There was a narrow of sliver of time in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001 when it was possible to hope for a united future. Americans rallied around the flag; the world rallied around us. But the years that followed dashed those hopes. A decade on, we are not a stronger country.

We’ve gathered a distinguished group of writers to offer perspective on a sad and enervating decade. From arguments on policy and strategy by Leslie H. Gelb, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Lawrence Korb to reflections on mortality, freedom, and fear offered respectively by Jessica Stern, Orlando Patterson, and Corey Robin, our symposium on the 9/11 decade offers meditations on what went wrong--and how we can make things right again.

Also in the issue, Lew Daly tells the story of the Catholic Church’s role in the rise of collective bargaining in America--and wonders whether progressives’ vigilant secularism may have contributed to labor’s decline. James B. Rule looks at how corporations and the state have encroached into our privacy, and offers ideas on what we can do about it. And there’s more: William Forbath on the progressive constitutional tradition. Lawrence Mishel on the problem with the pro-innovation crowd. Charles Kenny on eradicating global poverty, one small idea at a time. Clay Risen on the civil rights movement before Rosa Parks.