A Classic Work on America’s FoundingrnFRIENDS OF THE CONSTITUTIONrnWRITINGS OF THE “OTHER” FEDERALISTS, 1 7 8 7 – 1 7 8 8rnEdited by Colleen A. Sheehan and Ciary L. McDowellrnThough The Federalist Papers arc rightly renowned as arnprimary exposition of the principles and purposes of thernproposed United Slates Constitution, there were many writersrnother than John...
Author: The Archive (The Archive)
Film: The Titanic 90’s
A iMPOitrAxr M:W BOOK O TIU: liTiniirnOF FIJI (ATI0 i out DliMOCIlACYrnEducationrnand Democracy:rnRe-imaginingrnLiberal Learningrnin America -.J S?-;rn’^A wonderfully timely celebration andrnrevisiting of Dewey and the pragmatic tradition.”rn—Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Educationrn^^An invaluable, fresh approach to addressingrncurrent concerns about the goals and strategiesrnof liberal education.”rn—Thomas Bender, New York Universityrn$22.95 (paperback) 005899, $29.95 (hardcover) 005880rnFor...
Polemics & Exchanges
EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnART DIREGTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.J. Brown, KatherinernDalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rn].0. Tate, Michael Washburn,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, Srdja TrifkovicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternPUBLICATION DIREGTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnGIRGIILATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn928 Nortfi Main Street. Rockford, IL...
Cultural Revolutiosn
forms, Lenin published “Left-WingrnCommunism: An Infantile Disorder” inrn1920. Now, there’s nothing wrong withrnlifting an occasional phrase from the leftists,rnor gleaning a lesson or two from theirrnexperience. But Francis’s dependencernon Marxism is too disturbing to ignore.rnHe disparages the Christian Coalition’srnmessage as a “false consciousness,” arnMarxist term for an ideology that distractsrnworkers from legitimate ideolog)’.rnHe identifies the...
Cultural Revolutiosn
ed at the federal level under Tito’s communistrnconstitution of 1974. Why arndead red dictator’s arrangements—neverrnfreely negotiated, or voted upon by thernpeople concerned—should be acceptedrnas inviolable principles a quarter of arncentury later is left unexplained.rnAfter Kosovo becomes a federal republic,rnthe Croatian/Bosnian scenario for secessionrnwould be duly applied: the assemblyrnin Pristina will call a referendumrnon independence, with...
Cultural Revolutiosn
went off (although this may not havernmattered, since McVeigh placed hisrntruck on the wrong side of the buildingrnwhere the daycare, not the BATF, wouldrnget the worst of it). BATF informantrnCarol Howe and federal informant Can,’rnGagen have also testified that theyrnwarned the authorities well in advancernthat an attack was going to take place inrnOklahoma City. On...
Cultural Revolutiosn
During the debate on the tort lev}’, citizensrnhad the opportunity to address thernboard, and Rockford received a foretasternand promise of things to come. StevernBland, the pastor of Pilgrim BaptistrnChurch (one of the largest black churchesrnin Rockford), displayed a stunning disregardrnfor the legal system by asking, “Ifrnthe tort fund was right before [JudgernRapp’s ruling declaring its...
Cultural Revolutiosn
“Redefining the American Right:rnFrom Aristotle to Pat Buchanan^^rnThe Rockford Institute’s First Annual Summer Schoolrn27 July-l Augustrnat The Rockford Institute, Rockford, IllinoisrnWhat is the American conservative tradition, and how does it fit into the broader Westernrntradition? Through a series of lectures and discussion sessions, instructors and studentsrnwill examine this question. Each day will feature two lectures...
Dial M for Murdoch
PERSPECTIVErnDial M for Murdochrnby Thomas FlemingrnPublishers and writers are inveterate enemies. It is a combatrndecreed by nature, like the eternal war between dogs andrncats, oil and vinegar, teenage girls and their mothers. Any realrnwriter, no matter how mercenary or corrupt, cares somethingrnfor the craft that publishers regard as at best a pretext for marketingrn(much as...
Dial M for Murdoch
Mr. Turner and his wife (former star of soft-porn flicks like Barharella)rnare no match for the greatest press lord to date: RupertrnMurdoch.rnMr. Turner, on the grounds that it takes one to know one, hasrncalled Mr. Murdoch another “Adolf Hitler” (which puts him inrncompany with Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, PatrnBuchanan, and the editors of this magazine),...
