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October 2017

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Features

Salih

The Salvation of Mosul

An Iraqi archaeologist braved ISIS snipers and booby-trapped ruins to rescue cultural treasures in the city and nearby legendary Nineveh and Nimrud

Calder, c. 1931

Calder’s Magic Year

People everywhere are delighted by his animated abstractions, but surprisingly little is known about the artist. Now, in an exclusive adaptation from Calder: The Conquest of Time, his first biographer reveals the crucial events that would forge America’s most beloved sculptor.

A 35-foot-tall statue of Lenin

What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?

We journey through Vladimir Putin’s Russia to measure the aftershocks of the political explosion that rocked the world a century ago—an event that the nation itself is pointedly ignoring

Photographs by Olga Ingurazova

Departments

Discussion

Reader responses to our September issue

In Gourd We Trust

How our most symbolic squash grew to bizarre proportions and took over the world

Mississippi Martyr

Recalling a lynching that shocked America and galvanized the civil rights movement

The Illusion of Reality

The shocking power of virtual reality was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago

Fasten Your Headsets

Training doctors. Treating anxiety. Traveling to the roof of the world. As VR technology gets better and cheaper, all kinds of people are finding there is a substitute for experience after all.

Game Changers

The spectacular play you see today owes a mighty debt to the revolutionary, slam-dunking ABA

What Do Animals Think of the Greek Financial Crisis?

In a new adult picture book, Ungrateful Mammals, the ever-inventive Dave Eggers pairs his whimsical drawings with quirky quotations

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