December 1997
In This Issue
Robert D. Kaplan, “Was Democracy Just a Moment?”; Alan S. Blinder and Richard E. Quandt, “The Computer and the Economy”; Paul R. Ehrlich et al, “No Middle Way on the Environment”; Jonathan Scull, “All Sales Are Vinyl”; and much more.
Articles
Was Democracy Just a Moment?
The global triumph of democracy was to be the glorious climax of the American Century. But democracy may not be the system that will best serve the world—or even the one that will prevail in places that now consider themselves bastions of freedom.
No Middle Way on the Environment
The authors, environmental scientists, warn that in the debate between "cornucopians" and informed prophets of the dangers posed by overconsumption, splitting the difference won't work -- and that the cornucopians are wrong.
Doggone
Reflections on an unlikely family heirloom
Almanac
The Computer and the Economy
Will information technology ever produce the productivity gains that were predicted?
But Not Least
In tribute to those who are forgotten but not gone
Rails to Trails
Across America disused railbeds are being converted to trails for hiking and biking. Soon a national trail will link the coasts
Pleasure Islands
The Canaries offer different visions of the sublime
All Sales Are Vinyl
Shopping for LPs in the many villages of downtown New York City
Sweetness and Light
Wines for dessert that are neither cloying nor overwhelming.
The Idea of the South
The American South may be joining the national parade, but writing about the South still tries to establish its distinctiveness
Toward a New Public School
77 North Washington Street
Letters
At Last Count
Word Watch
A selection of terms that have newly been coined, that have recently acquired new currency, or that have taken on new meanings, compiled by the executive editor of the
