Longreads: Daily Beast Picks Week’s Best for July 23, 2011

The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the Web this week.

“Once Greece Goes”John Lanchester, London Review of BooksThe economic crisis in Greece is the most important thing to have happened in Europe since the Balkan Wars. That isn’t because Greece is economically central to the European order. The dangers posed by the imminent Greek default are all to do with how it happens. “The War for Catch-22”Tracy Daugherty, Vanity FairThe tragicomic 1961 novel that sprang from Joseph Heller’s experience as a World War II bombardier mystified and offended many of the publishing professionals who saw it first. But thanks to a fledgling agent and a young editor, it would eventually be recognized as one of the greatest anti-war books ever written. “How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education”Clive Thompson, WiredKhan Academy is an educational website that, as its tagline puts it, aims to let anyone “learn almost anything—for free.”

“The New Arms Race”Michael Riley and Ashlee Vance, Businessweek

The Pentagon, the IMF, Google, and others have been hacked. It’s war out there, and a cyberweapons industry is exploding to arm the combatants.

“I Love You Christopher Hitchens, You Irritating Bastard”Maria Bustillos, The Awl

Christopher Hitchens! Ach, Christopher Hitchens. How I have loved him, despite the ordeals he has put me through. He’ll go and be a fearful crank about atheism or “Islamofascism” for ages and I get all mad, and then he writes this freaking brilliant column about the Murdoch scandals and I’m crazy about him again. Old loves are like that.

"Why Gay Marriage Is Good for Straight America"Andrew Sullivan, Newsweek

As same-sex couples march down the aisle in New York, The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan reflects on his own life, love, and pursuit of happiness.

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