Category: Imported

reconciliation of subjectivity and politicalnorder. But Hegel fleshes out asnhistory what Rosen presents throughnprovisional, often paradoxically statednarguments. Unlike Hegel, he does notngo beyond abstract argument into recognitionnof the historically concrete,nparticularly the link between culturenand politics.nOn the positive side, Rosen makesnhis arguments with literary flair andnTHE COSTS OF GENDERnIn 1985, the State Appeals Court innWashington overturned...

Letter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednBad SportsnFootball season once again, and a profoundlyndepressing time of year it is.nSundays are all right—football’s anninteresting game and the NFL plays itnsuperbly. It’s Saturday afternoon thatnalways makes me blue. Being a goodncitizen, I cheer for our team, of course,nbut we really have no business playingnClemson, much less beating...

you’re going to get within a hundrednyards of the drug-crazed animals somencolleges put on the football field. Butnbasketball’s no better. When a starnplayer at a cow college near here wasnarrested (for theft: he wasn’t allowed tonplay for a while), a reporter got hold ofnhis SAT scores: they totaled 470, on anscale from 400 to 1600....

players for the professional teams; we’llnjust play with real universities. Downnhere, though, folks won’t buy thatnapproach: they want their colleges, bynGod, to compete with Valley State andnNevada-Las Vegas.nWell, call me an effete snob, but Inlike the Ivies’ attitude. The Harvard-nYale game seems to be no less hotlyncontested just because all the playersncan count to 11...

subject other than the local humidity.nTechnology of the same principle, ofncourse, is already widespread in Americannstores for the purpose of detectingnshoplifters and purse snatchers, and thisnsummer Maryland and Virginia statenpolice were seeking federal funding forna combination radar-photography systemnthat would take pictures of vehiclesnexceeding the 55-mile-per-hour speednlimit and their license plates. Vehiclenowners would then be sent...

European stock (e.g., people who eatncabbage soaked in vinegar and fishnsoaked in lye) would even considernsuch a job, so there would be no influxnfrom the margins of the nation. Butnthat’s just the beginning.nCommunities in Connecticut andnFlorida have come up with a new waynto dispose of solid waste: “landfill mining.”nA crisis seemed imminent in thenspring of...

generation, which he refers to as thenmocassins, were opposed to the Algeriannwar and went on a car-burning andnstreet-barricading rampage during then”Red May” of 1968. The third andnyoungest generation — which Pfisterndubs that of the baskets (i.e., those whonlike to walk around in the kind ofnsneakers used by basketball players) —nare the most uncertain and disorientednof...

MEDIAnLight Readingnby Janet Scott BarlownIs it possible, in 50 words or less, tondescribe today’s woman, the postfeministn80’s woman, the woman whonwill soon become the 90’s woman? I’mnglad you asked. The typical Americannwoman in 1989 is divorced, in need ofnfinancial guidance, worried about herncareer, either agonizing about her biologicalnclock or searching out paid caretakersnfor the children...

“And Baby Makes Two.” What couldnbe more creative than getting pregnantnat the age of 40 by “a rock musiciannstill in his 20’s”? And what could be anbetter alternative than deciding “marriagenis out of the question”? (Whennfeminine identity is simply a matter ofn”attitude,” you can be as creative as allnget-out.) And under the heading ofn”new ideas,”...

they come up with? Digestion andnbackgammon? Cigar-smoking women?nPete Hamill’s dreams, for cryingnout loud?nThe Lear’s message, of course, isnYou’re not getting older, you’re gettingnbetter. And the New Woman messagenis IsTi’t it great to be free and femalenand have it all? What getting betternhas to do with divorce, Larry King’s sexnlife, and Pete Hamill’s feet, I don’tnknow....

point. (See, for instance, “When FeminismnFailed,” by Mary Anne Dolan,nThe New York Times Magazine, Junen26, 1988.)nAmerican women do vote slightly tonthe left of men on average, but thisneffect is minor, commonly on the ordernof five percentage points. This muchballyhooedn”gender gap” did nothingnto prevent the landslide election ofnERA- and abortion-foe Ronald Reagannagainst the near-perfect feminist ticketnof...

