On my desk at America Media headquarters sits a sealed glass bowl containing some dark, hardened soil from the tract of land my family tilled for more than two centuries in County Galway, Ireland. This is unsurprising, I suppose. When I try to count back through my 13 predecessors as editor in chief
This spring marks the 11th anniversary of my association with America, first as a Jesuit novice, then a regent, and lately as the 14th editor in chief. You might think that after all that time, I’d have learned pretty much all there is to know about America’s storied history and its spec