Category: Imported

Bodysnatchers (1956) was widely interpretednas a McCarthyist film, whichnit was, but it was also much more: anfilm horrifying enough to make sleepnitself an object of terror, it warned usn(like Eugene lonesco’s Rhinoceros)nthat already in the 1950’s Americansnwere losing that individualism whichnwas our primary virtue. All of Siegel’snbest heroes were men who acceptednresponsibility and did what...

But materialism is by no means thenonly tune Mr. Alexander likes to hum.nOne of his favorite stories relates how,nsoon after the hordes of Michigandersnbegan to descend on the Tennesseenbackwaters, a union official told himnthat one of the main questions withnwhich his serfs always quizzed him was,n”Where can I get good schools for mynchildren?” The learning...

formers of trying to replace the informalnauthority of social and family institutionsnwith the formal power of anneducational and social-therapeutic bureaucracy.nHistorian ChristophernLasch, who for some years has beennemerging from the leftist cocoon of hisnyouth into the authentic conservatismnof his maturity, notes the process in hisn1979 classic, The Culture of Narcissism.n”The factory system establishednin the 19th century,”...

If you’re hooked on the history of flight,,.nAccept Guest Membership innThe National Air & Space MuseumnYour first benefit is the next issue ofnAIRSSPACEnSmithsoniannMan’s greatest adventure began when OrvillenWright Ufted off the ground for 12 seconds.nSixty-six years later, Neil Armstrong landed onnthe moon. But it wasn’t until 1986 that anmagazine devoted to flight was born.nyou can...

PERSPECTIVEnThe Broken Promise of American LifenT he better future which Americans propose to build isnnothing if not an idea which must in certain essentialnrespects emancipate them from their past. American historyncontains much matter for pride and congratulation, andnmuch matter for regret and humiliation. On the whole, it isna past of which the loyal American has...

(represented by Wilson and both Roosevelts) and MiddlenAmerican populists and progressives was one chapter in thenceaseless struggle between Jeffersonians and Hamiltoniansnfor the body and soul of America. However, there is andeeper, almost mystical side to the conflict. My predecessornin this position used to say that there were two Americas, thenone symbolized by Plymouth Rock, the...

Forty years later, the man is still resentful — not so muchnfor the obstacles put in the way of his success, since he has innfact succeeded. What he resents most is the shame he wasnmade to feel for being Italian. In their desire to make him angood American, his parents told him very little about...

Rockford doesn’t have either mountains or the seashore, andnit has nothing like the history and charm of Charieston, but.nit’s still “a pretty good place to live,” and if some peoplencomplain of the lack of restaurants and entertainment, allnthey have to do is drive to Chicago or Milwaukee.nA pretty good place to live. I thought immediately...

lot of great books and the national curriculum that WilliamnBennett was designing during his tenure as secretary ofnEducation. Institute a new program of National Servicenalong the lines recommended by William Buckley. Giventhese kids uniforms and empower them, as Paul Weyrichnsuggests, to clean up the slums and harass drug dealers andnother undesirables. Engage in a series...

Fanlightnby Robert B. ShawnA half-wheel glazed above the door:nsix wooden spokes in shadow castnincrease their reach along the floor,ntouching the hall’s far end at last.nDeprived of full rotunditynand axle, too, on which to spin,nwhat else but solar energynwould fuel its daily journeys in?nBetween these radiating linesnthe pie-cut shapes of radiance fall.nPoured from the threshold, such...

The modern temper shows a fatal tendency to breaknlarge moral and historical questions into smaller technocraticnones and to tinker with each of these as a separatedn”policy problem.” Unfortunately for advocates of thisnapproach, the immigration debate presents us with what isnessentially a moral problem, requiring the use of thenmoral — even of the prophetic — imagination...

of universal extension of Columbia University’s InternationalnHouse on Morningside Heights in New York City.nOne reason to distrust these arguments is that they arenusually formulated and delivered by a variety of specialinterestngroups — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, truckngardeners and fruit growers in California and Florida,nrefugee welfare associations, ethnic organizations, humannrights activists, and every sodality of...

now cresting along the borders of the continental UnitednStates. Contrary to “conservative” opinion, America is notn”underpopulated” (whatever that might mean). Advocatesnof immigration at present or elevated levels repeat adnnauseam that immigration is “an American tradition.” Well,nso are spacious skies, amber waves of grain, wide-opennspaces, the open range, and the wilderness of mountain,ndesert, and plain. Can...

least, perhaps prematurely old. We are no longer restless, wenare bored and tentative; we are not optimistic but increasinglyn(and with good reason) the opposite; we have lostnconfidence in our heritage, our traditions, and above allnperhaps our faith. This does not mean that we willnnecessarily adopt other traditions and other faiths; it doesnmean that we will...

