| Letters | 4 | |
| Mismanaged Care | Lily Huang, M.D., Wil S. Hylton | |
| Notebook | 9 | |
| Reading the Mail | Lewis H. Lapham | |
| Harper's Index | 13 | |
| Readings | 15 | |
| Conditional State | an interview with Amos Oz and David Grossman | |
| I Feel the Need | prospective slogans for the Air Force Academy | |
| Stayin' Alive | the hazards of spiritual assistance | |
| Frontiers of Science | What is the purpose of lips? | |
| Riding Shotgun | Joseph Miedzianowski and William Jarding | |
| Bighousekeeping | how to make a toilet-paper bomb | |
| Amor Perdida | Tennessee Williams | |
| And . . . | Alex Kanevsky, Michael Kenna, Jon Rubin, and activities of a feudalistic and suspicious nature are prohibited | |
| Essay | 35 | |
| JUNK POLITICS | Benjamin DeMott | |
| A voter's guide to the post-literate election | ||
| Proposal | 44 | |
| TURN ON, TUNE IN | Thomas de Zengotita | |
| Toward a progressive talk show | ||
| Report | 53 | |
| THE WAR BUSINESS | Chalmers Johnson | |
| Squeezing a profit from the wreckage in Iraq | ||
| Story | 61 | |
| THE TWO OF THEM | Annie Dillard | |
| Letter from Alaska | 67 | |
| A NORTHERN FRONT | John Hildebrand | |
| Seeking refuge in oil and in wilderness | ||
| Reviews | 77 | |
| NEW BOOKS | John Leonard | |
| SONS AND MONSTERS | Jonathan Dee | |
| John O'Hara gains a defender | ||
| REVISITING THE ICONS | Francine Prose | |
| The intimate photography of Diane Arbus | ||
| Puzzle | 91 Richard E. Maltby Jr. | |
| Quiz | 92 | |
| RUNNING WILD |
