Lest Darkness Fall

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Democracies overseas are under siege, and some Americans think the United States should stay out of those struggles. But supporting our friends and allies against barbarism is both in our national interest and part of our identity as a people.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

• What Hamas wants
• Black success, white backlash
• Newt Gingrich’s degraded legacy
• Judge Chutkan’s impossible choice

Wars of Conquest and Extermination

Last week, I the field of counterfactual history, the intriguing what-ifs about how great events could have turned out differently. One of the most celebrated of all such stories is a 1941 novel by the prominent science-fiction writer titled , in which, after which Europe would descend into the Dark Ages, and he uses his knowledge of history and technology to fend off Rome’s collapse. In the end, he secures a better future for Europe and perhaps the world: “Darkness,” the book concludes, “would not fall.”