A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

Only seven times in the past 16 years has TIME stepped back from its responsibility to the reader for a comprehensive presentation of the week's news to devote the bulk of an issue to a single special subject. This is such an occasion, an unabashed (mostly), eclectic and breezy celebration in stories and illustrations of what America does best, either in the view of Americans or as perceived by the rest of the world. The difference in perspective can be quite startling; see, for example, People.

This issue is our contribution to the very special Fourth of July the nation will celebrate next month, a birthday present to the Statue of Liberty as she turns 100. Like most stimulating journalism, it will, the editors expect and indeed hope, spark some spirited disagreements about our choices and our omissions. For example, in Books we talk about that distinctive American contribution to detective fiction, the hard-boiled hero. Some will rightly miss a piece about the remarkable and varied voices of women writers in America. So do we, but another time.

Inevitably, too, some will think that America's worst -- poverty, homelessness, prejudice -- makes offensive an enterprise that so accentuates the positive. We have tried in our stories to point out that much remains to be done for the U.S. to fulfill its promise to all its citizens, and to avoid what Senior Writer Lance Morrow in this issue calls the "manic habit" Americans have "of thinking they are either the best of peoples or the worst of peoples."

The idea for the issue came from Washington Correspondent Barrett Seaman, as the editors last winter began seeking an original contribution to the predictable clutter of statue memorabilia that would accompany the centennial festivities. Correspondents in the U.S. and abroad joined the staff in New York in suggesting, winnowing and eventually reporting the stories. Says ! Senior Editor Christopher Porterfield, the smiling fellow pictured with a flag in his breast pocket, who was in charge of the issue: "We wanted a celebration, but a clear-eyed one, keeping our problems in view and retaining a sense of humor about our foibles." He adds, "This very undertaking is characteristically American. It is the journalistic equivalent of an old- fashioned holiday parade. We're strutting a bit and having moments of reflection and exhorting ourselves to do better as well."

The American Best issue is a story told not only in words but in pictures and graphics that create a narrative of their own. Says Special Projects Art Director Tom Bentkowski, who not only supervised the interior art but designed the cover: "This was a challenge; there was no set of events that we had to explain, like a volcano erupting or an election. Here we were required to craft the pictures and the design to make larger points."