Winter 2026

Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, A History

A curious and revealing symmetry has developed between Republican and Democratic approaches to the issue of private health insurance. In the 2004 election campaign, John Kerry proposed that the federal government clamp a lid on premiums by relieving insurers of …

The crisis of Europe and the French left

In February, the online magazine Slate published an article with the title, “Go Away, Ethics Police; Leave the NIH Alone.” The author of the piece was Richard Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow …

Two and a half years after major conflict began in the Darfur province of far western Sudan, it is perversely clear how the future history of this tortured region will be written. Any meaningful account will be guided by a …

Watching the History Channel

As we go to press, a great American city is being destroyed; tens of thousands of its inhabitants are in desperate straits. What happened in New Orleans at the end of August should prompt an urgent reconsideration of homeland security. …

Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat

In Truro, Massachusetts, at the end of 2004, police politely asked all male residents to provide a DNA sample to match with DNA material found at the scene of an unsolved murder. Residents were approached in a non-threatening manner and …

Arthur Miller’s death this spring brought back his great moment half a century ago, when he defied the foul fiend. At his House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing in June 1956, he tried to explain himself; all they wanted was …

The Spring 2005 issue of Dissent featured a forceful article by Mark Tushnet, “Democracy versus Judicial Review,” which proposed an End Judicial Review Amendment (EJRA) to the U.S. Constitution. It would read, “Except as authorized by Congress, no court of …

How Environmentalism Can Regain Lost Ground

The politics of George W. Bush, unlike earlier American conservatisms, is animated by ideas and not merely by interests. That is, at least, what Bush’s friends assert, and what his foes usually concede. But is it so? The ideas in …

Reflections on Kurds and Palestinians