James
Fallows is based in Washington, D.C., as a contributing writer
at The
Atlantic. He has
worked for the magazine for more than 40 years and in that time has
also lived in Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur,
Sydney, Shanghai, Beijing, and London. He was raised in Redlands,
California, received his undergraduate degree in American history
and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in
economics from Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He has been elected to
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and as a Fellow of the
American Geographical Society. In addition to working
for The
Atlantic, he has
spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for President
Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor
of U.S.
News
& World
Report, and six
months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an
instrument-rated private pilot.
Fallows welcomes and frequently quotes from reader mail
sent via the email button above. Unless you specify otherwise, we
consider any incoming mail available for possible quotation—but not
with the sender's real name unless you explicitly state that it may
be used.