From First Principles, an article on Charles A. Beard, the Progressive historian as inadvertent conservative; and an excerpt from The Great Books: A Journey Through 2,500 Years of the West’s Classic Literature. A review of In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age by Stephanie Cooke. A review of Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years by Vaclav Smil. Daniele Archibugi on the prospects for cosmopolitan democracy. Clout of Africa: A bevy of recent publications suggests that Africa may be in the midst of its own literary boom. Will hedge funds survive? Martin J. Gross investigates. Where the wild things are: We’re about to get a peek at the solar system’s final frontier. The Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, was compiled in the early 19th century from a much older oral tradition — can it possibly have anything to teach the modern reader? Only a handful have ever been found before, but none like her: Her name is Lyuba, a one-month-old baby mammoth. A review of Doctoral Education and the Faculty of the Future by Ronald G. Ehrenberg and Charlotte V. Kuh. The first chapter from Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush by Robert Parry, Sam Parry and Nat Parry. Why the West is Boyle'd: The West still has no idea what kind of trouble it's in.
