Shapiro left wife, mistress, and business,nand flew to Israel: “The Jew in mensuddenl)- gained the courage to spit at allnthe idolatries.” He saw many of the samenidolatries in Israel. Looking at books andnposters in Tel Aviv, he tliought; ‘Tes, thenEnlightened have attained their goals.nWe [Jews] are a people like all othernpeoples. We feed ourselves the...

dominium associations, neighborhoodngroups, and other voluntarT,- associationsnthat band together to establish neighborlioodnstandards when the local constabularyncannot perform its functions.nMr. Lou- IS uneasy about the tensionsnthat exist between private securitynforces and the state; private forces, ;ifternall, operate with less training than thenpolice and with less supervision by ourncourts. Moreover, these priatcsecurit)iirrangementsnarc available onl)- to thosenwho can...

.Idministration of Lyndon Johnson thatnihe regulatory explosion took place.nPropelled by a desire to utilize the powern»f government to create a “(keat Society,”nJohnson and his successors establishedndozens of new regulatory authorities,nand vastly expanded thenpowers and budgets of those that existed.nAs a result, the tenacles of thenFederal government reached into areasnthey never had before, the costs ofnregulatory...

nuintlingAjneiica m;ikes little mentionnof the role education plays in assisting innmaking wise choices. This is probablynbecause the authors have little regard fornClaiming that the modern liberalnculture in America is undergoing thenprocess of sovietization may seem tonsome hysterical, to others the ultimate innniauvais ton. However, what do we callnthese practices, so closely associated withnthe official Soviet...

pher into her bedroom and locked thendoor. “At first her mother screamed andntook it as a personal insult… but Sharonnlooked pityingly at Sheila and askednwhether she had ever done anything beforenshe got married a hundred years agonand that just about ended the battle.”nPerhaps Caute isn’t a scholar but a writernfor seamy confessional magazines.nAcidulous description of...

ence) a pervasive belief that pluralism isnIt, a truly giant achievement of late 20thcenturynman, there can no longer be anynoutsiders at large in our society. Thatnmay seem to be a rather comprehensivenand therefore heady statement, but thenbacking evidence is as painful as it isnobvious. Consider, for example, the casenof those persons with communicablendiseases. Once upon...

Vito Acconci is similarly “artistic,”nthough less electric. In Security Zonen(1971), for example, he walked aroundnon a pier in New York; he wasnblindfolded and, he said, accompaniednby “someone about whom my feelingsnare ambiguous, someone I don’t fullyntrust.” Acconci didn’t drown. Had he, thenworld of art (?) would have been sparednSeedbed (1972 ), during which Acconci,nsecreted inside...

cultural groups and very little evidence of homogenization.nIndeed, the American immigrant experience actually seemednto sharpen ethnic loyalties. Denying any “public” purpose toneducation, Kallen argued that “the actualities of human life arenfirst and last human individuals.” Referring to public education,nhe concluded: “Ifindoctrination is inescapable.. .it had best benan indoctrination in the relativity and contingency of allndoctrines,...

such is arguably the case with St. Thomasnor David Hume—but James’s thoughtnwas a very personal affair: it is somethingnlike the sum of all forces at work uponnJames throughout his life—^the burgeoningntechnical revolution, the Victoriannideas of progress and social responsibility,nthe equally Victorian loss (or rejection)nof feith, and the obsession with Artnso characteristic of the fin de...

odd tiiat the Ten Commandments prohibitnjust about everything New Yorkersnconsider essential to the good life. Thenfeet that certain cultures have differentnstandards from ours does not necessarilynvitiate an ethical system whose essentialsncan be found in Aristotle, Confiicius,nand the Old Testament. Some of thendeveloping peoples have differentnsystems of science and mathematics. Arencannibalism and sorcery to be considerednthe...

vative, an old-time Jewish radical whonhas moved to the right both culturallynand politically. Once an admirer ofnZuckerman, Appel now accuses hisnformer protege of anti-Semitism andnchallenges him to do an Op-Ed piece onnbehalf of Israel. Zuckerman finds Appelnto be an insuflferable prig who is trying tonatone for his youthful rebellion withnsenile moral posturing. Unfortunately,nRoth Ms to...

and Faulkner was a drinking problem.nWim Wenders was influenced by filmnnoir which, particularly when thenproducts were American, had its heydaynin Europe in the 1940’s; Gide’s commentnwas written in 1944. Thus, Wender’snHammett and Gide’s excess can be atnleast understood with regard to thencontext. Johnson, however, is anothernstory. Dashiell Hammett wrote fivennovels; those books and a number...

ratio of strength between two sides innterms of numbers and quality of weaponsnis no guide to ability to win or to deter annattack; a fact demonstrated by thenGerman victory in the West in 1940 andnIsrael’s victories over the Arabs in fournwars. The efifectiveness of arms dependsnon who is using them; planning andnstrategy counts as much...

will swing the balance toward thendefense, for awhile.nIf Mearsheimer is right, then thenNATO defenses in Europe are in prettyngood shape, but they may not be enough.nHe stresses that caution is required:nFor the cases examined here shownthat when a nation has a powerfulnmotive for war, it will go to greatnlengths to find a suitable militarynstrategy. Military...