with Asians, reports the Aspen Institute, Hispanics are thenmost urbanized of all major U.S. groups, with “92 percentnof all Hispanics residing in cities and their surroundingnmetropolitan areas.” Almost 40 percent of legal immigrantsnsettle in only two greater metropolitan areas — Los Angelesnand New York City. More persons of Mexican origin residenin Los Angeles today than...

not try their luck in immigrant-flooded labor markets, notnonly because of artificially depressed wages and a lack ofnaffordable housing, but because Spanish — so sizable is thenimmigrant work force — has replaced English as the workplacenlanguage in a growing number of industries in thensecondary labor market.nThe Hispanic Policy Development Project’s perceptionnof the issue is both...

impoverished immigration is to ask them to aspire to a statusnbelow that of their fellow citizens of European origin.nWhich, come to think of it, may be what the most fervidnproponents of massive immigration have in mind. Now thatnthe visages of Uncle Tom and Uncle Remus have gone withnthe wind, the country is left only with...

Those who counsel continued massive immigration todaynon the grounds that the great European wave of the earlyn20th century “made it” downplay, dismiss, or ignore thenassimilating effects of some forty years of greatly curtailednimmigration after 1924. The fact that the closing of thendoor at the time was conducted with racist intent by nonmeans implies that the...

and don’t skate on the surface with airplanes. You see? Henwants America.”nAnd America is approaching. Already, we are over thenNorth Sea, the captain announces, then the Atlantic, thennCanada seems to be below us. We are flying — me and rnyntwo Michaels inside me, the Yokel and the Wanderer, thenHomebody and the Traveler. Like a little...

tugged vertically. What is pulling, what is tugging? Force.nSomething antigravitational. The madness of these builders.nFear of raising the head. . . . There were so manynlegends about . . . But . . .nI close my eyes — tilt my head back — pull myself together.nAnd suddenly the trap doors of the eyes go click...

before the French Revolution, the wordnhad no political definition. Revolutionndenoted circularity and was frequentlynapplied to the movement of celestialnbodies. In the 17th century revolutionnacquired a political meaning but retainednthe element of circularity. HencenSamuel Johnson in his celebrated dictionaryndefined revolution in one sensenas “a change in the state of government,”nfor the example he clearly hadnin mind...

between your revolution and ours is thatnhaving nothing to destroy, you hadnnothing to injure, and labouring for anpeople, few in number, incorrupted,nand extended over a large tract ofncountry, you have avoided all the inconveniencenof a situation contrary in everynrespect.”nDavis suggests how conflictingnemotions conditioned membersnof America’s revolutionary generationnto identify with the French Revolution.nOn one hand, it...

Anyone who has toiled in the rottingnvineyard of contemporary literarynstudies but has stood apart from the avidndeconstructors, post-structuralists, newnMarxists, vindictive feminists, and homosexualnpolemicists is rich with horrornstories. The ones Lehman has to tell arenas instructive and devastating as any:nthey feature once eager young scholarsndriven out of the academy by the maddeningnobfuscations of their tenurednseniors; authors...

blatantly misrepresent and invert reality.nYet, in a departure from Soviet style, thenpolitical message of American moviesntypically has not been ham-handedlyndidactic; instead, it has been introducednin the guise of the supposed verities ofnour time. The few films that deviatenfrom this mold (such as Hanoi Hilton,nRed Dawn, Top Gun) have beenngreeted with relentless scorn and hostilitynby critics...

Letter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednMan’s Best Friend andnOther BrutesnHighbrows like Chronicles readers maynnot know a television program callednAmericas Funniest Home Videos, butnit’s just exactly what it sounds like. Anstory in Newsweek last year reportednthat the program’s staff were surprisednto discover regional differences in thentapes that viewers send in. Accordingnto a man who screens...

But we value animals as individuals,nnot generically, and we value them fornwhat they do for us. Dr. Young believes,nfor instance, that Southernersnare relatively more likely to judge dogsnon their performance rather than theirnbreeding. Johnny Cash doesn’t seem toncare about the pedigree of his eggsuckingnhound, and in “The Bear”nFaulkner celebrates the bravery of anlittle mixed-breed dog,...

than a huge, 20th-century Potemkinnvillage (Baghdad), glitteringly erected tondazzle foreign eyes and to conceal thenextent to which the country’s resourcesnwere being taxed and strained to supportnan extravagantly large and costlynwar machine.nThe second alluring myth, to whichnso many French businessmen succumbed,nwas the belief that because ofnits vast wealth — 15 percent or more ofnthe world’s known...

evolution of the crisis. For thenAmericans, the annexation ofnKuwait offered an opportunitynto destroy the power of Iraqnbefore the Israelis did it withnatomic bombs.nIt would be difficult, I think, to formulatena more succinct and penetratingnresume of the basic issue involved: notnone of fighting for oil, but of forestallingna desperate resort to atomic weapons. Innthis respect the...

