COVER
Time Frames (Cover)
The end of history? More like the start. The 21st century runs on fast-forward, and the only way to keep up is to stop and figure out what really happened
2000: A Nation Divided (The Well / 2000 Election)
The 36-day battle over the Florida ballots was only the first test of faith in our officials and institutions
Remnants of Florida's 2000 Recount
Photos: Many of the items relating to the controversial election between George W. Bush and Al Gore have been preserved at the State Archives and the Old Capitol Museum in Tallahassee
An Election Day that Shook the Nation
Video: TIME Editor-at-Large David Von Drehle describes how events in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election sent shockwaves through the American psyche
Ground Zero: Out of the Ashes (Time Frames)
After nine years, construction of the new World Trade Center finally takes off
Out of the Ashes
Photos: A look at where the towers once stood — 'then and now' — by photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who began who began photographing the site shortly after the September 11th attack
Ground Zero Then and Now
Video: Photographer Joel Meyerowitz compares the pictures he took in the days after 9/11 to ones he made this year
Iraq: Missed Steps (War In Iraq)
The mutual ignorance between Americans and Iraqis at the start of the war would lead to tragedy
Video: The Cultural Fog of War
Bobby Ghosh recalls his time as TIME Baghdad bureau chief and how the mutual ignorance between Americans and Iraqis led to false assumptions that ended in tragedy
The Men Who Stole the World (Time Frames)
Four young programmers nearly brought down the entire entertainment industry. Then they disappeared
Instant Icons: Life After the Headlines (Time Frames)
They became famous overnight not for glamour or riches or simply being famous but for the explosive public issues they represented. Caught up in forces larger than themselves, they gave a human face to confounding situations like Iraq, Katrina and Cuba
China: Too Little Information (Time Frames)
All that talk about China becoming a more open society after the SARS cover-up was driven by wishful thinking
An Eye on China, Old and New
Deputy managing editor Michael Elliott describes TIME's long history of coverage of China and its relations with America.
Katrina: A Man- Made Disaster (Time Frames)
Five years after the hurricane, we're fixing the levees. But we're still not fixing the coast--or the politics that destroyed it
Reckoning With a Manmade Disaster
While the Army Corps of Engineers shores up the levee system to protect New Orleans from another hurricane, the natural protection of wetlands continues to be lost at an alarming rate
Was It Really So Bad? (Time Frames)
For Americans, it seemed like a lost decade. But for much of the world, there was no place to go but up
Shrek: Mr. Influential (Time Frames)
Pixar's animated features might have the cachet, but who has the imitators? Since his 2001 debut, DreamWorks' big green ogre has loomed largest in moviedom's top-grossing format
ESSAY
The Tick, Tick, Tick of the Times (Commentary / Tuned In)
After 9/11, the shock wore off. But the news ticker kept cable's pulse pounding
Where Is Our Deliverance? (Cover / Viewpoint)
Black America expected more from Obama, but the radical agenda of the Struggle is obsolete
A Columnist's Education: What I Got Wrong (Commentary / In the Arena)
No columnist nails every call. Here's one I got wrong — and why I should have known better
You Can't Spell TIME Without 'I' and 'Me'! (The Awesome Column)
How my self-obsessed writing changed journalism
BRIEFING
Milestones (Milestones)
The World
The decade in numbers: a snapshot of what has changed from 2000 to 2010
A Decade in Failed Predictions (Time Frames)
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Person of the Year Nominations
We asked TIME 100 honorees whom they would choose for 2010. The nominations are in
PEOPLE
10 Questions for Ray Kurzweil (10 Questions)
As our TimeFrames issue reconsiders the recent past, we asked futurist Ray Kurzweil for his prediction of what's to come
TO OUR READERS
The Long View
The news cycle propels us ever forward. But at the end of an extraordinary decade, TIME looks back at the stories that mattered most