• What Is Hugo Chávez Up To? by Joshua Kucera Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has set alarms ringing with his efforts to create a global anti-American coalition.
• The WikiLeaks Illusion by Alasdair Roberts WikiLeaks’ tsunami of revelations from U.S. government sources last year did not change the world, but it did change WikiLeaks.
• Long Live the Industrial City by Tom Vanderbilt New York City’s garment district illustrates that manufacturing can still be vital to the innovation that cities foster.
• Rethinking the Great Recession by Robert J. Samuelson In embracing a victims-and-villains explanation of the recession, Americans are missing important lessons about the future of the U.S. economy.
• What Is a Tree Worth? by Jill Jonnes Trees brighten city streets and delight nature-starved urbanites. Now scientists are learning that they also play a crucial role in the green infrastructure of America’s cities.
• Nuclear Is Not the Way by Brice Smith and Arjun Makhijani Relying upon nuclear power to combat global warming poses risks that are too severe, given that safer alternatives are available.
• Nuclear Power Is the Future by Max Schulz Nuclear power alone is positioned to help meet the world's burgeoning energy demand and supply electricity to power-starved areas of the world.
• America: Land of Loners? by Daniel Akst Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship.
• The Bounty Hunter's Pursuit of Justice by Alex Tabarrok When felony defendants jump bail, bounty hunters spring into action. It’s a uniquely American system, and it works.
• The Arab Tomorrow by David B. Ottaway The Arab world today is ruled by contradiction. Turmoil and stagnation prevail, as colossal wealth and hypermodern cities collide with mass illiteracy and rage-filled imams. In this new diversity may lie disaster, or the makings of a better Arab future.
• A History of the Past:
  'Life Reeked With Joy' by Anders Henriksson Possibly as an act of vengeance, a history professor--compiling, verbatim, several decades' worth of freshman papers--offers some of his students’ more striking insights into European history from the Middle Ages to the present.

Included: atheist ministers, humanized robots, and military involvement in politics.