STAGEnThe Poet asnCleaning Ladynby John ChodesnKristine Thatcher’s play Niedecker,nproduced earlier this year by thenWomen’s Project at the Apple CorpsnTheatre in New York, is about paradoxes.nIt is the story of the reclusivenpoet Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970).nShe has been dead almost twenty yearsnand is largely forgotten, but when shenwas alive Ezra Pound championed her.nBasil Bunting said that she...

transactionnNew and Recent Books on Family and Policyn^nThe,. .npoliticsnHumannNaturenThomas FlemingnEajnilynQuestloiisnReflections on thenAmerican Social CrisisnAllan C. CarlsonnTHE POLITICS OF HUMAN NATUREnThomas FlemingnThe effort to understand human nature in a politicalncontext is a daunting challenge that has beennundertaken in a variety of ways and by a myriad ofndisciplines through the ages. This volume takes up anvariety of...

poems. She was a perfectionist, want-,ning the punctuation and layout justnright.nThe great advantage of Ft. Atkinsnwas that when Niedecker put thosenoverly-stimulating letters down, thensolitude fired the inner enthusiasmnnecessary for her to create. Yes,nNiedecker did go to New York —nseveral times, beginning in the 1930’s,nto meet Zukofsky and his circle ofnObjectivists: George Oppen, CarlnRakosi, Charies Reznikoff,...

THE ACADEMYnWimin’s Worknby Theodore PappasnThe women’s movement is in considerablendisarray. While mostnself-described feminists are concernednmainly with job prospects, equal pay,nand abortion rights, the radical wing ofnthe movement is busy advocatirig everythingnfrom witchcraft to lesbianism.nThis was never more apparent than atnNOW’s recent convention. While mostndelegates were content with denouncingnthe Supreme Court’s decision innWebster v. Reproductive Health...

can be dykish, exude dyke-ness, experiencencfyfa’fy, and even be dyking —npresumably all in one afternoon.nNor do radical lesbians have any usenfor such words as “history,” “English,”n”democracy,” and “ex-husbands.”nThey instead prefer to speak of herstory,nmanglish, phallocracy, andnwushands. Even the seemingly harmlessntrio of “they,” “them,” and “their”napparently harbors linguistically the socialnstructures and power relations ofnAmerican patriarchy. For...

ARTnColleen BrowningnThese paintings are from a recentnexhibition at Kennedy Galleries innNew York of Colleen Browning’s latestnwork. Born and raised in County Cork,nIreland, and educated in London,nBrowning and her husband, Britishnnovelist Geoffrey Wagner, divide theirntime between New York City andnGrenada, where the couple has longnlived. The first two paintings shownnhere are based on Milwaukee’s annualncircus parade;...

TAKE ANY 3 FOR $1 EACHnPlus a 4th at the low Member’s price. NO RISK, NO COMMITMENT.nMWTHINGS^linEVERVONE IM;nSHOULD KNOWnABOUT AMERICANnHISTORYIniJdinA.Gamityn1057. $19.95/S17.50n3012. $14.95/$10.95n/DAM£VE.ANDnTHE SERPENTnElAlNimGELSnnfuxrfmmanfoK^n7526. $1795/$15.50nMinniHiKRmiinIIWnnlllHaHUIIU’.KITIIKPOKYrnijCovrsurcruNOE «S,T)nMlUlMfSUAFDei -•nIHERiaEnMDIMInWIEGREM,nMJL ,,^,.n•KEMMEOT.^^n1644. $24.95/S1750nOFARMSnANDMENn^ViiI’RtS^ltlNnROBERT LnCyCON’NELLn1578. $24,95/$18.95nIftHjilln8615. $22 95/S19.50nAMD in i.’^nKIROVnMURDlvn1198. $16 95/$14.95nSAULTJELnBARBARA WnTUCHMANn6080. $22 95/S1750nIHEMASKOFnCOMMANDn’-r-‘-‘^M”n4473.$18.95/$15.50nDAVIDnBRNKLEYnWASHINGTONnGOES TO MRn1024. $22,95/$1795 3988. $35/$22.50 6130. $18 95/$15.95n(First price is Publisher’s List. Boldface is Member’s Price.)n^nHistory...

EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatherine DaltonnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, ]r.nASSISTANT EDITORnTheodore PappasnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSnJohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.}.nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnBryce Christensen, Odie Faulk, ]anenGreer, John Shelton Reed, JosephnSchwartz, Gary VasilashnEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTnMatthew KaufmannPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy ReffettnADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVEnGeorgia L. WolfnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION DIRECTORnCarol BennettnA Publication ofnThe Rockford...

On Those WhonCan’t Do . . .’nI must commend Jacob Neusner for hisnreview of Profscam: Professors and thenDemise of Higher Education (Junen1989). I should like to note two importantnscams that Sykes does not address. ^nSykes would have us believe thatnprofessors are, generally, extremelynwell paid and cites average salariesnfrom prestigious institutions as evidence.nBut the fact is...

MASSACHUSETTS STATE SenatornWilliam Owens, who represents anninner-city Boston district, has filed legislationnto require the Commonwealthnto pay reparations for slavery.nSenate Bill 1621 mandates paymentnto “people of African descent born innthe United States … for malfeasancenand culpable nonfeasance of the Commonwealth,nits agents, employees andncitizens with regard to the institution ofnAfrican slavery, the African slave tradenand invidious discrimination...

citizenship, and while even at ournpresent high rates most people wouldnconsider citizenship cheap at the price,nthere remains the nagging questionnthat since the government forces us tonbuy its products, shouldn’t it pricenthem fairly?nThe very products we have nonchoice but to buy are the ones that arenpriced the most unfairly. The problemnis this: what the consumer pays...

hour of the first day was devoted tonvacuous speeches celebrating then100th meeting of. . . The NationalnCouncil on the Arts itself! The blasphemingnof Christianity in annEndowment-supported project merited,nnot a single word. Clearly thencurrent controversy alerts us to problemsnin the system, for the Arts Councilnshould have discussed the issues andnadvised the chairman in an informednway.nThe season...

Johns Hopkins should be cheered fornmaking courageous but unpopular decisions.nThe Times points out that studentsnwill not be able to study some subjectsnat those schools. Put another way, atnissue is “some schools’ ability to maintainntop-quality programs across a widenspectrum of academic disciplines.”nVery few schools, e.g., Berkeley, Wisconsin,nand Harvard, have top-qualitynprograms in many areas. For mostnschools the...

Such, in essence, was the ancient ideal of liberal educationnas we encounter it in such diverse and even opposingnauthors as Plato and Isocrates, Aristotle and Cicero. It wasnconservative in its adherence to tradition and in its commitmentnto social order, but liberal or even radical in emphasizingna technique of argument and dialectic that can bring outnboth...

and wanted to roll back government involvement in theneconomy; above all, they hated anything that smacked ofnglobalism. On the far right, they wanted us out of the UN,nand all were contemptuous of any ideological commitmentnto the human race.nWhat do the new conservatives believe? Virtually none ofnthe above. They like government and don’t mind expandingnits powers,...

the conservative movement of the 1980’s there are men andnwomen of doubtful reputation and dubious education whonhave clawed their way to the top by means that LyndonnJohnson would have approved of Real scholars, like M.E.nBradford and Paul Gottfried, are viewed with barely concealednresentment and contempt: if they’re so smart, whynain’t they rich?nThis contempt for learning...

Teachers of philosophy, as we now understand the phrase,nare not expected to philosophize, to prefer wisdom, truth,nand integrity to their professional advancement, the applausenof their peers or of the public, or their health, wealth,nand security. Perhaps some do, but I doubt if many can readnEpictetus’s rebuke (suitably modernized) without a qualm:n”don’t be childish: now a...

against their nature; so also man, whose nature is not to bite,nkick, imprison, or behead but to do good, to work together,nto pray for the success of others. The greedy, disputatious,ntricksy, angry, timorous, slothful, fickle, or lustful cannotnproperly be considered human, but have the spirits ofnanimals — or those spirits that the ancients (and morenmodern...

