The New Yorker

The Lockheed Incident-II

How the bribery case against Kakuei Tanaka exposed Japan’s “black mist,” reshaped politics, and forced a national reckoning.

Saigon Exit

An eyewitness account of Saigon’s fall traces last-minute American decisions, frantic evacuations, and the uncertain birth of a new Vietnam.

From MacArthur to Miki-III

In a rapidly changing Japan, politicians, students, priests, and novelists struggle with urban chaos, spiritual emptiness, and “my-homeism.”

The Search for Marvin Gardens

“The Search for Marvin Gardens” by John McPhee was published in the print edition of the September 9, 1972, issue of The New Yorker.

The Conching Rooms

“The Conching Rooms” by John McPhee was published in the print edition of the May 13, 1972, issue of The New Yorker.

We Have Always Survived

A quarter century in Saigon, from colonial café society to war-ravaged sprawl, reveals corruption, resilience, and a city remade by occupation.

Perfect Past

Nabokov's crystalline recreation of a Russian childhood — the precise rendering of memory's textures and colors, and the impossibility of recovering what has been perfectly loved.

Letter from Saigon

A correspondent chronicles Diem’s fall, the Buddhist uprising, and the generals’ intricate coup in an unraveling Saigon.

Die Mauer

“Die Mauer” by John Bainbridge was published in the print edition of the October 27, 1962, issue of The New Yorker.

Diem

A mandarin-turned-President, Ngo Dinh Diem rises from exile to rescue South Vietnam, then rules it as an insular family regime.

Farewell, My Lovely

“Farewell, My Lovely!” by E. B. White was published in the print edition of the May 16, 1936, issue of The New Yorker.

China’s Age of Malaise

I Want This Apartment

The Origami Lab

Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule

The Mosquito Solution

The Deadliest Virus

John Rock's Error

Nature's Bioterrorist

Michael Specter is author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, published November 2009. He's a staff writer for The New Yorker.

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