September/October 1990

For two hundred years the United States patent system has defined what is an invention and protected, enriched, and befuddled inventors. As a tool of corporate growth in a global economy, it is now more important than ever.

For a century now it has been a haven to some, an outrage to others—and it is one of the very few social institutions that have survived their founders’ world

The maker of a fine new documentary on the Civil War tells how the medium of film can evoke the emotional reality of history

To the end of his life America’s most infamous traitor believed he was the hero of the Revolution