History?nTwo lush albums full of jazz trivianand an occasional forgotten morsel ofnjazz gourmandise. Why Blue Angel Importsn(together with the West Germannfirm Musical Distributors) calls themnThe History of Jazz is difficult to figurenout. Together they form a product of eclecticnpreferences, disheveled sentiments,nrandom nostalgia. Nothing isncovered chronologically; there is nonmethodology in sight They feature nothingnbeyond the swing...

Athens, GR (Greece, we M to remembernthe zip code), and was tested in somenstates (parts?) of the European Union atnleast a millennium ago. What we callnfootball is, to our knowledge, an Americannversion of a game that originated inn1823 in Rugby, England, but allegedlynwas known in France and Italy even innthe Middle Ages. Someone told us...

The United States is unique in its public commitment to thenDeity. Ever since our country was founded on a claim of naturalnrights endowed by our Creator, our greatest leaders havenmade reference to Divine Providence a central element of ournpublic discourse. Even our most skeptical public officials havendeemed it appropriate to acknowledge, as Justice WiUiam O.nDouglas...

Relineligious arguments, of course, have had a few momentsnin the secular sun in recent years. One notes, however, thatnthey are accorded public recognition only if they concur withnthe “trends” identified by the “progressive” gospel. Clergynwho address questions such as the role of religion in education,nthe moral condition of events that pass as modern entertainment,nor the...

OPINIONS & Vii:ws~TnMindless IntelligencenJames Bamford: The Puzzle Palace:nA Report on America’s Most SecretnAgency; Houghton MifQin; Boston.nby Samuel T. FrancisnJames Bamford’s rather massive accoumnof the National Security Agencyn(NSA) is one of the most recent examplesnof a genre that was invented only innthe past generation but which has alreadynproduced small libraries. This genre maynbe called the “intelligence...

States—bleaks like the Titanic may be thensingle most useful piece of knowledgento be gleaned from The Puzzle Palace. Ifnone wants to know what color the corridorsnare at Fort Meade or how AdmiralnInman decorated his office or what kindsnof academic degrees various NSA administratorsnhave received, then Bamford’snis the book to read. If one wants spynstories or...

around NSA, and Bamford ignores them.nHis book may be considered a valuablenaccount of the structural chronologynand morphology of NSA, and it doesncontain some account of Soviet penetrationsnand other NSA losses (the attacknon the Liberty and the Pueblo, fornexample). But Bamford’s obsession withnsecrecy and the much-ballyhooed “rightnto know” is trite and unpersuasive, and itnleads him to...

SAVINGS THAT GO DOWN IN HISTOR/nTAKE ANY3 ALL FOR 99nllshers’ list prices.nYou can save even more now by taking advantage of our Introductory offer Selectnany 3 books on this page all for just 99<1: (values up to $90.00) when you take anfourth book at the low members’ price. Your total savings as a trial member,...

creasingly a conventional battle andnless an insurgency. Because the peoplenof the cities did not rise up againstnthe foreigners and puppets at Tet—nindeed they gave Uttle support to thenattack force—communist claim to anmoral and political authority in SouthnViet Nam suffered a serious blow.nOr consider this quotation, from thenauthoritative Strategic Survey—1969,npublished by the Institute for StrategicnStudies, Ix)ndon:nThe...

cites an Associated Press story, Februaryn16,1968, based upon an interview withnGalbraith. The story begins:nProfessor John Kenneth Galbraithntoday predicted that important unitsnof the South Vietnamese army willneither disappear into the woods ornjoin the Vietcong within the nextnmonths. ‘It’s been an open secret for anlong whUe,’ Galbraith said, ‘that importantnunits of the South Vietnamesenforces up in the...

A Dwarf as GiantnPablo Neruda: Passions and Impressions;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; NewnYork.nby Mary Ellen Foxnxlow does one cope with the phenomenonnof Pablo Neruda, Chilean poetnand 1971 Nobel Prize winner? He is obviouslynconsidered a great poet by manyn—at least by those who have been overwhelmednby his neo-Whitmanesque effusionsnor by the so-called charm of hisnodes to socks,...

burning, and total disregard for humannlife. Racism, delinquency, perversion,nand cruelty have been aggravated tonsuch a degree among North Americansnthat a fearful mankind contemplates anretrogression to the primal laws of thenjungle, to brutality and force.” Thesenpassages, typical of Neruda’s passionatenimpressions, adequately convey an ideanof his meager mental abilities. Oncenagain, one doesn’t know if his biases arenmore...

from the hands of any U.S. Ambassadornor anyone representing the governmentnKennan replied: “I understand and respectnyour feelings for not accepting thencitation and insignia from our ambassadornto Chile. This does not in any waynnegate your election. If you are planningnto be in the United States any time in thennear future it would be my pleasure tonpresent...

