In this rich and savvy collection of commentaries on the events, people and issues that shape and define our world, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and New York Times bestselling author Ellen Goodman cuts to the heart of the stories and controversies that helped to define our times.

For over twenty-five years, nationally syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman has been training her lens on contemporary American life. A marvelously direct writer with keen insight into what makes the average American tick, laugh and occasionally boil with rage, Goodman takes her measure of the national psyche in a voice that is at once perceptive, witty and deeply humane.

Paper Trail, her first collection in more than ten years, journeys through an era that has been golden in its advances and bleak in its disappointments. In a voice both reasoned and impassioned, she makes sense of the cultural debates that have captured our attention and sometimes become national obsessions. She wrestles with the close-to-the-bone issues of abortion, working mothers and gay marriage, the struggles for civil liberties and equal rights, and the moral complexity of assisted suicide and biotech babies. As she wends through the era of the Clinton scandals and the "amBushing" of America, the dot-com boom and bust, the horrors of September 11 and the War on Terrorism, Goodman pauses to celebrate some of our lost icons, including Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana and Doctor Spock. She reminds us as well of the fleeting fame of such instant celebrities as Elian Gonzalez and Lorena Bobbitt.

The lines that separate public and private life dissolve under Goodman's scrutiny as she shows us how Washington politics, Silicon Valley technology and the national media culture infiltrate our jobs, relationships and minds. With the trademark clarity that readers count on, she walks us through the dilemmas posed by new technologies that range from cloning to cell phones and makes us laugh at the vagaries of Viagra and Botox and unreality TV. And in a world that sometimes seems to be stuck on fast forward, she holds on to values as timeless as a family Thanksgiving and a summer porch in Maine.

Including more than 160 of Ellen Goodman's lively and stylish columns, this timely collection walks us along the paper trail in a voice that is both crystal clear and original.

Ellen Goodman's column appears in more than 400 newspapers. A syndicated columnist for the Boston Globe and the Washington Post Writers Group, and the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling book on female friendships I Know Just What You Mean, Goodman lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Introduction

American Scene

The Self-service Generation

The Latest Rage

Class Warriors

The Ups and Downs of the Sex Pill

Hurrying Healing

The Gospel of Abstinence

A New "Modest Proposal"

The Supersizing of America

A Mixed Message on the Work Ethic

Tansy, Goldenrod 101

Betting on Diversity

One-upping the Preschoolers

A Pill for What Haunts You

Cloe's First Fourth

Speed Zone

The Malcontent of a Content Provider

Rethinking the Rape Shield

Prince Tell-It-All

Trash TV Trickery

OJ's No Victim

Bobbitt Babbling

Elian in the Middle

Requiem for a Princess

Fearing Strangers

The Cough Heard 'Round the World

Talking Back

People Watching

Mistress of Chaos

You're a Good Man, Charlie Schulz

A Death in the Family of Newspapers

Jackie Was a Model of Dignity to the End

Father Who Knew Best

The Spock Generation

The Lady with All the Answers

Ronald Reagan's Long Good-bye

Last Day in the Neighborhood

Civil & Other Liberties

Zero Tolerance for Children

Open or Empty-Minded?

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

When Hate Is a Crime

The Kaczynski Conundrum

The Case of the Pregnancy Police

On Civil Rights and Civility

In the Combat Zone

Rock of Ages

Portraying FDR -- As He Was

From Outlaws to In-Laws

Character & Caricature

Out-of-Character Experiences

Mike, We Hardly Knew Ye

Lives Built on Lies

Bill, Monica & Us: Act One

Bill, Monica & Us: Act Two

Bill, Monica & Us: Act Three

Legislate Respect? No, Sir

Timothy McVeigh Is No Enigma

Bob Kerrey's -- and Our -- Long Journey Back

American Taliban

The View from Somewhere

Thurmond's Past Is Our Present

Rush & the Wimp

Family Matters

The Functional American Family

Meet Your Children

A Child Robbed of Her Childhood

Overwork Overwhelms

Strangers and Dangers on a Summer Day

Sins of the Sons

Of Jewels and Laws

The Answer Is Love, Not Science

Taking Dad's Car Keys Away

Chasing the Demons

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Walking on Our Mother's Bones

At Large

The Hidden Women of Afghanistan

The First Internet War

After the "Gotchas"

Awful Mission Accomplished

Religious Zealots There and Here

All in It Together

Religion Heals and Divides

Fundamental Misogyny

On Evil

Remembrance and Resilience

When Suicide Becomes a Weapon

9/11 24/7

Iraq: How Did We Get Here?

Iraq: The Home Front

Iraq: The Aftermath

Iraq: The Heroine

September 11 Spin

Three Steps Forward

Blonde Ambition

The Abortion Art Gallery

Florida Fetus Fight

When Thin Bites Fiji

Blame the Working Mother

The End of Motherhood as We Knew It

The Really Mean Girls

Hillary 1: The Candidate's Wife

Hillary 2: MVP on the Defense Team

Hillary 3: The Candidate

Hillary 4: The Senator

History's Challenge to Laura Bush

The Silicone Story

The Raging Hormone Debate

Are Women Now Insiders on the War?

Tech Trail

Internet Intimacy

Reach Out and Miss Someone

Brain Housekeeping

Me and My Palm

Back to Civilization?

Good Morning Spamerica

Life Before the Cameras

An Old-Fashioned Upgrade

Trail Mix

Don't Fret, Mes Amis, About Le Hot Dog

The Bagel That Ate New York

Jackie's Junque

Third Reich Rhetoric

Forward Thinking

Meno-Positive

Caffeine Warrior

Gender & Other Gaps

How Girls Read Boys

Sisterhood Splintered

Equality at 63?

The First Campaign for First Gentleman

Attack Ads with a Woman's Touch

One-Size-Fits-All Education

A Kinder, Gentler Patriarchy

Lost in the Gender Gap

Marriage on a Sliding Scale

Bio & Other Ethics

Of Life and Prolife

Dr. Partner to Dr. Provider

The Money or the Egg?

Hello, Dolly -- And Molly and Polly and Lolly and Folly

The Seed Catalog

Clone or Clown

A Moral Bankruptcy

Mourning Medicine

A Kidney for the Boss

Dying the Dutch Way

Demons in a Death Penalty Case

Dying the Kevorkian Way

Getting to Know Death

Connections & Missed Connections

Marrying Up?

How to Capture Mr. Right

The Name Game for Newlyweds

Marriage as Poverty Cure

A Honeymoon or Jail?

A New Take on Divorce

Battle of Sexes -- and Excesses

What Celibacy's Got to Do With It

Of Sex and Silence

To Have and to Wager

Close to Home

The Gotta-Go Generation

Outliving My Father

The Tried and True Vacation

I Worked Hard for That Furrowed Brow

Squirrel Sense

The Right Course for Midlife

Here and Now with Auntie

Brave Beginning

He Was the Boss -- and a Lot More

Welcome to My Grandson

Rest Stop

America's Incredible Shrinking Vacation

A Sense of Place

My Left Knee

Putting Down Roots

Mindful of the Uncertainty of Life

After 20 Years of Cultivation, My Garden Is Growing Me

A Commencement Day Confession

Acknowledgments