June 2009

In This Issue

Joshua Wolf Shenk reveals the secret of happiness; Harris Collingwood questions whether CEOs matter; Douglas Foster profiles Jacob Zuma; James Parker explores the SpongeBob phenomenon; Christopher Hitchens rereads Hemingway; Joseph O'Neill unearths the real Flannery O'Connor; and much more.

Features

What Makes Us Happy?

An inside look at an unprecedented seven-decade study of a group of Harvard men suggests that one thing, above all, truly makes a difference.

Joshua Wolf Shenk

Do CEOs Matter?

Apple’s stock rises and falls with the faintest rumors about Steve Jobs's health. But how much influence do CEOs really have?

Harris Collingwood

Hope Floats

As the recession blows a gale, the world’s most expensive cruise ship nears completion.

Rory Nugent

Fashion in Dark Times

As the ever-frivolous industry enters a new era, customers are thinking more—a prospect that thrills the best designers

Benjamin Schwarz

Jacob’s Ladder

Is South Africa's next president a savior, a criminal, a Marxist revolutionary—or all of the above?

Douglas Foster

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Dispatches

Michael Nichols/National Geographic Stock
As Go the Hippos …
Under the weight of Congo’s civil war, an ecosystem collapses.
Delphine Schrank
Dog Bites Bug
How man’s best friend can help him evict his nastiest bedmate
Pamela Paul
From Russia, With Self-Loathing
Meet Agniya Kuznetsova, the It Girl for a poorer, darker, angrier Russia.
Peter Savodnik
Cragi Phillips
American Sushi
U.S. chefs are bringing Japan’s trademark cuisine back to its roots.
Trevor Corson
David C. Sampson
Cold Fusion
Ice—the most neglected of cocktail ingredients—can ruin a drink or make it come alive.
Wayne Curtis
St. John Moore
Beijing’s Almost-Perfect Hotel
The Opposite House is an idealistic island in a country that rarely worries about details
James Fallows

Books

Lebrecht Authors
Hemingway's Libidinous Feast
In a restored edition of a great classic, sexual anxiety looms large.
Christopher Hitchens
Marc Yankus
Touched by Evil
The real spiritual drama in Flannery O’Connor’s fiction was even darker than the one she acknowledged.
Joseph O’Neill
Endangered Species: Black Rhinoceros 1983: Collection of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Newy York; 2009, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York
Cover to Cover
Reconsider the rhino; Nightingale unveiled; admissions of guilt; and more

Columns

Harry Campbell
Sink and Swim
Bankruptcy helps the undeserving—and that’s the way it should be.
Megan McArdle
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
SpongeBob's Golden Dream
The mysterious allure of the fry cook from Bikini Bottom
James Parker