A portrait of the American businessman abroad

In A Hologram for the King, author Dave Eggers finds beauty in the mundane life of a U.S. sales executive in Saudi Arabia.

By Daniel Roberts, reporter

FORTUNE -- There may be no more perfect choice for a Fortune reader looking to enjoy some fiction this summer than Dave Eggers's new novel A Hologram for the King. For this story of an American sales guy in Saudi Arabia, the hipster hero MORE

Can Infiniti recreate the Audi miracle?

Nissan certainly hopes so. That's why it lured the genius behind Audi's comeback to fix its perennially lagging luxury division. Question is, can he really do it again?

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- By poaching the head of Audi in the U.S., Nissan Motor may finally have found the key executive to lead the turnaround of Infiniti, the Japanese automaker's perennially lagging luxury division.

Johan de Nysschen, who ran Audi in the MORE

What really happened in Fast and Furious?

Most of what we've heard about the gun-trafficking scandal is wrong.

FORTUNE -- One day ahead of a historic vote in which Congress may hold attorney general Eric Holder in contempt for failing to turn over documents in an investigation of a now-notorious ATF gun-trafficking operation, Fortune.com has released an article by Katherine Eban entitled "The Truth About the Fast & Furious Scandal" that questions many of the widely accepted and MORE

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal

A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.

By Katherine Eban

FORTUNE -- In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of MORE

They are American Girls

'Just like you': The American Girl doll phenomenon by the numbers

By Colleen Leahey, reporter

FORTUNE -- When is a doll not just a doll? When it's made by American Girl. The Mattel-owned (MAT) company, founded by Pleasant Rowland, opened a 12th retail property in St. Louis in April, and two more will open this fall. The company celebrated its 25th anniversary and its best year ever -- $511 million in MORE

Who is Publicker? (Fortune, 1933)

An idea from the Old South -- and a threat.

FORTUNE -- The gentlemen of the wood-pulp fiction business are very fond of writing stories based upon the thesis that a comet is headed for the earth. It is the most impossible of impossible premises; grant it, and anything can happen. Just now some people in Philadelphia are saying that a comet is headed for the whiskey business and the gentlemen MORE

Alcohol: The Seamy Side (Fortune, 1933)

FORTUNE -- So much has been said about the evils of Prohibition that the evils of Drink have almost been forgotten. That Drink has ruined many a man, and brought destruction to many a child, and that it will continue to do so, none can deny. The painting opposite is a reminder from a dark past.

So much for the social evils of Drink. One is more conscious today of the MORE

A whiskey primer (Fortune, 1933)

FORTUNE -- All whiskey making begins with some sort of grain. Pure rye whiskey, as you might suppose, begins with rye: usually about 85 per cent. It was invented in the U.S. and is made and drunk mostly here. Bourbon whiskey starts with a majority of corn, a minority of some small grain-rye, barley, etc. It came to fame in Kentucky, but the drinking of it is not so local. MORE

Whiskey and America: A post-prohibition reunion (Fortune, 1933)

Newest U. S. business, oldest U. S. problem. The companies which will run it and the conditions under which it will be run. Such a subject needs a preface. This is it.

Reasons to fear Wall Street's high-tech traders

A review of Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System, by Scott Patterson.

By Scott Cendrowski, writer-reporter

FORTUNE -- Remember the flash crash? On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 600 points over a couple of minutes. Procter and Gamble (PG), the $165-billion consumer giant, lost 37% of its market cap within seconds. Accenture (ACN) and Exelon (EXC) dropped to MORE