“The Secret History of the Magna Carta” by Peter Linebaugh; Jonathan R. Cole on defending the university post–9/11; “Just Marriage”: Mary Lyndon Shanley on the public importance of private unions; Abbott Gleason compares today’s antiliberal revolt to that of 1920s Europe; and Leonardo Avritzer examines the chances Brazil’s President Lula has to redeem democracy in Latin America. In reviews: Susie Linfield on the literature of political memory; Jehangir Pocha on Zoroastrianism; and Charles Lawrence on Young, Gifted, and Black. In the New Fiction Forum, James Hynes surveys works by British novelist Adam Thorpe. Poems by Claudia Rankine, Aaron Belz, and Nikolai Zabolotsky.

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, a forum with Khaled Abou El Fadl, William Quandt, Muqtedar Khan, Jeremy Waldron, Saba Mahmood, and others. In the New Fiction Forum, Tom Bissell on the short stories of Elizabeth Crane and Marshall Boswell. Owen R. Cote, Jr. examines a security strategy doomed to failure. George Scialabba on the real problem behind the 2000 election. Maureen N. McLane on the East Harlem Poetry Project. Short fiction from A. L. Kennedy. Stephen Burt reviews nine new poets. Benjamin Paloff examines the poetry and controversy of Tom Paulin. Plus: Poems by Cal Bedient, Liz Waldner, and Andrew Zawacki; Jennifer Howard on Jean-Patrick Manchette; and Alan Stone on The Hours.

War and Democracy with John W. Dower, Uday Singh Mehta, Helena Cobban, and Neta C. Crawford. Patrick Erouart-Siad rides finds French literature out of touch with social realities; James Campbell remembers legendary New Yorker editor Robert Maxwell. Alan A. Stone reconsiders The Battle of Algiers. Carroll Bogert looks at works on humanitarian intervention; Archon Fung searches for lessons from grass-roots organizing. Tod Marshall examines the lyric verse of Peter Sacks and Donald Revell. Peter Gizzi introduces Aaron Kunin in the Poet’s Sampler. Poems by Rae Armantrout, Susan Davis, Emily Fragos, Brian Henry, Bill Knott, and Timothy Liu.

Civil liberties after 9/11 with David Cole, Bonnie Honig, Amitai Etzioni, Juliette Kayyem, Alan Dershowitz, Laurence Tribe, and others. In the New Fiction Forum, Roger Boylan journeys through the glamorous, doomed world of Alan Furst. Robert S. Boynton examines the strange case of Masud Khan, the “fallen angel” of psychoanalysis. The winner of the Tenth Annual Short Story Contest is announced. Seyla Benhabib reviews Richard Wolin’s Heidegger’s Children, Mark Lilla’s The Reckless Mind, and Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem. Karen Volkman looks at the Collected Works of Lorine Niedecker, rural Wisconsin’s exhilarating, lost poet. New poems by Dorothea Tanning, Richard Howard, and John Latta, and more.

Elaine Scarry compares the stories of two airplanes hijacked on 9/11 to question our traditional, “top-down” defense structure; Richard Falk, Antonia Chayes, Charles Knight, Ellen Willis, and others respond. Vivian Gornick takes a fresh look at feminist literary icons Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, and Marguerite Duras, and finds they haven’t aged well. Susan F. Hirsch on her experience in the U.S. embassy bombing trials and why she didn’t testify; Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold on American Jews’ protest and support of Israeli policy. John D’Agata reviews Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho. Plus: new poems by Matthew Zapruder, Ethan Paquin, contest winner Max Winter, and Katy Lederer in our Poet’s Sampler. Plus, a lively exchange on intelligent design with William Dembski and H. Allen Orr.

A forum on the privatization of public goods with David Bollier, Marcia Angell, Nicholas Johnson, Tom Palmer, and others. Charles Tilly on the nature of collective violence. Helena Cobban on growing despair in the Middle East. Jason M. Baskin on Thomas Bernhard, plus reviews of Lucius Shepard, Nora Eisenberg, and Hans Koning. A lively exchange on Helena Cobban's "Crime and Punishment in Rwanda" with Kenneth Roth and Alison DesForges. H. Allen Orr reviews William Dembski's No Free Lunch. New poems by Arthur Sze, Ray DiPalma, James Galvin, and April Bernard, and more.

Crime, punishment, and the limits of law, with essays by Helena Cobban, Bernard Harcourt, and Loïc Wacquant. Hugo Adam Bedau reviews recent books on capital punishment. Stephen Burt on Rae Armantrout's poetry of suspicion. James Campbell examines the case of Jonathan Franzen and Oprah's Book Club; Drake Bennett surveys the novels of Howard Norman. Fiction by Ryan G. Van Cleave. Poems by Nicholas Laughlin, Rae Armantrout, Carmen Giminez-Rosello, and others.

A debate on the state of American caregiving with Jody Heymann, Anne Alstott, Theda Skocpol, William A. Galston, Isabelle Ferreras, Frances Fox Piven, and others. Sohail H. Hashmi, Amina Wadud, and John L. Esposito respond to Khaled Abu Al Fadl's "The Place of Tolerance in Islam." Roger Boylan explores inner and outer exile in the novels of James Hamilton-Paterson; Jennifer Howard places the spy thrillers of Eric Ambler in a political context. Fiction by Robin Bradford, the runner-up in our short story contest.