Strategies &nSchemesnPeter Hutchinson: GamesnAutitorsPlay; Methuen; New York.nDuring a conversation withnJorge Luis Borges at the IngersollnPrizes ceremony in Chicago lastnDecember, we were informednthat, in his estimation, “Literaturenis supposed to be enjoyed.” Henadded, “It is fun, is it not?” Therenwas what can only be describednas a whimsical look on his facenwhen he uttered that rhetoricalnfoimulatioa Many persons,...

Since the early 1920’s the most persistentnand obtrusive example of an Americanntout for Bolshevik business has beennArmand Hammer (“indubitably thenKremlin’s favorite capitalist”). Finderndevastatingly recounts Hammer’s careernof dissimulation which began when hisnfather’s Communist coimections led to anbrief meeting with Lenin in 1921, andnwhich reached its twilight only with thendeath of Leonid Brezhnev. Hammer’snwheelings and dealings with...

Stalin’s death. She, like him, has functionednas a “custodian of Russian Uteraturenin the West, until such time as itncould be restored to Russia.” Both Haywardnand Blake accepted an importantnresponsibility to both Western and Russiannculture. And each found in the otherna loyal friend.nAliss Blake prefeces this volume with anlengthy memoir of Hayward, an essaynwholly sympathetic to...

two years later in Teheran, Roosevelt attended a secretnmeeting with Stalin (even Churchill was not told about it),nduring which he broke his word given to the Polish Ambassadorsnand in the Atlantic Charter. During this meetingnPresident Roosevelt and Stalin agreed on changes in the Polishnfrontiers; moreover, the President also disclaimed interest innthe political integrity of Lithuania,...

the language of piety, the kind of stuff wenhear at graduations. It has no critical content—^andnseems to have no subject.nThird, the bulk of the book is aboutnWilder’s career as a playwright, and itndoes tell us a great deal about whom henmet and how his work went. But it is allndone in a vacuum: there is...

As he glimpsed the visage of his ally andnprotector for the last time, the manifesdyndistraught Chemenko repeatedly puflfednout his cheeks, and seemed to addressnBrezhnev directiy. After the casket wasnlowered, the assembled dignitaries eachncast a handful of earth into the grave.nMost did so with a show of propernrespect. Andropov, however, scoopednup some earth and threw it...

the very men whom Stalin would havenused to annihilate him, his erstwhilencolleagues. In 1957 the Brotherhoodnemerged from its partial eclipse, albeit innless cohesive form than when it had beennguided by a single overpowering figure.nBrezhnev, for one, joined Suslov innKhrushchev’s ruling circle, and Suslov’sninfluence expanded to fill the vacuumnleft by the departed “anti-party group.”nAndropov, thanks to...

whose possible effects remain ominousnin his absence. When simple power becomesnthe sole object of aspiration, thencorruption which threatens to disintegratenthe structure underlying thatnpower cannot be measured by anynstandard to which the rulers mightnappeal, certainly not by that inhumannideological standard to which they nownpay only lip service. The exterminatorsnof society’s corruption themselvesnbecome corrupt in precisely the...

sary—^to the intellectual stimulation of anmetropolis.nCommitment to children does notnappear much stronger or more satisfyingnin these novels than do ties to spouses.nThe mountaineeress oi Beyond thenMountain has none. The career womannof Turtle Beach ignores hers as much asnpossible and totally baffles the reader byndeciding in the conclusion to fight forncustody of them. (If the sensible...

Intellectual andnmoral elegancenare notnout of fashion…nDuring these times, Chronick-< (nCulture remains based on the proposintion that ideas, attitudes, morula andnmanners still matter-even in anworld that takes itself too seriouslynat one moment and reduces evi.M-thingnto trivialities the next.nAt this juncture of history, ^’,nChronicles of Culture still insistsnthat civilizations are built upon a specificnvision of order and...

they are ruled by hate. Irene in Vox Popnloves Ivory, but her hatred of Rome isnstronger and she is always subservient tonthe brutality and lust of the barbaricnMithradates, because “as long as he lives,nthe City dies a little.” (This theme innArden’s work is at times ludicrous. Henand D’Arcy wrote a sequence of six playsnon James...

