Summer 2015, No. 37

In this issue, Nick Hanauer and David Rolf put forward a fantastic big idea about how we can help provide security for workers in the new economy. They call for a “Shared Security System” that would make things like vacation time and sick leave portable across different jobs.

Elsewhere in the issue, Ron Klain provides the second installment in our series on “Our Digital Future,” writing about how we can use the Internet to reduce inequality. Arthur Goldhammer ponders the future of an anxious Europe. Michael Levi argues that natural gas can still be part of the post-coal energy picture. And Jim Sleeper urges us to reconsider the legacy of American Puritanism in a more positive light.

In the books section, David Greenberg casts a skeptical eye on the movement to boycott Israel in academia; Kim Ghattas weighs in on the fight for women’s rights in the Arab world; Amanda Hollis-Brusky discusses the limits of the Supreme Court’s impact; and Adrianna McIntyre scrutinizes Steven Brill’s take on Obamacare. Finally, Geneive Abdo responds to F. Gregory Gause, III’s analysis of the politics of the Gulf states in the previous issue.

Back Issues Archive

Features

Shared Security, Shared Growth

Our changing economy has given rise to a nation of freelancers and contractors—and the need for a twenty-first-century social contract.

By Nick Hanauer David Rolf

30 MIN READ

Inequality and the Internet

How the Internet can be a powerful tool for greater equality and social mobility. The latest installment in our series "Our Digital Future."

By Ronald Klain

16 MIN READ

The Old Continent Creaks

Austerity and the failures of the technocratic elite have created the current populist backlash. France's experience is instructive—and, possibly, ominous.

By Arthur Goldhammer

27 MIN READ

Are American "Investors" Killing Their Golden Geese?

For decades, long-term investing made American enterprise the best in the world. Why that's no longer true, and what should be done to fix it.

By Bill Budinger

10 MIN READ

Fracking and the Climate Debate

Natural gas isn't holding us back from a carbon-free future. In fact, it may help us get there.

By Michael Levi

27 MIN READ

Our Puritan Heritage

Ever since Mencken, the Puritans have had a terrible reputation. They deserve a better legacy, and it's time we rediscovered it.

By Jim Sleeper

31 MIN READ

Book Reviews

The Campus War over Israel

As the movement in academia to boycott and sanction Israel grows more virulent, it threatens to infect mainstream politics, too.

By David Greenberg

19 MIN READ

Our Health Care Tug-of-War

Steven Brill makes some keen points about what works—and what doesn't—in our health care system. He's not so good on what will fix it.

By Adrianna McIntyre

17 MIN READ

Lifting the Veil

In her recipe for how Arab women can attain sexual freedom, Mona Eltahawy sidelines a key ingredient: men.

By Kim Ghattas

16 MIN READ

The Constrained Court

The Supreme Court looms large in the progressive imagination as the enemy of change. But that fixation overstates its role in our politics.

By Amanda Hollis-Brusky

12 MIN READ

Responses

Washington's Limits in the Gulf

The United States has tried for years to unify the Gulf states. But what Washington couldn’t do, maybe Tehran can. A response to F. Gregory Gause, III.

By Geneive Abdo

8 MIN READ

Recounting

In Praise of the Summer Job