Minthorn Housenby Floyd SklootnNewly orphaned Herbert Hoover lived herenthree years with his Quaker uncle — a sonnto replace the son lost to consumption.nHe came by train, two dimes in his pocket,ninspired to be a mining engineernby the pure union of bolt and socket.nRain and the shade of the Chehalems fitnthe bent of his zeal while...

would have guessed. If a child is introduced to the conceptnof a tiger by showing her cuddly toys and gasoline advertisements,nit does not follow that she cannot doubt that thesenare real tigers: she can, and should, (c) It may be true thatnthe framework of our ordinary reasonings cannot be subjectnto the same doubts and tests...

may also understand our ordinary goals as quite absurd — atnbest, quaint copies of a greater excellence: children buildingnsand-castles to be washed away. In the words of thenNicaraguan poet Enrico Cardenal, “the realities we see arenlike shadows of all that is God. The reality we see is as unrealncompared to the reality in God as...

The prediction was correct. An exceedingly generousnprogram of educational benefits for the veterans was enactednand a postwar campaign was mounted to have the federalngovernment provide general funding for education. PresidentnTruman became increasingly forceful in his advocacynof the educational subsidy bills introduced in 1948 andn1949, but he met his match in that legislative contest. Dr.nDonald Cowling,...

the advanced state of educational services in thenUnited States, but also of the vitality and success ofnour economy, our culture, and our politicalnsystem. . . .nA provision of one bill, now before Congress, forninstance, would make construction funds availablento religious institutions, provided they are not spentnfor facilities in which religious activities take place.nIf enacted, this...

Some higher-up who deemed it would be goodnFor Learning (even better for P.R.)nTo make the school “accessible to all”nRented the shut-down bookstore at the MallnA few steps from Poquito’s Mexican FoodnAnd Chocolate Chips Ahoy. So here we are —nFour housewives, several solemn student nurses,nMs. Washington, well-dressed and very dark,nPete Fontenot, who teaches high-school shopnAnd is...

How true this passage is. Half a centurynago, when I was an undergraduate, Inperceived that the Department of Englishnat Michigan State was carrying onnalmost the whole mission of a liberalneducation, abandoned by other disciplines.nIf English departments shouldnbe conquered by an inhumane “scholarly”nspecialization, or surrender to fantasticnideologies, I conjectured evennthen that we would be compelled todancenin...

World War I he was a major figure innthe theatrical cult of “Ibsenity.” Thenfigure of Adolphus Cusins in Shaw’snMajor Barbara is modeled on Murray.n(His wife and mother-in-law appear asnBarbara and her mother. Shaw jokinglyncalled the play “Murray’s Mother-in-nLaw.”) His scholarly writing before thenGreat War was of international significance.nAfter the war he headed thenLeague of Nations...

the Bolsheviks of our day. InnRussia of today, as in France ofnthe day before yesterday, we seenthe same systematic andndetermined attacks on thoseninstitutions which hitherto havenbeen regarded as the very pillarsnof civilised society; I mean theninstitutions of private property,nthe family, and religion.nReligion, which was false doctrine andnfoolish practice in 1894, is now a pillarnof civilized...

reliance on them for defining a wordnsuch as “democracy” is not helpfijl.nMoreover, it is odd that Mr. Fossedalnnowhere specifically includes in his understandingnof democracy the elementnof opposition, though the right or powernof opposition to an incumbent set ofnrulers is essential to most Western ideasnof freedom.nIn the second paragraph of this footnote,nMr. Fossedal tells us that...

seems virtually invincible. Even in popularnelections, the dependence of candidatesnand parties on massive amounts ofnmoney and the arts of political manipulationnserves not to enhance popularncontrol but to avoid it, leading to whatnliberal journalist Sidney Blumenthal hasncalled “the engineering of consent withna vengeance.”nIt may be that there is no necessarynconnection between the forms andnprocesses of American...

