A Kashmiri in America: The Lucky Shade of Brown /
On a chilly January evening in 2004, as the Austrian airliner hovered over Washington, my heart pounded fast and my legs went numb. It was my first visit to the United States, and I tried to calm myself before the questions of an immigration officer. Again and again I’d been told the same thing: A [...]
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Exceptionalism: America the Exempt /
In 1796 George Washington, calling himself “an old and affectionate friend” of the new republic, published his Farewell Address to the nation. Two hundred and twelve years later, it is one of the most oft-cited testimonials to the phenomenon of America’s “exceptionalism,” its durability, and its alleged invincibility.
Washington passed on his reflections in the hopes [...]
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Mind Blindness and the Decline of Hitchhiking /
Most nations are stubbornly in love with themselves and hardly interested in the virtues of others. It is pretty unhelpful but not uncommon for a nation to believe so devoutly in its superiority that it vigorously promotes the notion that every other nation is barbarous.
After an opening like this, the next word you expect is [...]
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Of Turbans and Neckties : Why Past Defines Present /
In a profession that treasures its heroes, ask any correspondent about Kif, John Kifner of the New York Times. After editing his Williams College paper, he joined the Times as a copy boy in 1963 and badgered his bosses for reporting assignments. Soon, he was a star. With ingenuity, endless energy, and his fabled war [...]
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A Sampling: How Young Americans See the World /
If an 18-year-old Bostonian named Henry is any guide, America is in deep trouble. ON a world map, he placed Baghdad in Europe, Kabul in West Africa, and Rome in Southern Argentina. Asked to name the world’s five most pressing issues, he cited Darfur, although he thought it was in Saudi Arabia. He came up [...]
In America / Essays / Survey
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