Fall 2011, No. 22

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.

Back Issues Archive

Symposium

A Decade Squandered

If on the morning of September 12, 2001 we'd been asked what we hoped to see happen in the United States over the coming decade, we'd have said something like: a forceful and proportional response to the perpetrators of the...

By The Editors

3 MIN READ

Freedom and 9/11

By Orlando Patterson

7 MIN READ

Terror and Mortality

By Jessica Stern

7 MIN READ

Perspective, Please

By Robert Wright

6 MIN READ

Our Foreign Policy Blind Spots

By Leslie Gelb

8 MIN READ

The War at Home

By Elizabeth Anderson

5 MIN READ

Our Decimated Military

By Lawrence Korb

6 MIN READ

The Future of Al Qaeda

By Fawaz Gerges

5 MIN READ

Our Waning Confidence

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

6 MIN READ

From Ground Zero to Tahrir Square

By Avishai Margalit

6 MIN READ

When the Great Decline Began

By Michael Kazin

5 MIN READ

The Politics of Fear

By Corey Robin

6 MIN READ

Features

The Church of Labor

One source of labor’s woes that progressives would rather overlook: our too aggressive secularism.

By Lew Daly

28 MIN READ

The Whole World Is Watching

In an increasingly monitored world, how can consumers and citizens reclaim ownership of their private lives?

26 MIN READ

Book Reviews

Small Change

The big theories of economic development turned out to be wrong. Finding out what works on the ground offers a path to curbing global poverty.

13 MIN READ

The Crime of Punishment

The late Bill Stuntz was America's leading thinker on criminal justice—and its hardest to categorize.

By Lincoln Caplan

13 MIN READ

System Failure

How to think about financial regulation in an era of systemic risk.

By Daniel Carpenter

15 MIN READ

The Fire Last Time

The Chicago riots of 1919 and the civil rights movement before Rosa Parks.

By Clay Risen

15 MIN READ

Responses

The Distributive Constitution

A progressive counter to conservative originalism needs to tell a broader story about material security and economic life. A response to Geoffrey R. Stone, William P. Marshall, Doug Kendall, and Jim Ryan.

By William E. Forbath

11 MIN READ

What Anti-Growth Agenda?

Contrary to centrist critiques, the left has always promoted growth and innovation. A response to William Galston.

By Lawrence Mishel

10 MIN READ

Recounting

American Spring

Ten years after 9/11, progressives need to fashion a pro-democracy movement here at home.

By Andrei Cherny

11 MIN READ

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Michael Tomasky introduces Issue #22.

By Michael Tomasky

4 MIN READ

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Letters from our readers

By Democracy Readers

4 MIN READ

Back Issues Archive