Dial M for Murdoch
apologized to Patten and promised him a settlement of anrnundisclosed amount.rnThe darker side of the picture has been the silence of thernMurdoch-owned London Times. The Times’ media editor, justrnafter the nick of time, admitted that it was a mistake not to coverrnthe story but denied that he had been “leanf’ on, insisting thernwhole thing was...
A Hothouse of Goofiness
VIEWSrnA Hothouse of GoofinessrnThe American Book Industryrnby Tony Outhwaitern,rn/ Mrn• * t j jrn^ ^rn~’^=^rnmmi ^rn”^^W^wfesifi^lFrn^ ”’ I^BaiL^-^Jj—-rn•^^ggfESaiil^SrnX ugasHrn^% ^^^fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^h !^tfrn^ — frnIggtpi^fc, ^.^B^Ki^l^^^MrnThe renowned American jazzman Charlie Parker, introducedrnto Jean-Paul Sartre in a Paris club during the 1949rnjazz feshval, reportedly said, “I’m very glad to have met you,rnMr. Sartre. I like your playing very...
A Hothouse of Goofiness
of almost adolescent, antagonistic willfulness to take hold, whatrnHunter Thompson might call “bad craziness.” Good sense hasrnyielded to a lunatic enthusiasm for pointless multiculturalism,rna tabloid appetite for scandal, trash, and weirdness, and continuedrnunreasoning support for peculiar, destructive ideas like revisionism,rnsocialism, victimization, and the petulant viewpointrnthat all who do not agree with them are somehow unclean...
A Hothouse of Goofiness
certs they have attended, parties they have been to, bars andrnrestaurants they have discovered. They also talk about howrnhard they work and how serious they are about books. Yet whatrnremains of the industry’s badly damaged editorial process stillrnproduces delusional books suggesting that Columbus was arngenocidal maniac or that Goebbels was just a regular guy, passesrnoff...
A Hothouse of Goofiness
ica, and there are legions of readers eager to find out whetherrnKatie Couric really has a wolverine, or how Johnny Depprnamassed that extraordinary collection of Woolworth turtles.rnNot only that, but does Kate Moss know about this and whatrndoes she think? What we have here are the publishing equivalentsrnof what Alan King, commenting years ago about...
A Hothouse of Goofiness
,^.srn&1rnEurope at BayrnOvercoming the Schism: European Divisionsrnand U.S. PoUcyrnA Joint Conference of The Rockford hvs^tutdChronicles andrnthe Lord Byron Foundation for Ballcan StudiesrnMAY 8-10,1998rnTHE RAMADA CONGRESS HOTELrn520 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUErnCHICAGO, IL 60605rnLyan European unity be restored, or must the Cold Warrn__ division of Europe persist?rnHow do Orthodox and Western Christian interests in Europe converge,rn_ _ _...
Maxwell Perkins Is Dead
Maxwell Perkins Is DeadrnThe Decline of Commercial Publishingrnby Clay ReynoldsrnIn an industry that trades on rumors of disaster, the tales flyingrnaround New York (which I use here as a synecdoche for majorrnpublishing houses anywhere) for the past several years arernhorrendous. Though some of the horror stories may be exaggerated,rnat least insofar as the specific publishers...
Maxwell Perkins Is Dead
their daiK’ sales figures; some, one Fort Worth Borders managerrnconfessed, make more money on coffee and pastn,’ sales thanrnthey do on books. A manager for a San Antonio Barnes & Noblernoutlet told me that they sell more copies of book reviewrnpublicahons than actual books. “Of course,” she noted, “periodicalsrnare considerably cheaper than books, and for...
Maxwell Perkins Is Dead
The pressure for demonstrable and quick success mountedrnalong with the workload. The typical editor now has about 20rnbooks on his desk at one time, all on serious deadline, and eachrncomes with a profit and loss forecast sheet that says exactly whatrnnumbers that book has to turn to pay out. If it fails, the writer isrngone....
Maxwell Perkins Is Dead
rounds of editors and agents? It means each of them must learnrnto write for category’, to figure out what’s hot, and to deHver itrnpromptly before the category cools. They must forget aboutrnwriting well and learn to write popular. They must abandonrnany notions they ever had about merely telling a good story withrnintereshng characters or even...