Joe Cumbee’s “Black Horse, White Horse,” circa 1972.nof folk art paperbacks. We picked up anfew points here and there, but evennwithout this continuing education,nwe’d have stopped. In our travels in thengreater realm of turnip truckdom, we’dnnever run away from a folk art exhibit,nand weren’t about to start now. Whichnbrings us to Clayton, Georgia, and lastnsummer.nWe’d...

was a strange, funny little muddle, butnI couldn’t help recalling a visit to thenTate Gallery. Van Gogh’s sunflowernpaintings may be overpublicized andnoverpriced but they are capable ofndominating an entire gallery wall.n”Man on Scooter” was barely holdingndown a few square inches. On thenother hand, the artist wasn’t chargingnthirty-something million either. In thenrapidly escalating folk art market...

The Art of IgnaznFriedmannbyJ.O. TatenThe digitalization of recordednsound proceeds apace, and one ofnthe best results is the refurbishment ofnold recordings. The Edison cylindersnand 78’s of our grandparents’ and greatgrandparents’nworld are being processedninto compact discs, saving space, time,nand—best of all — preserving the musicnof worlds fast fading into oblivion.nTaking the advice of the fellow whontold me...

superior to many of today’s pallid products.nAnd the performances themselves,nafter delighting, must appall byntheir revelation of what has been lostnby an insistent puritanism and reductivenabstraction. The ideology of modernismnkilled the spirit of music, whichnwill be recovered by a return to thenroots — and by a study of recordingsnsuch as these.nThe best of Friedman’s legacy is...

entire European continent. One wondersnwhat will integrate and assimilatenthe new arrivals, especially when theneconomic miracle ends and generousnEuropean welfare systems become financiallynstrapped? The rise of virulentnracism is bound to polarize Europenagain and set back the mythical 1992nto what may likely look like a rerun ofn1933—perhaps this time with a morensavage outcome. Rival immigrantngroups in Europe,...

another, which in turn only weakensnthe sense of patriotism among bothnnatives and immigrants. Is it an accidentnthat both liberalism and communism,ntwo doctrines preaching economicndeterminism, are also avowednenemies of historical and national consciousness?nIs it an accident that fornliberals true history starts only withn1789 and for communists with 1917,nas if nothing preceded those dates?nContrary to widespread belief,...

Sally Parrish, Cynthia Carle, and Peggity Price in Jane Martin’s Cementville.nthreatens mob retaliation, and as thenupstaged Dani (a/k/a Tarzana) andnLessa lose their cool.nOn the negative side, all the humornis very bawdy, and all the Southernncharacters are exaggerated into a HarrynCrews-ish mad-cracker extreme. Wenare supposed to accept that the infamousnDottie and Dolly are WorldnWrestling Federation material,...

draw. Best known for his Broadwaynsuccess A Walk in the Woods, Blessing’snlatest play concerns a true-crimenteam assigned to a Ted Bundy-likenserial killer to help him tell his story. Asnthe interviews progress both husbandnand wife start to question the moralitynof what they’re doing, and Blessingnskillfully traces their regression fromncontrol to submission, as they realizenthat the book...

Aliens and thenAlienatednby William R. HawkinsnThe Great Red HopenAmerican leftists today yearn for anmore receptive proletariat. Theynhave virtually given up on the whitenworking class, which they feel has beennsubverted by bourgeois values and thenconsumer society. Instead they haventurned towards people of non-Europeannstock to build a new base. Thenanti-Western “multiculturalism” thatnhas become so controversial at universitiesnacross...

shops and poverty-level service jobs.nThey want a policy that will harm thenUnited States as presently constituted.nThis objective is so clear that leftists feelnthat the defenders of the status quonmust surely see it and be acting toncounter it. “The threat of a strongnLatino population . . . leads the governmentnto attempt further control overnimmigration,” claims Cockcroft.nThe...

border.nWhat happened at MALDEF wasnpart of a larger transformation outlinednby Armando Gutierrez in Dissent:nLnWhile at first Chicanesnappeared to accept the negativenimpact of illegals, the reversal ofnChicano opinion represents onenof the more dramatic instancesnof the effectiveness of thenChicano left … to cement ansolidarity between Mexicannillegals and Chicanos. . . . ThenChicano intelligentsia has largelynmoved from a...

