WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With newspapers and venerable magazines such as Gourmet closing up shop, and book publishers racing to get the latest Dan Brown thriller out in digital form, the printed word is under unprecedented assault. The battle is not just a duel among businesses and technologies -- what's being decided is the future of how we think and how we perceive the world. In the Autumn 2009 Wilson Quarterly, Christine Rosen, a New Atlantis editor, argues that the information cornucopia "has not made us better readers or more empathetic human beings," but economist Tyler Cowen counters that it allows us to "assemble culture for ourselves," filling our lives with "beauty, suspense, and learning." Digital media analyst Alex Wright contends that books, "capable of flowing into any number of vessels -- paper, Web browsers, eBooks, iPhones," will retain their intellectual edge over the "digital dross."

Also in the issue:

• As President Obama, his military advisors, and Congress wrestle with how to exit Iraq gracefully and stave off disaster in Afghanistan, political scientist David M. Edelstein offers five sobering "exit lessons" from a study of the past 50 years. His conclusion: short of military victory, there's never a good way to leave.
• The Obama administration's $8 billion high-speed rail effort hasn't received much analysis in the media, but, drawing on history and comparisons with rail in Europe and Asia, Mark Reutter, longtime editor of Railroad History, shows why bullet trains may now make sense for America.
• Remembering the dramatic moment when the Berlin Wall fell, it's easy to forget, writes journalist Andrew Curry, "how much work is necessary for a democratic movement to succeed."
• Michael Barone, coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics, says what is surprising about America since 1970 is not that it has grown, but that "it has grown in such different ways from what people expected."
  

The Autumn 2009 issue goes on sale Friday, October 9. To request review copies or digital article previews, contact managing editor James Carman at (202) 691-4023 or wq@wilsoncenter.org .

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue.

SOURCE Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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