After an election deadlock that held the country hostage for months, two former rivals confront Afghanistan’s patronage and corruption.

The bloody, often surreal, fight for Kosovo’s independence was led by a man moonlighting as a roofer in Switzerland.

The reverberations of an avalanche.

Why the world is becoming less free.

The cover story from the June 2011 print edition of The New Republic, available on the web specially for readers of Longform.org.

A final visit with late boxer Teófilo Stevenson, who could have fought or even been Muhammad Ali had he not stayed in Cuba.

Online startups can send you pills to cure anxiety. But is it safe to buy them?

At 28, I thought my life was pretty settled. Nope.

“When I was fourteen, I had a relationship with my eighth grade history teacher. People called me a victim. They called him a villain. But it’s more complicated than that.”

After a lab linked to him was raided, James Jeffrey Bradstreet’s body was found with a bullet wound to the chest. His death was ruled a suicide, but other theories abound.

The number one place Tampa Bay cops visit: Walmart. And it’s not even close — they average two trips an hour.

How the museum-quality 55,000 film collection that an East Village video store gave away ended up in a small, possibly mob-run village in Sicily.

More than 40 years ago, pioneering author Jim Fixx’s best-selling book brought jogging to the masses, espousing its physical and emotional benefits. Now, those themes resonate more than ever with a homebound society.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook appear to be aiding and abetting a vicious government campaign against Indian climate activists.

Right-wing militias brace for civil conflict.

A political history of Britain.

On the evening of November 7th 1974, the 7th Earl of Lucan, an inveterate gambler and Backgammon champion with a taste for power boats, snuck into his estranged wife’s basement. He then bludgeoned their nanny with a lead pipe and placed her in a canvas sack, before attempting to murder his wife. Recognizing his voice, she convinced him that she could him escape, then slipped out a bathroom window. Lord Lucan was never seen again.

The legacy of Benihana.

The tale of the only art exhibit in space.

Investigating the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks.

On the cross-country travels of the fugitive mob boss.

The oracular works of Philip K. Dick.

On the twilight of the Iranian Revolution.

On the Red Sox’s historic implosion:

Drinking beer in the Sox clubhouse is permissible. So is ordering take-out chicken and biscuits. Playing video games on one of the clubhouse’s flat-screen televisions is OK, too. But for the Sox pitching trio to do all three during games, rather than show solidarity with their teammates in the dugout, violated an unwritten rule that players support each other, especially in times of crisis.