Reflections on a Disruptive Decade:nEssays From the Sixtiesnby Eugene DavidsonnColumbia, MO: University of MissourinPress; 245 pp., $29.95nThe “disruptive decade” referred tonin the title of this collechon of essaysnis the 1960’s, when Eugene Davidsonnserved as editor oiModem Age. Althoughnthe 60’s ended only 30 years ago, Mr.nDavidson’s writing (the prefatory editorialsnto each issue of the conser’ative quarterlynjournal) breathes the spirit of a differentnworld and of a different kind ofnAmerican conservatism from that wenhave grown used to in the interveningnyears. I’hese essays — mature, informed,nand balanced —are written with a coherencenand lucidity that put the authornmore on a level with Paul Elmer Morenand Albert Jay Nock than with either thenglib editorialists of New York magazinesnor the perpetual graduate students of conservativenacademe.nA German historian by profession andnthe former head of Yale University Press,nEugene Davidson is best known as the authornof two splendid volumes on the makingnand unmaking of Adolph Hitler andnthe Nazi Party. Republished by the Universit)’nof Missouri Press, these books arennot only fair-minded and judicious dishllationsnof research but classic histor’ narratednwith the sure touch of a master stor)’teller.nStill, Mr. Davidson also foundntime to be the first successor to RussellnThomas Fleming is the editor ofnChronicles and president ofnThe Rockford Institute.n28/CHRONICLESnThirty Years Agonby Thomas Flemingn”History is philosophy from examples.”n—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ars RhetoricanKirk, the founding editor oi Modem Age.nThe range of interests displayed in thisncollection is unusually broad, from thenfavorite themes of Cold War conservatism—nthe Soviet Union and the betrayalnof liberal intellectuals—to his ownnspecialty (the Third Reich), to contemporarynconcerns about civil rights andnracial conflict. He tackles every subjectnwith a moderation and restraint that wasnonce regarded as the hallmark of then”conservative mind.” On what was thenncalled the “Negro question,” Davidsonntook a moderately liberal position, acknowledgingnthat wrong had been donenwhile questioning the price (to be paid bynblack as well as white Americans) of thenproposed remedies, hi a 1963 editorial,n”Black and WHiite,” he draws attention tonthe curious fact that black academicsnfrom the Caribbean are as literate andncompetent as their white colleagues,nwhile the writing of black Americannscholars is often “illiterate and confused.”nnnHe concludes that integration is obviouslyna good thing, butnan integration that lies outsidencourt decisions and the automaticnrifles of the federal marshals andnthe army. It is an integration bynvoluntary association, hy individualnaction, by way of self-discipline andnby content. The Negro in thenUnited States has flie same rightnand need to be judged and treatednas an individual as anyone else, tonattend, if he is qualified, the bestnschools and universities in theneountr}’, but he himself bears thenresponsibility for forwarding thenchanges in the segregationist traditionnby his own performance, hisnown contribution to the society,nand for this honorable goal he willnhave countless white allies.nBy 1969, however, Davidson had becomenconvinced that black intellectualsnwere, for the most part, following a differentnpath: the whining self-justification andnabnegation of personal responsibilit)’ advocatednby “revolutionaries.” He shrewdlyndeduced that these cowardly and self-dramatizingnrebels were the advance guard ofna broader movement:nWith the Negroes in American collegesndemanding freedom fromnwhite tutelage, keeping to themselves,nlooking to themselves to winntheir place in a white environmentndespite the attempts of the authoritiesnand of undergraduates to breaknthrough the barriers and to returnnto the good old arm-linking days,nwe have obviously come to a newn