From Monthly Review, more on Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine. Five decades of revolution: Waiting for a new dawn in Havana. A review of A Disastrous History of the World by John Withington. Why not start your weekend on Wednesday? There's no need to preach the gospel of leisure — most of us work less than our parents did. A review of The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime by Nicole Rafter. Houses of Pain: When did declining home prices become politically intolerable? Michael Berube reviews Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture by Alan Sokal. A review of Margaret Mead: The Making of an American Icon by Nancy C. Lutkehaus. Peter Singer on the tragic cost of being unscientific. Congratulations, Obama — here's your decay curve: Researchers analyze the productivity and popularity of new U.S. presidents. More and more on Shakespeare and Modern Culture by Marjorie Garber. From Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria on writing the rules for a new world; and Larry Diamond on doing democracy promotion right. Expanding liberty's reach: Justice Stephen Field and the libertarian legacy of the 14th Amendment. Explosives and giant machines are destroying Appalachian peaks to obtain coal; in a West Virginia town, residents and the industry fight over a mountain's fate. An “anti-energy” drink’s novel image: chic — or shameful?

From Folio, a cover story on why would anyone launch a print magazine today? A review of The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America by Steven Johnson. A review of The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance: Skeptics, Libertines, and Opera by Edward Muir. Ronald Bailey on exposing Obama's genome — and Oprah Winfrey's, Brad Pitts', and yours. If you can draw, then you should be in school: The case for making American universities into patrons of the arts. From Scientific American, does exercise really make you healthier? Shankar Vedantam on how high-status criminals face greatest public wrath. Reading isn't fundamental: How to help your child learn to read. After decades of discouraging setbacks, plasma physics has made jaw-dropping recent progress — could it save the world? More on Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander. Searching for Jesse Camp: Personal desperation led to a quick, shallow obsession with MTV’s most unlikely (and annoying) star. An interview with Salman Rushdie: "Provoking people is in my DNA". A review of The Forsaken: From the Great Depression to the Gulags: Hope and Betrayal in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis. From TED, Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"; and Stephen Hawking is asking big questions about the universe. 

From MR, how should the Left criticize Obama? Gregory W. Esteven investigates. From Cracked, an article on why America is still awesome. Gigonomics, now rock bands must sing for their supper: It used to be all about records, but now the music business revolves around gigs. Tim Wu reviews The Future of the Internet (And How to Stop It) by Jonathan Zittrain. What we now think of as the picture of American masculinity is attributable in large part to J.C. Leyendecker — who? Republicans are blinded by love: Lefties just don't have the same feeling about America as the hard right does. Sex on the Beach: Is Western decadence a Molotov Cocktail? A review of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D Blechman. The mail-order catalog is dead — all hail the mail-order catalog: An interview with Robin Cherry, author of Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail Order Shopping. A review of Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language by Abdelfattah Kilito. From n+1, John Barry on not being invited to speak at panel discussions; and an article on The People of the Magazine. A look at how hunting is driving "evolution in reverse". Bourbon’s Beauty: An ode to a distinctly American drink. It’s no longer just guide dogs for blind people — service animals now include monkeys for quadriplegics, parrots for psychotics and at least one assistance duck.

From Harper's, justice after Bush: Scott Horton on prosecuting an outlaw administration. From In These Times, an article on two dangerous Bush-Cheney myths. From The Hindu, why do Indians, across the political spectrum, seem to crave Western approval for their actions, policies and prejudices? How footnotes changed history: We all know about great heroes and epic battles, but the course of history often hinges on small accidents of chance; here are the slip-ups and lucky escapes that changed the world. Why do apologies for history sometimes work and sometimes don't? From Index on Censorship, Salman Rushdie’s critics lost the battle, but they won the war against free speech, says Kenan Malik; and a return to law and order, national pride and upright morals is colliding with Russia’s exuberant and skandal-seeking art world. How do you draw the line between art and craft? David McFadden, head curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, says don't bother. An interview with Mickey Rapkin, author of Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory. A review of Future Imperfect. Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World by David D. Friedman. From Thermopylae to the Twin towers: An article on the West’s selective reading of history. A look at what science says about enlightened sex. Here are 10 fixes for the planet.