The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for April 21, 2012

The White Plight
Andrew Hacker, The New York Review of Books

Charles Murray writes another book about race.

Another Night to Remember
Bryan Burrough, Vanity Fair

When the Costa Concordia hit a rock off the Italian coast on Jan. 13, it became the largest passenger ship ever wrecked, supplanting the Titanic in maritime history.

Six Degrees of Aggregation
Michael Shapiro, Columbia Journalism Review

How The Huffington Post ate the internet.

Truth or Consequences
Joe Hagan, Texas Monthly
 
Eight years ago, Dan Rather broadcast an explosive report on the Air National Guard service of President George W. Bush. It was supposed to be the legendary newsman’s finest hour. Instead, it blew up in his face. Joe Hagan finally gets to the bottom of the greatest untold story in modern Texas politics.

How America Came to Torture Its Prisoners
Larry Siems, Slate

I read nearly 140,000 formerly classified documents about America’s abuse of prisoners since 2001. Here is what I learned.

Can You Make Yourself Smarter?
Dan Hurley, The New York Times Magazine

A new memory game has revived the tantalizing notion that people can work their way to a higher I.Q.

For more great longreads, check out our friends at longreads.com.