1/8 Americans are trapped in two countries with four rival narratives, George Packer writes in our July/August issue. He calls them Free America, Smart America, Real America, and Just America. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
2/8 These four moral identities overlap, morph into, attract, and repel one another, Packer argues. They reflect schisms on both sides of the divide—Free and Real on one side, Smart and Just on the other. But who tends to fall into which camp? theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
3/8 Free America draws on libertarian ideas, which it embeds in consumer capitalism. Historically, it is freedom from government and bureaucrats. Now it is “Get the fuck off my property. Take this mask and shove it.” theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
4/8 Real America believes that the heart of democracy beats hardest in common people who work with their hands. They are a country of white people: evangelical and fundamentalist, isolationist, hostile to modern ideas, and anti-intellectual. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
5/8 Smart America is dominated by the top 10 percent of American incomes. These people drink cold-brewed coffee, believe in institutions and the transnational flow of ideas, welcome novelty and relish diversity, and are withdrawn from national life. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
6/8 Just America includes young and well-educated post-liberal people—Smart America with different terms of accreditation. They believe the country is less a project to be improved than a site of continuous wrong to be battled and can never be made better.theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
7/8 All four narratives “emerged from America’s failure to sustain and enlarge the middle-class democracy of the postwar years,” Packer writes. “They all respond to real problems.” However, “their tendency is also to divide us, pitting tribe against tribe.”theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
8/8 “I don’t much want to live in the republic of any of them,” he writes. However, “we have no choice but to live together.” theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
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1/6 Who is Boris Johnson, really—and what does he stand for? Here’s what the prime minister had to say to @tommctague in a profile his then-director of communications advised him not to do: on.theatln.tc/mRLeF9X
2/6 McTague asked Johnson, a former journalist, to imagine that he was a writer again: How would he open this profile? What is the key to understanding Boris Johnson? After a few ums and ahs, Johnson replied: “Sheer physical fitness. And hard work.” on.theatln.tc/mRLeF9X
3/6 Rereading Johnson’s old columns, McTague noted that the prime minister’s work was far less hostile to Europe than one might imagine. So he asked Johnson what changed:
1/ In our June cover story @ClintSmithIII writes about the Confederate lies that live on. Smith's cover story is part of the second chapter of “Inheritance,” a project about American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
2/ “As I traveled, I was moved by the people who have committed their lives to telling the story of slavery in all its fullness and humanity. And I was struck by the many people I met who believe a version of history that rests on well-documented falsehoods,” he writes.
3/ Buried in Blandford Cemetery, in Petersburg, Virginia, are the bodies of roughly 30,000 Confederate soldiers; it is one of the largest mass graves of Confederate servicemen in the country.
1/ Looking for a new read over the long weekend? Whether you’re in the mood to burst out the door or curl up on a couch this summer, The Atlantic’s writers and editors have book recommendations to match. theatlantic.com/summer-reading…
2/ Craving high drama? “‘I’m With the Band’ stirs a sensation the pandemic denied, of standing in a crowd, gazing up at a superstar, and wondering if you might just catch their eye,” @shirklesxp writes. on.theatln.tc/0zHDjI7
3/ Want to experience a sense of wonder about the universe? Wisława Szymborska’s poetry “can make all of human history seem like a daydream, or a cloud of dust seem like the cosmos," @lenikacruz writes. on.theatln.tc/0zHDjI7
2/ The myth of the Lost Cause began in the late 1800s "to recast the Confederacy as something predicated on family and heritage," @ClintSmithIII writes. "The myth asserts that the Civil War was fought by honorable men protecting their communities, and not about slavery at all.”
3/ While minimizing the horrors of slavery, the myth of the Lost Cause suggests that Black soldiers fought for the Confederacy, in racially integrated regiments. No evidence supports these claims, Smith writes.
1/4 “On a Friday afternoon in early March,” @AmandaMull writes in a piece from our latest magazine issue, “I felt an urge I hadn’t experienced in more than a year: I wanted to buy new clothes. Outside clothes.” theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
2/4 But when she started browsing, all she could find were leggings. “Fashion is an industry built on guessing what people will want to buy months in advance … yet everywhere I looked, there were no guesses at all about spring.”
3/4 Both the fashion industry and American shoppers are stuck on an unfamiliar question, Amanda writes: What do you wear to reenter society? theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
1/ This week we launched Chapter 2 of “Inheritance,” a project about American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory. theatlantic.com/inheritance/
2/ The theme for Chapter 2 is “Where Memories Live.” For the Black community, memory and history—two of the most important pillars in this project—are intrinsically tied to spaces. theatlantic.com/inheritance/
3/ When we tell the story of Black America, returning to a place—whether physical or metaphorical—can be a crucial element of understanding an event and its impact. theatlantic.com/inheritance/