Inevitability of Ignorance
There’s a specific reason it is so hard to be president—in normal circumstances—and why most incumbents look decades older when they leave the job than when they began. The reason is that the only...
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As Students 'March for Our Lives,' What Are the Feasible Aims for Gun Control?
The gun massacre in Parkland, Florida, was nearly six weeks ago. In those weeks, thousands more Americans have died from gun violence. (The average rate is around 90 per day, more than half of them...
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Gun Safety: The Importance of Technology, the Legacy of Slavery
For an index of the two-dozen previous items in the post-Parkland gun-safety series, please see the bottom of this post. In this installment, I offer reader messages on two main themes. One is whether...
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'Learning From History': A Goal? A Delusion? A Trap?
Last week, as part of TheAtlantic’s discussion of the 15th anniversary of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, I wrote a post called “The Inevitability of Ignorance.” Its main point was about the...
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Google's One-Time 'Chief Technology Advocate' on Making Facebook Likable
Over the years I’ve often turned to my friend Michael Jones for guidance about the cultural and social effects of technology.For instance, five years ago I did an Atlantic interview with him about how...
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On Google and Facebook: 'The Finest Intelligence Operation on Earth'
On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook finally appears before Congress. Franklin Foer, who has extensively chronicled the relationship between social-media companies and democracy, had a report...
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What Did You Do in the Trade War, Daddy?
While Donald Trump has diverted his attention to other matters, here are some questions and answers to bear in mind, when he is back to talking about winning a trade war.Q. Is there a “China problem”...
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The Future of Elite Schools in the Trump Era (and the Future of Blogging)
A few days ago, for no intended reason, I came across this remarkable off-the-cuff essay from back in 2011 by my then-and-now colleague Ta-Nehisi Coates. In those days—before “The Case for...
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The Other Coachella: What You Won't See at the Music Festival
I recall the first time I heard someone in New York talk excitedly about plans to “go to Coachella.” What? I thought.The Coachella I had known while growing up in the vicinity was a small desert town...
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Trump vs. Harvard and Yale, Continued
Recently I posted a dispatch from a reader based in New Haven, himself a Harvard graduate, who said that America’s elite-level universities were ill-prepared for what the Trump administration had in...
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Big, Ambitious Plans From Smaller-Town Leaders
In a few days, the May issue of the magazine will arrive for subscribers ( ! ) and appear on newsstands. It includes an article I’ve done as a more analytically explicit companion to Our Towns, the...
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The Future of Elite Schools, Continued
Last week I quoted a long dispatch from a Harvard graduate now living in New Haven, on why he thought the Trump era held more perils for elite-level schools like Harvard and Yale than they might be...
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What Comey Did Wrong
As mentioned last week, I’m nostalgically trying to piece together some elements of the olden-days blogging culture in the current, very different online environment.Today’s installment: A long note...
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Remembering Peter Claeys
I was very sorry to learn this week that Peter Claeys, whom you see in action above and in the family photo below, had died recently in Lille, at age 62. With his family’s permission, here is their...
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Trump and Elite Schools: A Harvard Athlete Weighs In
A week ago I quoted an unnamed “reader in New Haven,” who offered thoughts about “The Future of Elite Schools in the Trump Era.” That occasioned a lot of response, which is still coming in. I quoted...
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The Reinvention of America
I have seen the future, and it is in the United States.After a several-year immersion in parts of the country that make the news mainly after a natural disaster or a shooting, or for follow-up stories...
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'The Reinvention of America': Two Views from the Prairie
The new issue of The Atlantic has a long piece by me called “The Reinvention of America.” It’s different from, but tied to, the publication in two weeks of a book by my wife, Deb, and me called Our...
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The 'Our Towns' Saga, on CBS Sunday Morning
On Tuesday of this coming week, May 8, the book that my wife, Deb, and I have been working on for many years will officially be published.It’s called Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of...
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