Longreads

Essay: Barry Bergdoll Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, installation view of the exhibition, July 20 through October 20, 2008. [Photo courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art]Since…

With news of Osama bin Laden's death ricocheting around the Web, we dove into The Atlantic's archives to find the most interesting, engaging, and thoughtful pieces on bin Laden,…

Two years ago, at the nadir of the financial crisis, the urban sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh wondered aloud in the New York Times why no mass protests had arisen against what was clearly a criminal coup by the banks. Where were the pitchforks, the tar, the feathers? Where, more importantly, were the crowds? Venkatesh's answer was the iPod: "In public spaces, serendipitous interaction is needed to create the 'mob mentality.' Most iPod-like devices separate citizens from one another; you can't join someone in a movement if you can't hear the participants. Congrats Mr. Jobs for impeding social change." Venkatesh's suggestion was glib, tossed off—yet it was also a rare reminder, from the quasi-left, of how urban life has been changed by recording technologies.