Foreword: Of Topics by Robert Atwan

Introduction by David Brooks

BENJAMIN ANASTAS. The Foul Reign of “Self-Reliance”
from The New York Times Magazine

MARCIA ANGELL. The Crazy State of Psychiatry
from The New York Review of Books

MIAH ARNOLD. You Owe Me
from Michigan Quarterly Review

GEOFFREY BENT. Edward Hopper and the Geometry of Despair
from Boulevard

ROBERT BOYERS. A Beauty
from Agni

DUDLEY CLENDINEN. The Good Short Life
from The New York Times Sunday Review

PAUL COLLINS. Vanishing Act
from Lapham’s Quarterly

MARK DOTY. Insatiable
from Granta

MARK EDMUNDSON. Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?
from The Oxford American

JOSEPH EPSTEIN. Duh, Bor-ing
from Commentary

JONATHAN FRANZEN. Farther Away
from The New Yorker

MALCOLM GLADWELL. Creation Myth
from The New Yorker

PETER HESSLER. Dr. Don
from The New Yorker

EWA HRYNIEWICZ-YARBROUGH. Objects of Affection
from Ploughshares

GARRET KEIZER. Getting Schooled
from Harper’s Magazine

DAVID J. LAWLESS. My Father/My Husband
from Prism

ALAN LIGHTMAN. The Accidental Universe
from Harper’s Magazine

SANDRA TSING LOH. The Bitch Is Back
from The Atlantic

KEN MURRAY. How Doctors Die
from Zocalo Public Square

FRANCINE PROSE. Other Women
from Granta

RICHARD SENNETT. Humanism
from The Hedgehog Review

LAUREN SLATER. Killing My Body to Save My Mind
from Elle

JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS. Outlaw
from The New York Times Magazine

WESLEY YANG. Paper Tigers
from New York Magazine

Contributors’ Notes

Notable Essays of 2011