From Dissent, a review of A Guest in My Own Country: A Hungarian Life and The City Builder by George Konrad; and on the Turin Book Fair controversy: An interview with Mitchell Cohen. From First Things, Robert George on law and moral purpose; an article on Justice Kennedy; and a review of Law as a Means to an End: Threat to the Rule of Law by Brian Z. Tamanaha. From CT, a review of Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind by John Mark (and more on Frank Schaeffer). A review of Levelling the Playing Field: The Idea of Equal Opportunity and Its Place in Egalitarian Thought by Andrew Mason. What are the great scientific challenges of the century? Scientists are writing the Book of All Species on the Web, in the hopes it will be useful to scientists and nonscientists alike. From Edge, Nicholas A. Christakis on why social networks are like the eye. The Flip Side of Internet Fame: In the age of Google and YouTube, public shaming can turn anybody into a celebrity—or a fool. How dissent is sustained in the face of consumerism and co-optation in Bloomington, Indiana, a quintessential midwestern college town. Here's an analysis of Obama's stump speech — even white supremacists don't hate Obama. Why are people having fewer kids? Perhaps it's because they don't like them very much.