Awonderfol way tointrodacenKuorVandcHadrenlnto their heritagen(You’ll enjoyn•,!!-(. f .J”fKU-M “-fiXt.’it’! Ki • .W. i’iCi,iniif >^i,ii.Vs ((J%t.’-Uv.*iv !!C,’!t, Sfs^H’iitinC( .–..V.’i ^ f- ^’A “MOKM „^%!> VMKIntolfiwrnCMdin.1.1 A.%t I-: RUSSKf.Ln33 selections your child must know.nFact and fiction, prose and poeti^y,nholiday favorites. Divided by age. BynDickens, Shakespeare, Twain, Cervantes,n0. Henry, Swift, etc. $14.95nFREE!n42 more selections, prose and verse, bynLongfellow,...

‘^iL-T’-t-in^TftfTKnnnround thenworld, there isnmuch talk ofnpeace and thatnis good. Yet wenshould remember,nas PresidentnReagan said,n”Peace isn’t simplynan absence of – ^.nwar, but a pres- -•”nence of justice.”‘nTyranny, in all itsnforms, corrupts ,njustice and stiflesnthe human spirit.nWe must nevernforget this truth.nOur immigrantsnwon’t. They knownthat Americanismnis more than lovenof country; it is •nlove of principles,nprinciples whichncan change thenworld....

EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatherine DaltonnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, Jr.nASSISTANT EDITORnTheodore PappasnART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinCONTRIBUTING EDITORSn]ohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.J.nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnJanet Scott Barlow, Odie Faulk,nJane Greer, John Shelton Reed,nGary VasilashnEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnASSOCIATE PUBLISHERnMichael WardernPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy C. ReffettnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION MANAGERnRochelle FranknA publication of The Roci Add to...

left our board because of his advocacy,nin a paper circulated at a conference onnurban crime at Long Island Universitynlast spring, of public policies involvingnthe disparate treatment of individualsnbased on race. Among other things, hensuggested that separate subway cars benset aside for male black students travelingnto and from New York City’s publicnschools.nThe NAS takes no position...

THE PERSIAN GULF was recentlynthe scene for a replay of thenSpanish-American War. This time ourn”Manifest Destiny” was the “NewnWorld Order.” Our Teddy “RoughnRider” Roosevelt was “Stormin’ Norman”nSchwarzkopf Our “Butcher”nWeyler was “Hitler” Hussein. OurnFrederic Remington was Peter Arnett.nOur “Cuban sugar” was Kuwaiti oil.nBoth wars were crusades for the liberationnof a small and defenseless countrynfrom an oppressive,...

spending their time and money not innvain but in support of the very governmentnthat is the source of the trouble.n— Katherine DaltonnMARTIN LUTHER KING’S plagiarismncontinues to send after-shocks.nRalph Luker has been dropped as thenassociate editor of the King PapersnProject; his contract was not renewednlast January. Clayborne Carson’s staifnhas reportedly been in disarray fornquite some time,...

howled at that one.) Later, he workednhis way up from foreman on a loadingnplatform to owner of a neighborhoodnbar, which gave way to the spin-offnseries Archie Bunker’s Place. It was atnthis point that Lear gave up on satirenand began portraying an Archie whonhad mellowed and begun to grownsensitive to minorities and left-wingncauses, and it is...

A Study of History had recently beennpublished,nhas reached the stage in itsndevelopment that calls fornthe creation of its UniversalnEmpire. The technological andninstitutional character ofnWestern civilization is such thatna Universal Empire of WesternnCivilization would necessarily bena World Empire. In the woridnthere are only two powerncenters adequate to make anserious attempt to meet thisnchallenge. The simultaneousnexistence of...

specific cultural or political identity andnis formed and distinguished merely bynits possession of the skills and its adherencento the ideas that define the “West”nin the abstract sense in which ourncontemporaries use the term.nIt also means that what is expandingnin power over the non-“Western” worldnis not a political or cultural unit, as innhistorical imperialism, but the...

Beforenby Harold McCurdyn”A great while ago the world begonnwith hey, ho, the winde and the raine.”n— Twelfth NightnBefore the pyramids rose, before the cities.nBefore the caves of painted horse and deer.nBefore the cairns and cromlechs, there was fearnIn little lives, and a thousand forgotten pitiesnThronging around some silent, leaf-strewn bier.nThe history of mankind is a...

PERSPECTIVEnAmerica Through the Looking GlassnNot so long ago anticommunist conservatives used tonrail against the mirror fallacy, the leftist assumptionnthat the Soviet Union could be studied in Western terms. Ifnonly we could strengthen the hand of the doves andn”responsible” elements, we could keep the country fromnfalling into the hands of the hard-liners and hawks — thenSoviet...