January 2011

Opening Announcements, Cover, Contents

Departments:From the Editor, Now on Smithsonian.com, Letters, Wild Things, Indelible Images

Departments:Your Smithsonian.com, This Month in History, My Kind of Town

Departments:Around the Mall, From the Castle, The Object At Hand, Q & A, What’s Up

Unearthing the Colosseum’s Secrets

A German archaeologist has finally deciphered the Roman amphitheater’s amazing underworld.

By Tom Mueller

Power and the Presidency

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy began to expand the role of the government’s executive branch.

By Robert Dallek

Feast for the Eyes

Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted witty, even surreal portraits that still look fresh.

By Abigail Tucker

A Plague of Pigs

Now numbering in the millions, wild hogs are wreaking havoc across Texas and beyond.

By John Morthland

Catching the Bamboo Train

Cambodia’s improvised transport system proves just the ticket for local and Western travelers.

By Russ Juskalian

Devastating Beauty

New aerial photographs of industrial sites provoke a strange mix of admiration and concern.

Photographs by J. Henry Fair

The Trouble with Autobiography

The novelist and travel writer explains why this is the only one he’ll ever write.

By Paul Theroux

The Last Page

There was an App for that.