The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for August 11, 2012

Big Med
Atul Gawande, The New Yorker

Restaurant chains have managed to combine quality control, cost control, and innovation. Can health care?

The Naked and the TED
Evgeny Morozov, The New Republic

Taking apart the recycled, futuristic kitsch that dominates the global “ideas” industry.

Allen West’s Rise from the Florida Fever Swamps
Tim Murphy, Mother Jones

A trip to the belly of the anti-Shariah beast.

My Epic Hacking
Matt Honan, Wired.com

Apple and Amazon’s weak security protocols fall to reckless teenage hackers, and a tech journalist’s digital life is erased overnight.

Old Polymaths Never Die
Adrian Woolridge, The Economist/More Intelligent Life

…they just keep on publishing. The unstoppable legacies of Isaiah Berlin and Hugh Trevor-Roper. (Bonus short read: Martin Amis in The New Republic on leaving the English literary scene.)

America the Anxious
David Frum, Newsweek

The recession is over—but not for you. From penniless retirement accounts to frozen wages, demographic uneasiness to inept lawmakers, the bad news seems here to stay.

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

Fussbudget
Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker

With the announcement that he'll be splitting the GOP ticket with Mitt Romney, Lizza's profile of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is required reading for anyone interested in their choices come November.

For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.com.