Reading and Weeping
Reading and Weepingrnby George Garrettrn”If Stephen King, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton got together,rnthey’d become one of the top three publishers overnight”rn— Morgan Entrekin, quoted in The New YorkerrnTony Outhwaite’s article prett)’ much sas it all, a whole lotrnof it anyway, about the present state of American publishing.rnAnd he’s not only right on the money,...
Reading and Weeping
The problem is, then, larger than it seems, with more villainsrnthan we may wish to recognize. (Fear of being labeled as paranoidrnhas left us easily vulnerable to all kinds of villainy.) Publishingrnis only part of the problem. Also deeply involved, responsiblernfor much that is wrong, are other parts of the literaryrnestablishment, including the academies and...
God and Mammon in Christian Publishing
God and Mammon in Christian Publishingrnby Gene Edward Veithrn, 1.^rn^rn”‘ ^rn”VrnS.rnfc.rn” ^ ^^^rn^ Nrn- VrnTKT^rn^ ^rn•rn1^rn’ 1 ^rn^Jl^p^rn^ ^ ^ ^rnl^^ufiHBlrnyjL,~” i?^j^p^>*»—.rnA^^HH^rn^ i ^ ^rnR^^^HrnHii^^^Brn^•BHj^^^^^^/rnfji^”ia–^^MIrn1 JP!rnj^HP’^-s^rn% ^ ^ ^ ^ » ^rn*rnt ^ ^ Nrn^L^ i 1rn• •rnJrnfrn>rnk «rnThat one can find Christian bookstores in nearly everyrnshopping mall is doubtless a good sign. While our...
God and Mammon in Christian Publishing
es needed to publish Sunday School curricula, Bible study resources,rnand theological treatises that reflected their own theologicalrndistinctiveness. Nondenominational tract societies, collegernstudent ministries, and other groups committed tornevangelism and the promulgation of the Christian faith alsornturned to publishing, a fitting medium particularly for thernstrongly Word-centered emphasis of Protestant evangelicalism.rnIn Michigan, a number of pious laymen of...
God and Mammon in Christian Publishing
the deep pockets and corporate backing of Zondervan and NelsonAVord.rnPopular authors developed by the small publishersrnjumped ship to the big players for multimillion dollar advances,rnsums unthinkable for the small publishing houses. As a result,rnthe. small houses found themselves having to play the samerngame. They needed celebrity authors and surefire best-sellersrnto remain competitive. While some publishers...
The Unscholarly World of Scholarly Publishing
The Unscholarly World of ScKolarly Publishingrnby Gregory McNameern•” A – ^llkrnUniversity presses are in trouble these days. Beset by a declinern(intellectual and numerical) in the specialized academicrnreadership to which they have always catered, encounteringrnrising production and overhead costs, and supportedrnwith fewer and fewer dollars from their parent administrations,rnmany of them now face the prospect of...
The Unscholarly World of Scholarly Publishing
ing academic readership. As John Lukacs writes in his memoirrnConfessions of an Original Sinner,rnScholars no longer read much, not even each other’srnbooks. They will read some books; more often, articles;rneven more often, reviews; and the latter only in certainrnpublications. . . . We are in the presence of a situationrnthat has few precedents in the...
The Unscholarly World of Scholarly Publishing
adopted son. The book is an appalling mess that sounds all therncurrently fashionable alarms. There are many others like it inrncurrent university-press catalogs, diatribes masquerading asrnscholarship.rnFruge urges publishing smaller but better lists, suggestingrnthat, as a start, presses coldheartedly cane out the bottom tenrnpercent from their current programs—the books that don’t sell,rnthe books that no one...
Three Poems
Three Poems by Wendell BerryrnTo a Writer of Reputation In Art Rowanberry’s BarnrnHaving begun in public anonymih’,rnyou did not count on thisrnliterary enterprise by whichrnsome body becomes a “name” —rnas if you have died and have becomerna part of mere geography. Greet,rntherefore, the roadsigns on the road.rnOr perhaps you have become deaf and blind,rnor merely...
Over My Dead Body
OPINIONSrnOver My Dead Bodyrnby J.O.Tatern”The thing is to squeeze the last drop out of the medium you have learned to use.rnThe aim is not essentially different from the aim of Greek tragedy, but we arerndealing with a public that is only semi-literate and we have to make an art out ofrna language they can understand.”rn—...
