Category: Imported

claimholder from New York state named Almanzo JamesnWilder on August 25, 1885, moved with him to Minnesota,nthen to Florida, and lastly to Missouri, where they purchasedna 40-acre farm. Although Laura produced twonchildren within the first two years of her marriage, only thenfirst — a daughter. Rose — survived, a son having died innspasms at the...

great woman and a great soul. Contemporary “womennwriters” and their ideological touts seem hardly aware thatnshe existed.nThere is a completeness, both human and historical, innher vision, and she achieves it by establishing, at the verynstart of her long enterprise, its central intelligence. From thenfirst sentence of her book, the story—insistently but unobtrusively—nis Laura’s story, seen...

had not made her scream and it could not make her cry.”nThat fall, the Ingalls experienced their first blizzard on thennorthern plains.nThe theme of By the Shores of Silver Lake is change —nchange in its personal, social, technical, and environmentalndimensions. The book opens in the aftermath of the scarletnfever epidemic, with Mary blind and Aunt...

the man, cajole the wheat from him at a scalper’s price, loadnit on the sleds, and beat the next blizzard home by seconds,nthus saving De Smet, if not from actual starvation, at leastnfrom severe privation. The book ends in May as the Ingallsnopen the Christmas barrel that has just arrived on the train,nand with a...

and what we know of the historical record are crucial. Fornexample Carrie, though she is a character in Little House innthe Big Woods, was not born until the family reachednKansas; while Laura, who was three when the Ingalls leftnWisconsin, is plainly several years older than that in LittlenHouse on the Prairie. I do not believe...

beacon, even as an entrenched castle, and gives no indicationnof a concern for the relationship of the city to the hill;nthe actual physical environment is simply not central to thenessential idea.nFrom the beginning, then, the American “West” hasnbeen a land inscribed. One would have to look long andnhard to find evidence of an explorer or...

violence characterize many of these stories.nScholars like Annette Kolodny, Patricia Limerick, andnRichard Slotkin have examined traditional attitudes towardnthe land and its people and found those attitudes characterizednby what one of the most prolific Western writers, FranknWaters, in The Earp Brothers of Tombstone, describes asnfear of the unknown. “Within the confines of this triumphantnsaga of conquest...

individual imagination uses those lines to reach out, rathernthan to push away, must be of interest to anyone looking atnWestern narrative. The already-noted difference betweenn”desert” and “land of little rain” is the difference betweennprescriptive and descriptive lines; “desert” labels a particularnspot as essentially dead, “land of little rain” allows for thenpossibility of life functioning within...

absurdity is really just an event out of context, like anbeached whale. So the three hundred rabbits, younmight say, are really the natural outcome of ancontext, one so intricate that describing it mightnonly confirm me as a lunatic. To an inattentivenmind. But I am going to ask something more ofnyou. I am asking you to...

A rap at the door: she dropped her sewing,ndisconcerted, and rose to her feet,nbut already her husband had crossed the roomnand stood at the window, peering through blinds.n”It’s all right,” he assured her, “they’re neighbors.’nHe stepped to the door and opened it wide.nFour haggard faces stared back at him.n”You’d better come with us,” one of...

includes separate essays on extendednlyric celebration of some feature of thenWestern natural scene, along with sectionsnof larger chapters on how thisnimpulse mixes readily with other elementsnin the imaginative creations ofnWestern essayists, novelists, and poets.nThese writers make (in comparisonnwith other parts of our nation’s literature)na plethora of books on this theme,npresuming still a nature that is...

to the inheritors, even though theynhave not heard the sound of mountainnwater, smelled the wolf willow tree, ornwrestled with the bear.nOne further observation. New Englanders.nSoutherners, and the commerciallynminded Americans of the MiddlenStates, as I have argued before, broughtna filter with them as they extendednwestward civilizations that they knewnand loved. In blocking them off fromndirect transactions...

Letter From thenFrontiernby Stephen BodionRanchwomen, Life,nand LiteraturenAs far as I know, my friend Sissy hasnnever written anything, although shenprobably reads more widely than mostnpeople I know with graduate degrees.nShe’s at first and probably secondnglance an archetypical ranchwoman.nThat first glance would be the outsider’s.nSis is in her mid-30’s, tall, tallernthan I am, and strong, usually dressed...