suggest that anyone who doubts that thenpurpose of our foreign policy is tonpromote the “rights of man” is un-nAmerican— “To argue against a foreignnpolicy to promote the rights ofnman, then, is to argue against the rightsnthemselves, and thus against our ownninstitutions” — and he relies on thenequality clause of the Declaration ofnIndependence to justify his...

diminution of liberal government.nYet one of the characteristic beliefsnof the modern democratic left has beennthat democracy is essential for thenprotection of liberal government. Mr.nFossedal adheres to this belief andnstates it explicitly: “It may be possiblenthat other forms of government wouldnsatisfy the rights of man, but practicalnhuman experience suggests that certainninstitutions are needed for governmentnto respect...

criminal law, and much of tort lawnbesides, can be viewed as a civilizednsubstitute for what would otherwise benthe irrepressible impulse to avengenwrongful injuries.” Moving nimblynthrough a critical analysis of revenge asn”an extremely clumsy method of maintainingnorder,” he concludes “that lawnchannels rather than eliminatesnrevenge — replaces it as system but notnas feeling.”nThis “feeling” has played not...

Letter FromnWashingtonnby Samuel FrancisnLeft, Right, Up, DownnSince the time of the French Revolution,nthe labels “left” and “right” havenserved as universal symbols on the roadnatlas of modern politics. The exactnmeaning of the symbols has never beennclear, especially when they are appliednoutside the narrow streets of practicalnpolitics and extended to the broadernranges of philosophy, religion, and evennaesthetics....

spread a feast of welcome for him. Butndon’t unfold your napkin just yet.nMr. Lasch neither calls nor thinks ofnhimself as a conservative, and in that henis probably wise. Were he to do so,npassages such as the one quoted abovenwould be greeted with the most vituperativenabuse from those who claim thatntitle today. The self-appointed swamisnof the...

Southerners my age will remembernBrother Dave Gardner as the off-thewallnwhite Southern .comedian whongreeted the news of Brown v. Board ofnEducation by saying: “Let ’em go tonschool, beloved. We went, and wendidn’t learn nothin’.” Grand Ole Oprynfans and candy lovers will know GoonGoo Clusters. Hammond was the politician,nlibertine, and proslavery theoristnwho announced that cotton was kingnand...

“couldn’t even afford to go to Zap” (antiny burg of three hundred inhabitantsnhidden deep in North Dakota lignitencoal country). Zap was an NDSUn”in-joke” at the time, and kids beingnwhat they are, a crazy idea wasnplanted. . . .n. . . and germinated. The NDSUnand UND student newspapers rannteaser ads about the “Zap-In.” The APnpicked up...

issue of honor; the kids wanted to undondamage that had been done beforensome of them were born. The Spectrumneditor said the group planned tonhave “designated drivers,” and remindednZapites that “people aren’t like theynwere 20 years ago.”nEx-mayor Norman Fuchs was skeptical.nHe wasn’t worried about the fewnforty-year-olds who might return for annostalgic weekend; he was thinking ofnthe...

THE ACADEMYnWhy ArenUniversitiesnDifferent From AllnOther Centers ofnLearning?nby Jacob NeusnernThe oldest university in the West,nthe University of Bologna, hasncelebrated its nine hundredth anniversary;nbut much that is studied therensustains an intellectual tradition ofnscholarship that is thousands of yearsnold. Universities are not the first institutionsnin which a systematic and sustainednlabor of learning has been pursued.nNor would anyone today...

it—Darwin, Freud, Marx, to namenonly three — we must wonder whonneeds universities at all. For, cleariy, thengreat intellectual steps forward in thennatural and social sciences were takennsomewhere else, on the Beagle, or innthe imagination of a despised ViennesenJew, or in the hall of the BritishnMuseum, open to a lowly foreignnjournalist.nWhat marks the university as different?nIt...