Over My Dead Body
contested publication of Hubert Selby,rnJr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn. Buying sleazernand looking down a blue nose, the Americanrnpublic has been confused about thisrnpoint since the days of Cotton Mather,rnand still is.rnVolume one of these crime stories isrnmuch the better of the two, boastingrnseveral classics. These were thernbooks that people actually read for pleasurerninstead of duty,...
Over My Dead Body
not so much a lyrical novel as a restrictedrnepic. The world of the carnival is presentedrnas a trope, an image of society, notrnunlike the Pequod. Stanton Carlislernlearns “the secret” of deception and manipuladonrnand goes from being a lowlyrnhuckster to a classy con man. Nothing isrnbetter than the “Reverend” Carlisle’srnspurious sanctimony as he bilks the pigeonsrnwhom...
The Kennedy Legacy
The Kennedy Legacyrnby James Hillrn’Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.”rn—William ShakespearernThe Dark Side of Camelotrnby Seymour M. HershrnNew York: Little, Brown & Company;rn498 pages; $26.95rnJ; ust the facts, ma’am.” Joe Friday’srnprescription for getting at the truthrnhas been followed by Seymour Hersh,rnwhose investigation of the secret life ofrnJohn F. Kennedy, America’s “prince ofrnthe...
The Kennedy Legacy
trove mined by Hersh are the interviewsrnhe conducted with insiders—some wellrnknown, others shadowy figures—associatedrnwith the New Frontier, or with theirrnheirs. Interviews, of course, are a mostrnvaluable way of checking one storyrnagainst others, and Hersh uses them skillfullyrnto establish not only Kennedy’s sexualrnromps (including one with a suspectedrnEast German spy) but Joe Sr.’s ironrncontrol over the...
The Kennedy Legacy
Mickelson, who ran the gallery. Leftrnhanging for the reader is the question ofrnwhat happened to these photographs.rnWere they destroyed, and if so by whom?rnDid the FBI, which seemed to knowrnmore about JFK than JFK himself, everrnsee them? Did they become part ofrnHoover’s blackmailing of the President?rnDid JFK send copies to the participants,rnmuch as other politicians...
To Hell and Back
REVIEWSrnTo Hell and Backrnby Wayne AllensworthrnFew Returned: Twenty-EightrnDays on the Russian Front,rnWinter 1942-1943rnby Eugenio CortirnTranslated by Peter Edward LetyrnColumbia: University ofrnMissouri Press;rn251 pp., $19.95rn”W: 11 no one tell me what shernsings? Perhaps the plaintivernnumbers flow / For old, unhappyrnfar-off things. And Battles long ago.”rnWordsworth, perhaps, was prompted byrnrecollections of an age before warfarernmeant the mechanized...
They’re Coming, They’re Coming
They’re Coming,rnThey’re Comingrnby Samuel FrancisrnThe Threat: ^Fhe SecretrnAlien Agendarnby David M. JacobsrnNew York: Simon and Schuster;rn288 pp., $23.00rnThinking about unidentified flyingrnobjects can be a useful exercise,rnwhatever we believe about extraterrestrialrnlife and its presence among us. Ifrnnothing else, it forces us to deal seriouslyrnwitli those perennial questions that are asrnuseful to scientists and philosophers asrnthey are...
Principalities & Powers
Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnAbraham the Unreadyrn(This column is based in part on an addressrndelivered at a “Colloquium on Lincoln,rnReagan, and National Greatness”rnsponsored by the Claremont Institute inrnWashington, D.C., on February 12,rn1998.)rnL’affaire l^winsky was the obsession ofrnthe headlines and conversations ofrnWashington throughout February, obscuringrneven the jolhness promised byrnanother airborne stomping of Iraq andrnthe possible obliteration...
Principalities & Powers
federate independence and the right ofrnsecession. Technically, he may havernbeen correct in some of these claims, butrnhis insistence on them in the face of therndissolution of the Union and thernprospect of war and at a time when evenrnradicals on both sides were suggestingrncompromises reveals his mediocrityrnas a national political leader. Seward,rnAdams, Sen. Lyman Trumbull of...
Letter From Rome
CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Romernby Andrei NavrozovrnNothing Better to DornI have always wanted to spend some timernin Rome, for a whole rosary of personalrnreasons. As with much else in a person’srnprivate life, to recount these in print is tornexpose oneself to public ridicule. Yes,rnRome is a wonderful city. Yes, the foodrnis good.rnBut then in England, where I...