Not that the animals are the onlynones to suffer. A few days later, on anwarmer (high of 15 above) day withnhard snow, she and her husband arenmoving cattle:nOnly fools would even go outnin cars on a day like this, andnhere I am on a horse . . .nWhen I got to the creek thenbanks were...

coyote pup and British flag pin. . . .nEvelyn Cameron died prematurelynof complications following a routinenappendectomy. My favorite of hernphotographs is still another self-portrait.nIn this one she is standing on thenback of a gray horse, holding the reinsnin her hand. She is tanned black fromnthe sun, bareheaded, wearing a longnskirt, and grinning at someone to...

Rossi of Rome University had invitednme, along with Chris KopfF, to deliverna paper on classics. I’m not used tondiscussing Greek lyric meters in Italiannand managed to begin with a howlingnmispronunciation, but we all survivednand went out to dinner with mynfriends. Professor Rossi treated us tonone of the best dinners I’ve had innItaly. (How can one...

but the North Africans are definitelynre-invading Italy.nThe immigration problem in Italynhas not improved, and by May thenmost serious debate was over what tondo about the Albanians, who had beenncoming in such large numbers that thennews footage reminded me of JeannRaspail’s Camp of the Saints. For allntheir problems, the Italians (like thenFrench) are capable of decisive...

you could hear in most faculty clubs.nThe reason for this is partly the Italianninterest in politics, but it is more anfunction of CEISLO’s presence in thenvillage of Olginate. I wonder if Americann”think-tanks” would have a morensignificant impact if they began toninvolve the people in the neighborhood?nThe next day we visit the mayor ofnLecco, a very...

served the trees so far, he wrote, butn”only Uncle Sam” could save themnnow.nAs you might suppose, Muir admirednThoreau and Emerson, and maybensomeone can explain to me sometimenwhy New England individualism —neven when transplanted to California byna Scot—always seems to lead to expandednfederal power. Anyway, as anpromotional movie about Yosemite nownsays, with no trace of embarrassment...

LITERATUREnPlunderednProvince: ThenAmerican West asnLiterary Regionnby Gregory McNameen”f et a philosophic observer com-nJ i mence a journey from the savagesnof the Rocky Mountains eastwardlyntowards our seacoast,” ThomasnJefferson wrote in 1808, after he hadnlearned of such matters from the reportsnof Lewis and Clark. “These he wouldnobserve in the earliest stage of association,nliving under no law but that...

passed his jailhouse days by inventing ancowboy hero named “Old Shatterhand”nand his noble Indian companionnWinnetou. May had never seennAmerica, but he wrote 15 hugely popularnnovels in the 1860’s and 70’snwherein civilization — more exactly,nGerman civilization — overcame savagerynin a mythical West that resemblesnthe unnamed isle of Shakespeare’s ThenTempest, itself one of the first works innEuropean...

would likely be required reading in thatnsurvey as well.nThe time has come to stop speakingnof Western American literature at all.nThe term has increasingly little meaningnexcept as a buzzword for critics fornwhom “the new regionalism” is indeednnew; it evokes not Thomas McGuanenbut ten-gallon hats, high noon and notnten seconds till midnight, and it willnnot suffice. Not...

You will rarely see Western novels ornauthors come under academic or criticalnscrutiny, except to condemn them.nThis is not the case in more respectablencategories. Mystery authors arenmuch acclaimed, even among literarynprofessors and critics. People like RexnStout, Raymond Chandler, DashiellnHammett, or John MacDonald arenregulariy studied, admired, analyzed,nand acknowledged to be serious andngifted novelists. More recently ElmorenLeonard has...

ability of the Western form. From thenbeginning, Westerns have adaptednthemselves to contemporary belief.nEarly stories had a great deal to do withncharacter and the fate imposed byncharacter. Later stories dealt with thenlone individual preserving his integritynand life against the forces of socialnconformity. In recent decades, theynhave reflected modern racial concerns:nthe protagonists are likely to be Indiansnor...

THE ULTIMATEnHOW-TO BOOKnAn explosive novel of enormous HOW-TO proportions.nCrackling entertainment.i… informative and spellbinding.^ Asnmuch fun as a highminded gossip column.3.. .enjoyed it from beginningnto end .. .if you like saga stories, and newspapers, don’t miss this.”nOutrageous metaphors.. .massive and memorable characters … simplyngood reading.5 _ _ .vituperative attack on the Los Angeles Times newspapernand its...