War I effectively employed the ethnicncard against the oppositional empires.)nThe contemporary litany of racial/culturalnconflicts—^Northern Ireland, Lebanon,nCyprus, Nigeria, India—bespeaks thenfragile nature of culturally segmentednsocieties. The cement that binds suchnbased on ethnicity? It is conceivable thatndelinquent immigration enforcementncould result in a nation within the nationn—^but it would be a nation inhabited bynpersons of limited skill, haUing from...

vital to destabilization. Every radicalnmovement, as Plato observed, must confrontnthe conservatism of the traditionalnfamily. Change in the deeply held values,nbeliefs, and loyalties of the present generationnis unlikely. Often that generationnis written oflf and the emphasis placednon its successor—the young. But thenyoung must be removed from the influencenof the traditional generation.nHence, through education, family influencenis deemphasized...

Prisoners of PassionnWe read recently with speechless awenthat, after a late-niglit showng of aii Xrateclnmovie had so aroused one prisonerntliat he sexually assaulted his cellmate,nthe authorities of Wisconsin’s WaupunnCorrectional Facility banned the furthernuse of such films at the institution. Wenwere, and still are, uncertain whethernpornographic movies should be induelcdnin the entertainment fare for young criminalsnforcibly...

Pointless Performances and Other ExercisesnMarie Rudisill with James C. Simmons:nTruman Capote: The Story ofnHis Bizarre and Exotic Boyhood bynan Aunt Who Helped Raise Hint;nWilliam Morrow; New York.nJohn Sack: Fingerprint; RandomnHouse; New York.nby Robert F. GearynIn simpler times biographies told thenreader something, preferably significant,nabout their subjects’ lives. Not so in 1983.nInstead of answering questions, thesentwo productions...

RELIEF FROMnMAGAZINE MUSHnAND ME-TOOISMnEach issue of Chronicles of Culture providesnthose who thought the days of vital, compellingnwriting were past with evidence to the contrary.nYou, dear reader, may insure the continued feelingnof cerebral well-being that comes from absorbingnthe contents of each issue simply by detaching thencard that accompanies this page and forwardingnit—filled in—along with your check.nIn...

throughout the book to be a lifelongnconfidante is settling one more score,nthis time at her subject’s expense? Hence,nperhaps, the real point of the epigraphnfrom Psalm 55: “The words of his mouthnwere smoother than butter, but war wasnin his heart.”nIjy his own account John Sack isnover 50 years of age: yet the mentalitynbehind Fingerprint is that...

century, 2) Conformity, and 3) SocialnValues. Ironically, the chief value itnpreaches is the now-feshionable abolitionnof all values that might impede thensatisfaction of individual appetites. Yet itndoes not occur to people like John Sacknthat this chic, seemingly painless moralnanarchy, if taken seriously by many fornvery long, will result in the chaotic vs^arnof each against all, the...

r~ LiBl’RAL Cl’LTl’Ri:n•//if (Jiifslfor PffU’cnIn :i iiwiit //»/(“.irlii li-.ihoul toi.iini-nii’-f «<-• ii-.ul:nlllr lokl- ni.irkrl i’^ lIU’ ‘^.IMU’ .!^ lluiiiiki’nIric/r iii:ir’ki’ln\ h;il iKw [JO.siiliililiis llii> Mij^yiM-. lornllu’ hillioii-diilhii’. l’liii’iil.i.|iM.'(l. hlooniniil^ iiKlll->li’. pi’dillulioiKll kli’j: :IM nllirn1)1,1 Ini’ iKi niiki’s I’shiM or hiiiii|ii.i’nsliiUi’r wiih i’M.r l(li;r.ini piirtli.isvniiiiuhl iiih:iiu I’ >.ik>-.nindividuals by their group affiliations,” itnis said, and that...

espoused by the new left-^the morenconfrontational the better. Were thennews media less inclined to present theirnmaterial in such a way as to camouflagenthe more radical behavior of such groups,nthis would be self-evident.nJrinally, consider the implications ofnlegal status for homosexuals within thenconfines of the civil-rights movement itselfnThere wUl be freedom for “gays” tonrecruit, teach, and indoctrinate...

