The Great Land Robbery
The shameful story of how 1 million black families have been ripped from their farms
September 2019
In This Issue
How 1 million black families were ripped from their farms, life with Lyme disease, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the lunch ladies of New Canaan. Plus Leslie Jamison on pregnancy after an eating disorder, meritocracy’s miserable winners, HBO’s sex-scene coach, how economists broke America, Clarence Thomas, and more.
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Secrets and Lies in the School Cafeteria
A tale of missing money, heated lunchroom arguments, and flaxseed pizza crusts
Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts
But new insights are at last accumulating.
What Happened to Aung San Suu Kyi?
A human-rights icon’s fall from grace in Myanmar
The Quickening
A story of two births
Dispatches
Edmon de Haro How Life Became an Endless, Terrible Competition
Meritocracy prizes achievement above all else, making everyone—even the rich—miserable. Maybe there’s a way out.
John Cuneo The Endangered Sex Scene
How Hollywood grew wary of intimacy
Rami Niemi The Dutch War on Tourists
Outnumbered by drunk and disorderly visitors, the Netherlands fights back.
Paul Spella Why Washing Machines Are Learning to Play the Harp
Appliance makers believe more and better chimes, alerts, and jingles make for happier customers. Are they right?
Luci Gutiérrez Scientifically Proven Sources of Sex Appeal
Beards, scars, red clothes, and other secrets of attraction
Rose Wong Games Boys Play
How Gears of War helped me come out
Joe McKendry The HR Department of the World
A very short book excerpt
The Culture File
Oliver Munday; Museo Nacional de Arte And Then Job Said Unto the Lord: You Can’t Be Serious
In a new translation of the Book of Job, the famously repentant hero gives God a piece of his mind.
Tyler Comrie How Economists’ Faith in Markets Broke America
And what it means for our future
Alexandra Bowman Edna O’Brien’s Lonely Girls
The setting of her new novel is terror-ridden Nigeria, a world away from her native Ireland, but the psychic territory is familiar.
Illustration: Paul Spella; Diana Walker / The Life Images Collection / Getty; Eddie Adams / AP Deconstructing Clarence Thomas
The justice’s reactionary legal philosophy rests on faith in the power of adversity to fuel black progress.
Riverhead Where Goodness Thrives
A small area in France has a long history of extraordinary kindness to strangers.
Departments
The Conversation: Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think
Readers respond to our July 2019 feature on professional decline and more.
Graham Roumieu What Is the Greatest Movie Quote of All Time?
A big question
Poetry
Melinda Josie
