[Editor's Note]
Why the AR-15 rifle is here to stay,
the conspiracy theories of Room 237,
and more
[Perspective]
The firearm as emblem of personal sovereignty
“Let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we?”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Report]
How to Make Your Own AR-15

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The gun Congress can’t ban
“Even if federal gun-control advocates got everything they wanted, they couldn’t prevent America’s most popular rifle from being made, sold, and used. Understanding why this is true requires an examination of how the firearm is made.”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum

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[Harper's Finest]
Wherein the author enrolls in a clinical drug trial
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science.”
Illustration by Ernst Kreidolf
[Report]
The looming collapse of agriculture on the Great Plains
“During the early 1990s, farmers throughout the Great Plains began to notice a decline in their wells. Irrigation systems from the Dakotas to Texas dipped, and, in some places, have been abandoned entirely.”
Illustration (detail) by Jeffery Smith

Years of consideration preceding the inclusion of the word “phat” in Random House’s 1996 Compact Unabridged Dictionary:

4

Scientists created crash helmets that stink when cracked and fruit flies to whom blue light smells delicious.

In Belize, a construction company bulldozed a 2,300-year-old Mayan temple to make road fill.

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Six Questions — May 24, 2013, 8:00 am

The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village

Anna Badkhen on life in rural Afghanistan and the friction between violence and beauty

Anna Badkhen. Photo by Mari Bastashevski

Browsings — May 23, 2013, 9:00 am

Surprisingly Germane

Tracing the Holocaust-Symbol Theory of The Shining

Adler Typewriter

Harper's Finest — May 21, 2013, 3:09 pm

Wil S. Hylton’s “Broken Heartland” (2012)

The looming collapse of agriculture on the Great Plains

Weekly Review — May 21, 2013, 8:30 am

Weekly Review

Government power-drunkenness, space oddities, and anti-lesbian prejudice on the Isle of Man

An American Mastiff.

Précis — May 20, 2013, 9:00 am

Dan Baum Argues That Efforts to Ban the AR-15 are Hopeless

“The smart question is not ‘How we can ban more guns?’ but ‘How can we live more safely among the millions of guns already floating around?’ ”

Harper's Finest — May 20, 2013, 9:00 am

Gary Greenberg’s “Manufacturing Depression” (2007)

“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science.”

“The Distraught Queen of Butterflies,” by Ernst Kreidolf (thumb)

Perspective — May 17, 2013, 9:00 am

On Gun Control and the Great American Debate Over Individualism

The firearm as emblem of personal sovereignty

Illustration by Jeremy Traum (thumb)

Editor's Note — May 16, 2013, 1:43 pm

Introducing the June Issue of Harper’s Magazine

Why the AR-15 rifle is here to stay, the conspiracy theories of Room 237, and more

Harper's Magazine, June 2013 (thumb)

Publisher's Note — May 16, 2013, 11:55 am

In Boston, An Exercise in Intimidation

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, why did so few people protest the decision to lock down parts of the city?

Writing a Book

Weekly Review — May 14, 2013, 8:00 am

Weekly Review

Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power, the IRS and DOJ overstep their bounds, and the Pope comes out against spinsters

Saluting the Town (Stream)

Official Business — May 10, 2013, 3:00 pm

Lydia Davis at the Frieze Art Fair

New York–area readers, please join Readings editor Emily Stokes and author Lydia Davis on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Frieze New York art fair on Randall’s Island.

Art — May 10, 2013, 9:00 am

"Vermillion Flycatcher, Arizona, May 1941," by Eliot Porter

“Vermilion Flycatcher, Arizona, May 1941.” Eliot Porter’s work will be on view through July as part of Artist’s Choice: Trisha Donnelly at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. © Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Six Questions — May 9, 2013, 9:00 am

Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere

Lucas Mann on hope and change in a minor-league-baseball city

Lucas Mann (thumb)

Weekly Review — May 7, 2013, 8:00 am

Weekly Review

One World Trade Center gets its spire, the Gitmo hunger strike continues, and the OED explores revirginize

A Humbug (thumb)

Heart of Empire — May 6, 2013, 4:44 pm

Targeting Lincoln

How bank-friendly legislators are gutting the Lincoln Amendment to the Dodd–Frank Act

“YES OR NO—SPEAK!—IS THERE ANOTHER LIFE?” (Harper's Magazine, “Commodus” (Jan 1889)

Postcard — May 3, 2013, 1:20 pm

Washington On Parade

Watching the red carpet at the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

White House Correspondents' Dinner Red Carpet. ©© Flickr user angela n.

Art — May 2, 2013, 9:00 am

Wait and watch awhile (high), by Paul Wackers

Wait and watch awhile (high) was featured in the May 2013 Readings section. Paul Wackers‘s work will be on view in June at Narwhal gallery in Toronto. Courtesy the artist and A.L.I.C.E. Gallery, Brussels

Weekly Review — April 30, 2013, 8:00 am

Weekly Review

A Bangladeshi building collapses, George W. Bush’s presidential library opens, and koala chlamydia ravages Australia

Babylonian Lion (thumb)

Mentions — April 29, 2013, 7:06 pm

Barbara Ehrenreich on Breast Cancer

A recent New York Times Magazine feature recalls Barbara Ehrenreich’s November 2001 story, “Welcome to Cancerland”

THE CURRENT ISSUE

June 2013

How to Make Your Own AR-15

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Long Division

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The Separating Sickness

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HARPER’S FINEST

Article — From the May 2007 issue

Manufacturing Depression

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“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”

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