The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for October 15, 2011

The Broken Contract George Packer, Foreign Affairs

Like an odorless gas, economic inequality pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of its democracy. Over the past three decades, Washington has consistently favored the rich—and the more wealth accumulates in a few hands at the top, the more influence and favor the rich acquire, making it easier for them and their allies to cast off restraint without paying a social price.

Does Anyone Have a Grip on the GOP? Matt Bai, New York Times Magazine

The Republican elite tries to take its party back.

The Woman Who Knew Too Much Suzanna Andrews, Vanity Fair

As Elizabeth Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor’s emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians.

All the Single Ladies Kate Bolick, The Atlantic

An explosion of male joblessness and a steep decline in men’s life prospects have disrupted the “romantic market” in ways that narrow a marriage-minded woman’s options. As the economy evolves, it’s time to embrace new ideas about romance and family—and to acknowledge the end of “traditional” marriage as society’s highest ideal.

Delusions of Peace John Gray, Prospect

Canadian-American psychologist Stephen Pinker is making global headlines for his 700-page new book, which argues humans are getting less violent. Nonsense, says British philosopher John Gray.

Back to the U.S.S.R. Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova, Newsweek International

Vladimir Putin’s intention to return to the Kremlin has opposition critics warning that the country is reverting to Soviet times. But is that what Russia secretly wants?