Longreads

The Week’s Best Longreads for September 28, 2013

From inside Air Force One after JFK was shot to the Afghan warlords waiting to pounce when the U.S. pulls out, The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week.

"The Flight from Dallas" by Chris Jones, Esquire.

From noon to dusk on November 22, 1963, history went dark, locked inside the closed and crowded cabin of Air Force One. Fifty years later, what happened after JFK died has fully come to light.

"Public Enemies" by Ben Austen, Wired.

How social media fuels Chicago’s gang wars.

"The Death of Republican Ideas" by Molly Ball, The Atlantic.

How the Heritage Foundation went from the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement to the GOP's bane—and how it's hurting the party's hopes for a turnaround.

"Return of the Lion" by Christian Neef, Der Spiegel.

While the West is trying to extricate itself from the war zone in Afghanistan as quickly as possible, old warlords like Ismail Khan are preparing for a post-withdrawal period that many anticipate will be violent.

"What’s Next?" by E.J. Graff, Newsweek.

The fight for same-sex marriage will soon be won, but that isn’t the only way the gay-rights movement can change America. A manifesto for an impending cultural battle.

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