Letter From Alabama
tresses, and no taxi drivers who have hadrnseries pilots produced. But what one observesrnemanating from each individualrnsoul is extreme, almost sacramental seriousnessrnwith respect to its predicamentrnat this or that given moment in time.rnUntil it became the mark of the bourgeois,rnthis solemn self-satisfaction used tornbelong to no particular social group andrnmarked equally the upper and the...
Publishing: The Life and Times of the King Plagiarism Story
VITAL SIGNSrnPUBLISHINGrnThe Life andrnTimes of the KingrnPlagiarism Storyrnby Theodore PappusrnThree death threats, one left hook tornthe jaw, 40 rejections from 40 publishersrnin 40 months, and a sold-out firstrnedition. Such was the response to myrn1994 book, The Martin Luther King, Jr.,rnPlagiarism Story.rnChronicles and I first became interestedrnin this story in mid-1990, when wernheard 1) that a...
Publishing: The Life and Times of the King Plagiarism Story
findings.” But perhaps the journal’srncravenness should not have surprised us.rnAfter all, the Journal tipped its hand in itsrnNovember 15 editorial, when it stressedrnthe importance of covering this story in arn”carefully modulated” manner.rn”Carefully modulated” is perhaps thernbest way to describe the book industry’srnapproach to this story. Clayborne Carson’srnvolumes of King’s papers —inrnwhich the evidence of King’s...
Publishing: The Life and Times of the King Plagiarism Story
ly’s approach to intellectual propertyrnrights became accepted practice.rnMr. Branch is right: by delaying publishingrnprojects with excessive red tape,rnor by derailing them altogether with exorbitantrnfees, the King estate can in effectrnstymie scholarship and censor history byrncontrolling who receives permission torncomment on King and his work. Thisrndanger was not lost on David Garrow, arnfrequent critic of the...
Media: Return of the Alehouse
MEDIArnReturn of thernAlehousernby Jesse WalkerrnWe are, they say, entering an age ofrnNew Media, of talk radio, desktoprnpublishing, and the World WidernWeb. Not everyone in the old media isrnpleased. “The new media cater to andrnare built up by people who used to sit onrnbar stools and complain to each other,”rndeclared NBC correspondent Gwen Ifillrnin 1994. “Now...
Economics: Wiping Out the Middle Glass
wider range of issues —something beforernCongress one day, something before cityrncouncil the next. And they just don’trnhave the bulk of the coast-to-coast programs.rnThey have less to lose from coveringrnsomething risk- or obscure or fromrntaking a controversial stand.rnThere are, of course, good syndicatedrnshows. Most talk stations mix local andrnnational shows. Many mix mainstreamrnand radical opinions: with...
Economics: Wiping Out the Middle Glass
This Phoenix, Arizona, couple with arnsmall child bring home about $30,000rnper year. Yet they could not afford to buvrnChristmas presents this year.rnNow, not putting more cash into somernmerchant’s pockets is no great loss. Butrnkeeping a young family constantly on arntreadmill without a respite is an Americanrntragedy of the 1990’s. Especiallyrnwhen, as if adding insult to...
The Hundredth Meridian
The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnWhat Do EnvironmentalistsrnWant?rnIn a world filled with perplexity, inscrutability,rnand conundrum, two majorrnmysteries at least are not unfathomable.rnWliat do women want? The answer hasrnhad human beings stumped from therntime of the origin of species, yet the answerrnis perfectly plain: they don’t know.rnThe question of what environmentalistsrnwant is of more recent vintage,...
The Hundredth Meridian
to the President’s policy of favoring therntourism and recreation industries at thernexpense of mining, timber, and agriculture.rnIn January, the administration announcedrnan 18-month moratorium onrnroadbuilding into 30 million acres of federallyrnowned land, while a bipartisan billrnrecently introduced in the House of Representativesrnwould end all timber salesrnand logging operations in the nationalrnforests. Michael Dombeck, the ForestrnService chief,...
The Hundredth Meridian
A Classic Work on America’s FoundingrnFRIENDS OF THE CONSTITUTIONrnWRITINGS OF THE “OTHER” FEDERALISTS, 1 7 8 7 – 1 7 8 8rnEdited by Colleen A. Sheehan and Gary L. McDowellrnThough The Federalist Papers are rightly renowned irs arnprimary exposition of the principles and purposes of llicrnproposed United States Constitution, there wen- man> writersrnother than John...