Are You Fed Up With thenOne-Party System innIton, D.C. ?nIf multi-party politics is a good idea for Eastern Europe andnSouth Africa, why not try it here in America?nHelp build a …nI ConstitulionalBudget:Weneedmorenthan a balanced budget. Disapprovenany and al! Federal expenditures whichnare not specifically authorized in thenU.S. Constitution.nI Equal Taxation: The income tax isnnot only an...

EDITORnThomas FlemingnASSOCIATE EDITORnTheodore PappasnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, ]r.nEDITORIAL ASSISTANTnEmily Grant AdamsnART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinCONTRIBUTING EDITORSnJohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.].nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnJanet Scott Barlow, Odie Faulk,nJane Greer, John Shelton ReednEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnASSOCIATE PUBLISHERnMichael WardernPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy C. ReffettnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION MANAGERnRochelle FranknA publication of The Rockford Institute.nEditorial and...

On ‘Nathan Milstein’nJ.O. Tate’s review of Nathan Milstein’snmemoir (June 1991) includes the statementnthat Beethoven “didn’t know hownto write for the violin,” but this is not anfair summary of Milstein’s comments.nThe passage that caught Mr. Tate’s eyenmust have been the one on page 204:n”Horowitz once told me, ‘Beethovennwrote for the piano as if he werencomposing especially...

in that land allow for no viable alternative.nGiven the sizable 12 percentnSerbian minority in Croatia, for example,nAlexander questions where onenwould draw the boundaries of an independentnCroatia or Serbia. The EuropeannEconomic Community, henwarns, would not tolerate six new,ncantankerous, little nations in southeastnEurope. Alexander also points, perhapsnnaively, to Belgium and the UnitednKingdom as successful examples ofnmultiethnic European...

Italy is currently experiencing a constitutionalncrisis brought on by mountingndissatisfaction with the partitocrazia,nand none of the major parties is willingnto tackle the immigration question. Sonfar the most creative solution has beenna bribe given to the Albanian governmentnin the belief that it is cheaper tongive welfare to Albanians before theyngo to Italy.nImmigration is also a touchy...

Amendment to the Constitution andnthe Language of Government Act.nMost importantly, the majority ofnAmericans, including Hispanics, supportnthese proposals. A Gallup surveynreleased in January showed that 78npercent of those polled favored Englishnas our official language. Of familiesnwith a native language other than English,n74 percent were in favor. Whennasked if they felt making English thenofficial language of government...

travels the fast lane of governmentnpatronage. No, I don’t like competingnagainst artists greased along by governmentnbucks. The arts were hardnenough to survive in, but now they areneven harder—made so by government-sponsorednmediocrity. For an artistnto be antiestablishment in Americantoday is for him or her to be innopposition to one’s own peers.nMy old school catalogue reads like...

Principalities & Powersnby Samuel FrancisnN o matter how many curses should benheaped on the head of Thurgood Marshall,nrecently retired from some 24nyears of slicing and twisting the rawnmeat of the Constitution into whatevernideological pastry suited his appetite ofnthe moment, even his shrillest foes havento acknowledge Mr. Marshall’s eminencenin the legal and judicial wodd innwhich he...

ing. But nowhere in the Constitutionnare the Declaration or its supposedndoctrines invoked or implied, and innthe Preamble, where the purposes ofnthe charter are explicitly stated, thenDeclaration and any mention of equalitynare conspicuous by their absence.nAll of which is understandable. ThenFramers of the Constitution hadnenough trouble drafting, adopting, gettingnratified, and enforcing their charternwithout importing into it...

than that proclaimed by the WarrennCourt in Brown nearly sixty years later.nIn Brown, only state-enforced schoolnsegregation was struck down. Marian’snreasoning would forbid private racialndiscrimination as well, and it isnHarian’s view that Mr. Thomas andnother Jaffa disciples chanipion.nJaffa-ite Kenneth M. Holland hasnwritten that “The Court [in 1883 andn1896] erroneously held that the ThirteenthnAmendment did not reach...

LIBERALnINTELLECTUALS:nHOW DO THEYnGET THAT WAY?nPaul Johnson anatomizes 20 of them —ntheir ideas, their lives, their morakn”So full of life and energy and fascinating detail, and so rightnfor the moment, that anyone who picks it up will have a hardntime putting it down.” -NORMAN PODHORETZ, New York Postn’ ^ ^ mnr^”Aon”^^^fwcr., „nWhy Johnson’s treatment is uniquen*...

