Issue

For 200 years, the United States patent system has protected, enriched, and befuddled inventors. As a tool of corporate growth in a global economy, it is now more important than ever.

To the end of his life, America’s most notorious traitor believed that he was a primary hero of the Revolution.

For a century now, it has been a haven to some, an outrage to others, and it is one of the very few social institutions that have survived their founders’ world.

Ken Burns, the maker of a fine new documentary on the Civil War tells how the medium of film can evoke the emotional reality of history.