raising the kids, caring about the needsnof a husband, that she would not havenhad time to be bored. Or a reader mightnreflect that, given that the character is son•’ •MtKli-ni ISiiptisls’l is|suu-|lin^ alivi-… Mr, \ik()xis;i\TittTUim;iki.-iis;illH-dht)ixinl.”nXi’ir Vorfe Times BtH)k Kei’Uivnfar gone that her frustrated husbandnmight do what many modem husbandsndo, file for divorce and custody of...

was sent to me by a seminarian and is to be filled out byncandidates for ordination. It asks about the candidate’s selfdevelopment,nabout her/his significant interactionalnrelationships, about whether she/he feels she/he is realizingnher/his potential, and so forth. It does not ask about sin andngrace, about the meaning of redemption or the purpose of life.nIt does not...

soon develops. In the vast wildernessnarea behind the cemetery is anothernburial ground—one that does the reversenof the usual job of providing fornrest in peace forever for its inhabitants.n1 he disquieting events begin tonoverturn Creed’s tidy, rationalisticnatheism. At first he simply dismisses thenpreternatural occurrences as psychologicalnquirks, insisting that “there were nonghosts, at least not in his...

an explanatory factor. But there is morento discourage Gay’s reader-, he is told,nand told again throughout the volume,nthat the author’s great, unique mentor isnSigmund Freud. Now, whatever we maynthink of the Viennese guru, his transcendentnprestige has with the years eroded.nNot only was he posthumously psychoanalyzednand found inaccurate, fraudulentnin the description of his mostncelebrated case-histories (hating...

the chance to spend a lot of time innHollywood now that he is runningnChevrolet. He will attend celebritystuddednparties, where he got a prevuenof his third wife and struck what wasnlater to be his cocaine connection. Stillnlater GM will discover, according tonSrodes and Fallon, a host of missing “gift”ncars from its California inventory. Muchnlater Johnny Carson...

the Labor government wrote: “There arenpeople there in their thirties and fortiesnwho have never worked in their lives,npeople with grown-up children whonhave never seen their fathers do a day’snwork. You have to look at those men’sneyes to understand what West Belfast isnabout. There’s no sparkle there, nonhope.” Srodes and Fallon swallow thisnexcuse for the deficits...

untraceable,” that still flow into thenelectoral process. Politics and Moneynshows us how Congress plays PAC man,nand is certainly useful if only for itsndetailed reporting of how PoliticalnAction Committees work now that thenelection financing reforms of 1974 havencome and largely gone. Drew seesnrepresentative government at stake, andnthere is no disputing her cause. But hernmethod raises doubts...

Intellectual andnmoral elegancenare notnout of fashion…nDuring these times, Chronicles ofnCulture remains based on the proposintion that ideas, attitudes, morals andnmanners still matter—even in anworld that takes itself too seriouslynat one mom.ent and reduces everythingnto trivialities the next.nAt this juncture of history,nChronicles of Culture still insistsnthat civiUzations are built upon a specificnvision of order and virtue.nAnd...

fuse to lace the reality blame the victimsn(afraid of an austere lifestyle), China (encouragingnethnic conflict), or the UnitednStates (the cause of all Southeast Asianntragedies).nWhen Marxist-Leninist revolutionariesnsecure power, eliminate the nonorthodoxnmembers of the revolutionaryncoalition, and turn their societies intongulags, inevitably foreign observersnemerge who, after reluctantly admittingnthe reality, attribute it to the opponentsnof the Marxist-Leninists. The brutalitiesnof...

sion remains undeniably true and farnfrom trivial.nIslam, equally universal and far morensanguinary, presents a more menacingnface than Christianity. But the authorsnagree with contemporary Arab publicistsnwho contend that Moslems havennonetheless treated Jews better thannChristians have done. The further claimnof such publicists, that Moslems haventreated Jews well, does not withstandnserious examination. The authors observenthat Yemen, the one...

Judaism, which provokes anti-Semitism,ncan also overcome it.nThis paradoxical claim needs elaboration.nThe two basic principles of ethicalnmonotheism are that “ethics neednGod”—that is, no ethical system cannsurvive without a metaphysical foundation—andnthat “God’s major demand isnethics.” Ethics without God yieldsnrelativism, which yields defenselessnessnagainst the secular fanaticisms of left andnright. “God without ethics” yields justnsuch fanaticisms, and religious ones...

The Madness of a Seduced Womanndqjicts in minute detail the life and mindnof Agnes Dempster, a Vermont farm girlnwho leaves an unhappy home for life innMontpelier around 1897. Her intensenlove afiair with Frank Holt, a stonecutter,nresults in an abortion and her abandonmentnshortly thereafter. Although shenhas threatened to kill herself and hasnbought a gun, Frank refuses...

would catch me up in my own wheel.”nBut after the disastrous experience andnthe long recovery, Agnes realizes thatn”only those who hate the real world donwhat I did. I tried to create an idealnworld.”nAgnes’s first attachment is to a “good”nman who offers her simple happiness,nsecurity, and fidelity. But she rejects him;nshe seeks out unhappiness because therenis,...

rise was the decision of Alfred Hiigenberg,nhead of the Conservative Party and anpress magnate, to wori< cooperativelynwith them. This meant that nazi leadersnsuch as Hitler, Goring, Goebbels, et al.,nhad their speeches and appearances resf)ectfullyncovered in Hugenberg’s newspapers.nThis had the effect of making thennazis appear respectable from 1928 ton1932.nMany persons who voted for the nazisnswitched from...

