Radhika Desai (Manitoba): The Inadvertence of Benedict Anderson: Engaging Imagined Communities. These kids today: A prominent critic worries about college students' extracurricular reading, but Scott McLemee wonders about the best-seller lists. An interview with Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice. You don't deserve to be rich: The sooner we shed our illusion that people end up financially where they deserve to, the faster we’ll fix the economy. A review of Vernon Smith's Rationality in Economics. How big is the Agatha Christie industry, and what explains her enduring appeal? Intelligent Life meets James Murdoch, the invisible mogul. A review of Unequal under Law: Race in the War on Drugs by Doris Marie Provine. In an age when magazines are fighting for their very survival and print itself is under fire, is The New Yorker finally becoming as dated as the top-hatted Eustace Tilly? From Cracked, here are 5 ways people are trying to save the world (that don't work); and a look at 6 dream jobs that would actually suck. The first full crisis of globalization means the start of a kinder, more selfless economic system, the new co-op capitalism. A review of Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola by Mark Thomas. A review of Burton Blumert's Bagels, Barry Bonds, & Rotten Politicians.

From a new issue of The Jury Expert, Yoel Inbar and David Pizarro (Cornell): Grime and Punishment: How disgust influences moral, social, and legal judgments. From CT, a review of Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent by Alberto A. Martinez; and a review of Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire and The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by Karl Sabbagh. Jeremy Stangroom on Edmund Burke, the great conservative. Software that aids thought isn’t cheating; it’s a legitimate part of the creative process. A review of A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture by John M. Hagedorn. From Bookforum, John Freeman reviews Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun. A review of The End of Ethics in a Technological Society by Lawrence E. Schmidt and Scott Marratto. Three innovators have created an approach that has greatly reduced — and just might end — homelessness. From IHE, new analysis rejects idea that professors whose research is influenced by their politics necessarily bring the same politics into the classroom; and given the competition, acceptance to selective colleges has become almost a random process — why not end the myth, and admit qualified students using a raffle?

A new issue of N1BR is out. From TNR, Drew Gilpin Faust reviews Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson. The Plath legacy lives: Joyce Carol Oates, Peter D. Kramer, Erica Jong, Andrew Solomon and Elaine Showalter on why Sylvia Plath’s tragedy still resonates. A look back at the handling of another financial crisis a full century ago underlines the point about decisive action. The Other F-Word: Douglas Robertson on his animus against folks. From The Guardian, the joy of anti-social media: Opining about books on social media is great fun, but reading is something you do alone, thank God; an article on book covers and the pictures that sell thousands of words; and a look at why it's pointless telling anyone that writing isn't worth it. From New York, a cover story on the power of Michelle Obama: Where will our suddenly iconic First Lady come to fit in the pantheon of powerful women? From LRB, John Mearsheimer on Charles Freeman: The Lobby falters; at the White House’s whim: Tom Bingham on the power of pardon; Jeremy Harding on the French Foreign Legion; and will we care when Labour loses? Ross McKibbin wants to know. A review of Julian Barnes' Nothing to Be Frightened Of (and more from Bookforum). From Le Monde diplomatique, Walter Benn Michaels on chav chic, and respect the poor (and more).

From The Daily Beast, an interview with Bo Lundgren, Sweden’s minister for fiscal and financial affairs, on Sweden's financial crisis in the 1990s. No safety in numbers: Are Treasury bonds a bubble that may someday burst? Supporters of capitalism are crazy, says Harvard. From TNR, how to succeed in regulating business: A feisty proposal to keep executive pay in check; and how much are business schools to blame for the current financial crisis? (and more) Culture shock: What happened when conservative Web sites Culture11 ventured outside the movement bubble. From New Statesman, too many of today’s self-styled defenders of liberty are covert right-wingers, determined only to protect the rich and the privileged. Is a food revolution now in season? Reading Test Dummies: A simple change to comprehension exams would lessen the worst effects of the test-prep culture and improve education in the bargain. From NYRB, a review of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch (and more from Bookforum); Anthony Lewis reviews Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law by Philip K. Howard; John Gray reviews Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood; and a review of A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream by Mark Gevisser.