teenager or older male, and at any agenearlier with a “tiny male’s penis”; masturbationnis to be unrestricted and is tonbe provided by “family, friends, ornneighbors.”nIf such explicit recommendations arennot enough to utterly destroy the traditional,nand majority-held, value systemnof American culture, there is yet more toncome. Of certainty would be the demandsnof other “sexual minorities.” Indeed,nwe...

to use such politically and emotionallynvolatile material as the key in the plan tontrap the terrorist ring. Still, Charlie is annimprovement over Khalil; “He was broadshoulderednand sculptured, with the raritynof a special object kept from sight. Hencould not have walked into a restaurantnwithout the talk dying round him, ornwalked out without leaving a kind of...

sor and his wife, the Minkeis, is propagandisticnbecause they are wholly implausiblentargets for an Arab terrorist.nKhalil decides to eliminate Minkel becausenhe fears the professor’s moderationnand willingness to acknowledgenPalestinian rights will weaken Arab resolvenby making it appear that the Israelisnare ready to make concessions theirnleaders will not in fact make. But thenreal-life counterparts of Professor Minkel,nlike...

when even Arafat wanted to come tonsome agreement with Hussein on thenReagan plan, he did not dare to do so.nAnd, while Le Carre seems to find moralnvalue in the suffering of Palestinians inncontrast to what he calls the “self indulgentndilemmas of affluent Western man,”ntheir plight is, in great part, the result ofnmoral defects within Arab...

by the British. Ministers fought at Yorktown,nand “all the colonels of the ColonialnArmy but one were Presbyterian elders,”nas were more than half of the colonialnofiftcers and soldiers. Clark does notneven hint at any of this: he pretends thatnnone of these issues ever existed. Bynplacing Franklin in an imaginary setting,nhe profoundly distorts the period andnmakes Franklin...

thesis has some credibility. Franklinnplayed his cards in Paris so that, no matternwhich side won, Britain or America,nBenjamin Franklin would not lose. Thatnhe essentially succeeded is a remarkablentestament to a brilliant, worldly man.nThat he was capable of crime should notncause surprise: it was long ago observednthat many shrewd criminals were mennof genius. That he was...

derestimated and so efforts to bringnabout uniformity, especially in the writtenncode, have always reflected legitimatennational interests. Yet given the diversitynof speakers and writers (andnprinters) both then and today, it shouldnbe clear that such efforts have usuallynbeen fiitile. This reflects the fact that languagenis an organic part of the lives ofnpeople; as such, it changes from...

the knower makes some sort of judgmentnof the relation between thenwords of assertion and the part of thenuniverse about which the assertion isnmade.nCurrent literacy education, Pattisonnmaintains, risks severing this vital relationnbetween assertion and universe.nUnfortunately, his proposals to avoidnthat risk and much of his historical analysisnare unpalatable because he advocatesncultural relativism. He attacks the notionnof literacy...

one sense what is at issue is the questionnof professional competence. Educatorsnhave carved out their own turf of expertisenand tried to make the public insecurenregarding matters of teaching and learning,nyet because they are so involved innvalue transmission, they can never reallynset themselves beyond the nexus of thenimmediate meaning systems of the community.nArons ties this conflict...

constructive American role in the world.nAn aspect of Chamberlain’s work thatnis most appealing is the portrait it givesnof emergent American conservatism.nThe author moved from a kind of vaguen1920’s Progressivism to an old-fashionednlibertarianism. The memoirs show thenwhy and how. In the process many forgottenngiants emerge—^men and womennwho maintained their intellectual integritynthrough the political whirlwinds ofnthe 1950’s...

will be in some indefinable but real sensensadder, less exuberant. He will find himselfnboth inwardly and outwardly a negativenreference point, a counterversionnof the American impulse.nSeveral strategies can be taken by thenSouthern writer who aims to succeed.nOne is to be so good that the world mustnmeet him on his own terms. Another isnto adopt an adversarial...

for the ordinary. Witness this descriptionnof two policemen: neither “are viciousnmen; they are merely undiscerninglynobedient, totally devoid of that flexibilitynof mind we call imagination.” Styronnis less a chronicler of human sufferingnand injustice than he is one of a band ofnself-anointed nobles whose mission is tonthwart an America that, in their eyes,nroutinely oppresses the weak, convictsnthe...