Jorge Luis Borges was bom in 1899, a month before ErnestnHemingway and in the same generation as F. Scott Fitzgerald,nEdmund Wilson, George Orwell, and William Faulkner.nThroughout their lives the writers of this generation had to refusenthe work assigned to them by those who evidendy knewnbetter: that is, writing with “social responsibility.” In practice,nthat meant taking...

movement through this century by great writings which resonatento its principles. It would be wrong to say of either Joycenor Borges that they were “conservative” novelists—^yet theynare immensely feared by the liberal imagination. They are freenand skeptical, belonging to no party, stating no doctrine, interestednin and detached by art. In another interview Borgesnonce responded to...

OiMMONs & Vii;\^rinOf Patriots and PraisenJames Webb: A Country Such as This;nDoubleday; New York.nby Bryce ChristensennWith his latest work, James Webbnhas created an acceptable book forneveryone except those who half ancentury ago declared war on everythingnwhich is valuable to the majority ofnAmericans. A Country Such as This is anwell-written novel by virtue of itsnbelievable characters,...

let’s cast A Country Sucb as This againstntwo novels written about a very diflferentncountry. Webb’s book begins with threenNaval Academy graduates swearingnblood brotherhood to one another withna steak knife in a bar; thereafter, Webbnuses his three “brothers” primarily toncreate a Michenerian panorama ofnAmerica’s last 30 years. Although Dostoevskinalso reveals much of mid-19thcenturynRussia, his three BrothersnKaramazov...

James Webb to convey our dilficult andncomplex message to large audiences.nBut first and foremost, we need thosenwho would be able to formulate thatnmessage in all due grandeur, magnitude,nand intellectual richness. Consequently,nthe finitude of Mr. Webb’s achievementnmust be made clear and perhaps alsonexplained.nA likely place to begin is with Mr.nWebb’s theme that “loyalty to peoplenand culture...

A ifllingvvay to approach the textualnworks of Jiuncs >X cbh is to exaniinc thenliL’ld of clisfoursc into wliich tJicy havent’iTu;r}»t’il, to look not at the novels axnnovels hilt as statements among thosenanil in relation to the dominant formulationsnexistent aeross the American eiilturalnhori/on. One of the greatest misnomersnin the past 20 years, one thai isnireatetl as...

A Poet of PassionnPeter Alexander: Roy Campbell: AnCritical Biography; Oxford UniversitynPress; New York.nby Gregory WolfenSouth African-bom poet Roy Campbellnelicited two very diflferent kinds ofnresponse during his life. Here are twonrepresentative samples. From areviewofnCampbell’s first book of poetry, ThenFlaming Terrapin: “We have spun…nback to an exuberant relish of the sheernsonority and clangour of words, wordsnenjoyed for...

knowledge and remained capable ofnmuch finer shades of thought and feeling.nThe role Campbell’s feither played innhis life was immense and not merely thendominant father/repressed son syndromenportrayed in textbooks. Accordingnto Alexander, Campbell’s fether wasnan industrious doctor who was availablenat any time, and who treated black andnwhite alike, a trait which “earned him thenundying love of the...

to such critics that Campbell may simplynhave grown up. In addition to normalnjealousy, Mary’s affair forced Campbellnto evaluate the moral and literary healthnof Bloomsbury, and what he saw wasnsmugness, hypocrisy, mutual flattery, intellectualnflabbiness, and a sexual anarchynthat was more perverse than Arcadian.nThe result was a scathing, erratic, andnhilarious satire in heroic couplets callednThe Georgiad, which...

Ideology & RealismnIrving Kristol: Reflections of anNeoconservattve; Basic Books; NewnYork.nby’William R. Hawkinsn1 he term neoconservattve is morenoften used by those who oppose thenmovement than by those who are includednwithin its ranks. Criticism fromnthe left has been particularly viciousnbecause neoconservatives are reformednliberals who are consequently viewed asntraitors by their former associates. Onnthe right, the response has...

central concern. The basis of the largernsociety called “the nation” is the smallernsociety of the family. The strength ofn’ society is its anchor of stability in a sea ofnto defend private property from socialism)nand abandoned this issue. Conservatismnhas been in decline ever since.nKristol rejects the egalitarian aspectnKrislol is ;is n;i.sty ;is i-vi-r Ki… nicnilx”r.s ol’...