From Esquire, campaign manager David Plouffe got the first black president elected — now he's moving on to something even more difficult, and potentially more important. Bryan Burrough tracks the rise and fall of the ornery, loudmouthed state of Texas (and an excerpt from The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes). From n+1, one more time: The Britney Symposium. Bored with the paparazzi's take on Spears? A three-volume self-reflection is coming. An interview with Jessica Valenti, author of PurityMyth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. From Merkur, the witches and werewolves of post-Soviet fantasy fiction embody the morality of a society in denial about its criminal past. As an anthropologist working in Russia in the 1990s, Sigrid Rausing believed a culture of memorials would emerge to mark the Soviet past — how wrong she was. From First Principles, Paul Gottfried on understanding Nietzsche; and James V. Schall on necessarily making us “good”. Coming to America: Life as a refugee can mean putting dreams on hold, but on American campuses, a few young Iraqis are getting a second chance. Bring back the draft: Why a return to mass conscription is the only way to win the war on terror. A review of Servants of War: Private Military Corporations and the Profit of Conflict by Rolf Uesseler.
