January/February 2019
Smithsonian magazine delivers trusted and incisive reporting on history, science, nature, culture and travel.
Features
America at War
The nation's epic, expanding fight against terrorism overseas
A Warrior Comes Home
Corporal Jimenez was on patrol in southern Afghanistan when the mine exploded
The Priest of Abu Ghraib
Inside Iraq's most notorious prison, an Army interrogator came fact to face with a shocking truth about the war—and himself
This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism
The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world's nations
Fighting to Be American
For centuries immigrants who served in the military could become American citizens. But are the women and men pictured here among the last?
The Legacy of Black Hawk Down
25 years after the disastrous battle chronicled in the best-selling book, the author argues that we've learned the wrong lessons about fighting terrorism overseas
Military Intelligence
In a new Smithsonian poll, troops and veterans take aim at conventional wisdom
War Dog
I brought a seasoned veteran of combat in Afghanistan into my home—and then things got wild
What We Leave Behind
The once-fortified outposts that protected U.S. troops are relics of our ambitions in Iraq and Afghanistan
Name Rank and Gender
The service of transgender troops has become the military's most controversial issue
War and Remembrance
Americans have erected countless monuments to wars gone by. But how do we pay tribute to the fallen in a conflict that might never end?
Departments
Discussion
Readers respond to our November and December 2018 issues
The Imp of the Perverse
Two centuries after his birth, Edgar Allan Poe has become our era's premier storyteller
The New Philadelphia Story
Twenty-five years after the breakthrough movie about the AIDS crisis, the city faces another epidemic
The Last First on Earth?
The “Pole of Inaccessibility” has eluded adventurers for more than a century
Let It Snow
This New Year a blizzard of creative works lose their copyrights—including a beloved Robert Frost poem
Great Ball of Fire
Decades after a flaming meteorite plunged to Earth, scientists still mine its fragments for clues to the cosmos
The Rest of the USA
In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr explores America far beyond the borders of the lower 48
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