PERSPECTIVEnIrJ,n1nAmerica, From Republic to Ant FarmnIn July I took my four children back to the South Carolinanvillage in which they had spent their earliest years. Thenmost frequent topics of conversation were still, in order,nHurricane Hugo and its aftermath, a public school controversynthat appeared to pit blacks against whites but reallynconcerned the ambitions of a New...

economy? The primary object of American national policynis the good of the American people and the health of thencivilization we have imported from Europe. Obviously, annEarth on which human life is extinct would not be andesirable situation, but the immediate problems facing thenUnited States are of a more specific kind. We, along withnour European cousins,...

There are natural limits to the size and scope of all socialnorganizations. Primitive societies often cannot extend beyondna hundred members without breaking up into smallerngroups. Modern techniques of distribution, communication,nand political control have allowed fairly small elite classes tonmanage rather large territories, although it now appears thatnthe Soviet Union was too large for the organizationalncarrying...

meantime, we had wrought important changes among thennative populations we did not eliminate. We introducednmodern medicine and improved agricultural methods asnwell as the political innovations associated with the modernnstate. The results, as inevitable as our loss of nerve, havenbeen burgeoning Third World populations, followed bynplagues and famines that for all our efforts we can onlynameliorate...

In times past, nature enforced ZPG in another way:nthrough “crowd diseases,” the mortality rate of which risesnwith increased crowding. Tuberculosis, typhus, and thendysenteries are good examples. Until about three centuriesnago overpopulation was corrected spasmodically by onendisease or another sweeping through a region. In the GreatnPlague of the mid-14th century a quarter of Europe’snpopulation is estimated...

state would be more than merely “in danger of breakingndown”; it would be certain to shatter. Driven by the twinnengines of self-interest and a craving for friends and allies, annatomized society would be certain to crystallize around newncenters — new cliques and new tribes. New loyalties wouldngenerate new conflicts.nToward the end of the 1980’s events...

we are told, “Americans don’t do dirty work,” could thisnreluctance be because the work doesn’t pay well enough?nCould the job be re-engineered so that it would be morenhumanly attractive? (Pushing it off on people of anothernethnic group shows scant respect for their culture.)nA few statistical studies have been published purporting tonshow that immigrants pay more...

thousand times as numerous as the British!nThis is ridiculous, of course, this conclusion to whichnmere algebra has led us. Present trends will not continue, fornmany reasons. If present trends in the world as a whole werento continue for 290 years the total population would bensome 900 billion people. Not even the most “optimistic”ngrowth-promoters say the...

and economic stagnation and starvation that were supposednto result from population growth have not materialized.nAID is only one of many government-funded agencies thatnare now gathering at the altar of Mother Earth. Rightnalongside AID and the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society,nZero Population Growth, and the National Wildlife Federationnat the new holy mysteries are, to name a...

thousands of miles across oceans, turn them into goods andnproducts and ship them back to the source of the naturalnresources where they are sold at a profit. “Adding value” tonnatural resources is much more profitable than producingnthe natural resources in the first place.nThis new equation does not argue that human resourcesnare everything. Obviously, a collectivist...

country with the bulk of its population dependent on scarcenfarmland for bare subsistence,” according to one standardnguide book. Today, Korea is universally recognized as anneconomic miracle. Why? Some say because the UnitednStates gave foreign aid. That’s true, but it is of smallnimportance. Korea’s success is widely written about. Nowherendo I detect but passing mention of...

cue.nThe truth of an observation madenfrequently by the editor of this journaln— that the root of all leftism is thenhatred of one’s own kind — is substantiatednby Mr. Sale and his silly butnmaleficent book. A wise man is philosophicalnin contemplating the past andnpolemical in his anticipation of thenfuture; the fundamental dishonesty ofnleftist “historical” writing lies...

hope schooled by medicine,” saysnHauerwas, “a world that promises ton’solve’ suffering by eliminating its causes.”nRather than off^ering comfort innthe context of a world view formed bynChristian faith, modern medicine offersnhealing in a world without context.nControl over the causes of suffering,nnot comfort in light of suffering, is thenpromise of modern science. Modernnman has a new god,...

We need not feel compelled to defendnGod when we suffer, because wenhave never been promised by Him thatnwe shall not. The god who needsndefending is the omniscient, omnipresent,nomnipotent, omnibenevolent postulantnof the Enlightenment, who is notnallowed to be God if “meaningless”nsuffering takes place, and who must benreplaced by technology when this godnfails. But the God of...