A letter from the editors.

Suzanne Schneider on George W. Bush's proclamation of victory, sacrifice and progress in the philosophy of history, and dread and waste at history's end.

Sarah Jaffe on Donald Trump's Rust Belt "Mission Accomplished" moment and the need for a struggle where “we need not affirm our own exploitation to justify our existence.”

Paul Swartz and Lena H. Chandhok's quiz “United Stunts of America” explores America’s varied history of political stunts—from the shocking to the downright strange.

Emily Ogden discovers a new kind of guy, one of the crucial archetypes of our age of grift and graft—he is the hero of his own life. Exceptional! Unimpeachable!

Anjuli Raza Kolb's two poems, “9/11 poem" and "Qur’anic Asterisk," about the difficult materiality of memory and the delicacy, humor, and eros that somehow survive, even in damaged life.