What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon

• Homo politicus: brain function of liberals, conservatives differs, by Marlowe Hood of AFP. Researchers used electroencephalographs to show that conservatives were “less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits ‘despite signals that this … should be changed.'” Stay the course, anyone?

David Francis

• Confederates in the Attic, by Tony Horwitz. A foreign correspondent who covered wars all over the world, Horwitz details the Civil War reenactment culture in the South. It’s clear from his account that some people in the South are still fighting the War of Northern Aggression.

Blake Hounshell

• Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, by Robert Draper. Want to know how the popular image of the U.S. president evolved from that of genial, compassionate fratboy to peevish, deluded ideologue? Read this book. 

Prerna Mankad

• Operation Alberich: How the CIA helped Germany foil terror plot, in Der Spiegel. Simone Kaiser, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark explain how American and German investigators, working together, averted what could have been the deadliest Islamist terrorist attack in Europe.

Carolyn O’Hara

• The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, by Glenn Kessler. We all know Condi wasn’t the greatest national security advisor. Here, the Washington Post‘s diplomatic correspondent gives an insider’s look at Rice’s successes and many failures as secretary of state.