The Structure of Success in America
The first article in a two-part history of the Educational Testing Service, the institution behind the SAT.
Great new articles, every day.
The first article in a two-part history of the Educational Testing Service, the institution behind the SAT.
Nicholas Lemann The Atlantic Aug 1995 35min Permalink
Many experts believe it’s inevitable that in the coming decades, humans will figure out how to live considerably longer lives. It might not be a good thing.
Charles C. Mann The Atlantic May 2005 20min Permalink
A profile of Anas Aremeyaw, an investigative journalist in Ghana who’s willing to do anything–and pose as anyone–to get the story.
Nicholas Schmidle The Atlantic Nov 2010 10min Permalink
After nearly a year in Afghanistan—during which almost half of their unit was killed or injured—paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne have one more mission before they go home.
Brian Mockenhaupt The Atlantic Nov 2010 35min Permalink
If your ex-spouse takes your child and hightails it abroad, the legal system often isn’t on your side. So what can you do? One option: hire a former Army ranger named Gus Zamora to take back your kid.
Nadya Labi The Atlantic Nov 2009 35min Permalink
A profile of Joe Biden, whose political stock has continued to rise even as his boss’s falls.
Mark Bowden The Atlantic Sep 2010 35min Permalink
Is letting convicts roam free under electronic surveillance better than putting them behind bars?
Graeme Wood The Atlantic Aug 2010 10min Permalink
Since he could speak, 8-year-old Brandon has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one.
Hanna Rosin The Atlantic Nov 2008 15min Permalink
The founding fathers deserve at least some of the blame for the worst presidencies in American history—they created an office that’s vaguely defined and ripe for abuse. Plus: how to fix it.
Garrett Epps The Atlantic Jan 2009 15min Permalink
Mysterious, man-made “natural flavor” explains why most fast food—indeed, most of the food Americans eat—tastes the way it does. An early excerpt from Fast Food Nation.
Eric Schlosser The Atlantic Jan 2001 20min Permalink
How a French journalist recruited a posse of Brazilian parking lot attendants and pizza-delivery guys and created Hollywood’s most addictive entertainment product.
David Samuels The Atlantic Apr 2008 35min Permalink
As of this year, more women than men are in the U.S. workforce. More women are managers and more women are earning college degrees. Here’s why.
Hanna Rosin The Atlantic Jun 2010 35min Permalink
In the wake of 9/11, terrorist networks moved their recruitment and training efforts online, giving birth to Jihad-geeks like Irhabi_007.
Nadya Labi The Atlantic Jul 2006 15min Permalink
A dispatch from the frozen, drunken wasteland of Eastern Siberia.
Jeffrey Tayler The Atlantic Apr 1997 20min Permalink
The Conficker ‘worm’ has replicated itself across tens of millions of computers. Only a few hundred people have the knowledge to recreate how, and no one (except its anonymous maker) fully understands why.
Mark Bowden The Atlantic May 2010 35min Permalink
Yeah, you’ve seen that headline before. The difference? This time it’s not journalists trying to do the saving. It’s Google.
James Fallows The Atlantic May 2010 Permalink
The audacity of Bill Cosby’s black conservatism.
Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic May 2008 25min Permalink
Kevin Fulton, a spy planted in the IRA, thought he was dead when he faced interrogation by a notorious IRA enforcer. But, it turned out, the enforcer was also an agent. How British intelligence undermined the IRA.
Matthew Teague The Atlantic Apr 2006 25min Permalink
Advice from 1982 on how and why one should buy a computer. “I can hardly bring myself to mention the true disadvantage of computers,” Fallows writes, “which is that I have become hopelessly addicted to them.”
James Fallows The Atlantic Jul 1982 Permalink
The story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror investigation of the past decade—the post-9/11 anthrax attacks—and nearly destroyed an innocent man.
David Freed The Atlantic Apr 2010 35min Permalink
In trailers just minutes from the Vegas Strip, Air Force pilots control predators over Iraq and Afghanistan. A case study in the marvels—and limits—of modern military technology.
Robert Kaplan The Atlantic Sep 2006 10min Permalink