archive

On the surface

W. Kip Viscusi (Vanderbilt) and Joel C. Huber and Jason Bell (Duke): The Private Rationality of Bottled Water Drinking. Zanita E. Fenton (Miami): Bastards! And the Welfare Plantation. Eric O. Silva (Georgia Southern): Levels of Disagreement Over Contested Practices (“An analysis of letters to the editor written about two contested practices (American Indian mascots and the exclusive teaching of evolutionary theory) uncovers three analytically distinct levels of disagreement”). Sara McClelland (Michigan) and David M. Frost (Columbia): Sexuality and Social Policy. Felix Salmon on why the irrelevance of Davos is good news. Hayes Brown on 4 ways Tunisia is now more progressive than the United States. Good riddance: A nasty disease, Dracunculiasis, is about to be history. “The greatest catastrophe the world has seen”: R.J.W. Evans reviews books on World War I. Of identity, property and other forms of tyranny: Sukumar Muralidharan on the nation and its citizens. This is your language on cannabis: As marijuana goes legit, our words for it are changing, too. Matthew Yglesias on four great reasons for Congress to stop focusing on deficit reduction. While 2013 may have been dominated on the surface by a large, notable failure, in many ways it was a year of underplayed success for Obama. Jonathan Chait on why Obama pretended he can take economic action. The introduction to Cultures in Motion, ed. Daniel T. Rodgers, Bhavani Raman and Helmut Reimitz. David Oliver on Ky Harlin, BuzzFeed’s secret weapon.