Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

This week on nybooks.com: What went wrong in Afghanistan, how Abraham Lincoln swam in the sewer and came out (relatively) clean, Isaiah Berlin’s credo, the Platonic ideal of a word processor, and an interview with one of China’s best-known civil-rights lawyers.

Afghanistan: ‘A Shocking Indictment’ Rory Stewart The failures of the US-led intervention were worse than even the most cynical believed. Why should we be any better at targeting ISIS than we were at targeting the Taliban and al-Qaeda?   ADVERTISEMENT   How Lincoln Played the Press Garry Wills It was a dirty game by later standards, and no one played it better than Abraham Lincoln. He developed different skills for each widening stage of his career. There were five main stages.   A Message to the 21st Century Isaiah Berlin One cannot have everything one wants—not only in practice, but even in theory. The denial of this, the search for a single, overarching ideal because it is the one and only true one for humanity, invariably leads to coercion.   ADVERTISEMENT   Also in the November 6 issue: Jessica Mathews on rethinking Syria Michael Chabon on Oakland Jerome Groopman on doctors’ stories Michael Greenberg on the New York police Anka Muhlstein on Joseph Roth Stephen Kotkin on Stalin Frank Rich on Elia Kazan Avishai Margalit on Jabotinsky Ian Jack on Scotland Robert Kaiser on Nixon and more   Escape from Microsoft Word Edward Mendelson The word processor that most of the world uses every day, Microsoft Word, is a work of genius that’s almost always wrong as an instrument for writing prose.   China’s Unstoppable Lawyers Ian Johnson interviews Teng Biao “I’m optimistic because although so many people are in prison, new faces come forward all the time. The struggle for rights hasn’t won but it inspires people.”