A Century of Destiny | Newsweek The Boomer Files

HISTORY
Bombs in the Basement
Christopher Dickey 5/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
My uncle Tom Dickey died a natural death in 1987. But when I read an article recently about Sam White, a collector of Civil War relics who was killed by a cannon ball from the War Between the States just this February, it made me think my uncle was mostly just lucky.
A Bedrock Principle
Evan Thomas 5/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
In his second inaugural address President Bush delivered an impassioned paean to the virtues of liberty and democracy. He declared that all peoples everywhere long for the right to be free and to choose their own leaders. It was a terrific speech. If only it were true.
HEALTH
War on Wounds
Anne Underwood
To visit Wake Forest University's institute for Regenerative Medicine is to enter a surreal world where scientists create living organs—hearts, bladders and even kidneys—that function like the real thing. Skin, bone, cartilage, blood vessels, nerves: nothing seems too ambitious for director Anthony Atala and his staff of 150 to craft. And while none of their creations are available from your doctor yet—most are still being tested in animals—there have been enough small-scale successes in humans that the U.S. military is suddenly very interested.
INTERNATIONAL
The Rise of the Rest
Fareed Zakaria
Americans are glum at the moment. No, I mean really glum. In April, a new poll revealed that 81 percent of the American people believe that the country is on the "wrong track." In the 25 years that pollsters have asked this question, last month's response was by far the most negative. Other polls, asking similar questions, found levels of gloom that were even more alarming, often at 30- and 40-year highs. There are reasons to be pessimistic—a financial panic and looming recession, a seemingly endless war in Iraq, and the ongoing threat of terrorism. But the facts on the ground—unemployment numbers, foreclosure rates, deaths from terror attacks—are simply not dire enough to explain the present atmosphere of malaise.
WORLD AFFAIRS
The Return Of The Old Caudillo
Mac Margolis
Listen to the rhetoric gusting around much of Latin America these days and you'd be forgiven for wondering if a new cold war was in the making. Suddenly, heavy-handed state interventions into the economy, such as price controls, stiff taxes and loose money, are back in fashion. So are takeovers of foreign assets, usually garnished with broadsides against "imperialismo." It's not just Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan strongman, who in the name of his "Bolivarian revolution" has seized multinational oil holdings, bullied business, and generally beat the gringo devil. The demonization of the free market and its foreign sponsors is spreading throughout the region—and the sound bites are getting shriller. "The capitalist era is over!" vowed Evo Morales of Bolivia.
MY TURN
Hitler Killed My Father

I am approaching another anniversary of my father's death. It will be more than a dozen years since he passed away. I still don't agree with the cause of death on the certificate. The cause of death, according to the doctor, was cancer. That was not what killed my father. The cause of death was Adolf Hitler. My father was a Holocaust survivor. He lived and breathed being a Holocaust survivor. It defined him. It is on his tombstone. His whole life in America revolved around World War II. It was evident in his everyday life. I remember when we were in a hotel in the Catskill Mountains one summer, and there was a fly zapper in front of the lobby. My father heard the noise, saw the flies and mosquitoes get zapped and very quietly said, "That's how Hitler did it, too." There was no escaping his past.