fire protection would suffer first. SenatornSam Nunn of the Armed Services Committeensaid essentially the same thing onna television news program. When a participantnasked him about cutting thenhuge military budget, Nunn replied:n”We’ll probably cut the wrong things.”nNunn went on to admit that members ofnCongress have their “obligations” to certainnindustries in their own districts.nCommitments are as strong...

that simple, the best policy for us wouldnsimply be hands-offi let them slaughterneach other. But it isn’t that simple, andnhere the information packed into Durand’snnovel is valuable. The confusion innCambodia may be epitomized by thencontradictory title of the early youthnmovement sponsored by Prince Sihanouk:nThe Khmer Royal Socialist Youth.nUnder that monarch corruption andngreed were a way...

COMMENDABLESnTender TransmutationnA. G. Mojtabai: Autumn;nHoughton Mifflin; Boston.nby Joseph SchwartznAutumn is a shy novel, itsnbrevity a sign that it does notnwish to call itself too insistentlynto our attention. Its shortness isnalso an indication of Miss Mojtabai’snstyle—the use of suggestionnto create overtones, thingsn”divined by the ear but not heardnby it”: WiUa Gather’s novelndemeuble. Of all styles open...

SCRI:I:N’nLess Than ZeronMonty fython’s The Meaning of Life;nWritten by Graham Chapman, JohnnCleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, TerrynJones, Michael Palin; Directed bynTerry Jones; Universal.nDoctor Detroit; Written by CarlnGottlieb, Robert Boris, and BrucenJay Friedman (from a story by BrucenJay Friedman); Directed by MichaelnA. Pressman; Universal.nby Stephen MacaulaynDifference is the key to comedy. Thatnis, in order for something...

eluding Butiuel and Trufiaut, a mannequinesquenrock star, and an actressnwhose performances in MaHe’s AtlanticnCity and Mazursky’s Tempest are overshadowednby her ample anatomy. In ThenHunger they are not players. They arenobjects. The three are on the screen tonattract viewers (demisophisticates, rocknfans, voyeurs). They are null ciphersnwho never act but are simply manipulatednas required.nNot one of the...

evolving, txansforming, changing. To annunprejudiced eye, the idea of avant-gardenended with Picasso, cubism, Leger, theirncontemporaries who proposed a newnconcept of reality, and with a few lonelyngeniuses like Braque, Matisse, andnChagall, who offered new structures ofnvisions and symbols. Everything after,nwhatever its name, was either visualnamusement, or epigonism, or charlataiiry.nPaging through the superbly publishednoverview of the Pompidou...

single most powerful figure in the historynof this music, can be studied andnenjoyed in every major phase of his artisticngrowth. There are other LouisnArmstrong collections besides thenBook-of-the-Month Club’s Louts Armstrong:nRare And Unreleased Performancesn(BOMC 21-6547), but none ofnthem is more entertaining or morenbroadly representative of Armstrong’snability to transform even banal materialninto glorious music. Some of his...

No one, however, can duplicate Russell’snendearingly off-center conception.nHis own exposition of “I’d Climb thenHighest Mountain” in Over the Rainbown(Xanadu 192) is a prime example ofnRussell at his unclassifiable best. Thenodd biplay between Russell and drummernGeorge Wettling in this 1958 datenmakes the album worthwhile. Russellnand seminal tenor-saxophone stylistnColeman Hawkins played together inn1929 in a legendary recording...

Then’ ”eviewnCONSERVATIVE THOUGHTnThe Salisbury Review is concerned to give clear and forceful expression to conservative thought, in thentrue tradition of British Toryism. The writing is serious, high-brow and scrupulous. We are scepticalnof fashion, and sceptical too of the simplifications and uncertainties of economic theory. In three seriesnof articles we shall be examining contemporary thinkers of...

C()RKI:SP()M)I:NCI: ^nLetter from Washington: On Politics and Pulpitsnby Thomas MolnarnFor two weeks in March, a group ofn30 European journalists were guests ofnthe Young America’s Foundation innWashington, D.C. It was a motley group;nas specified by the organizers, all werenunder 35 years of age: Danes, Spaniards,nGreeks, French, Scots, Dutch, Germans,nSwedes. Why under 35? Because we persuadenourselves that...

confronted a puritanical North America.nThus the hoped-for dialogue did notntake place, although it bears repetitionnthat the 30 journalists were by no meansnsystematic anti-Americans, peaceniks,nor militants for the Third World. ThenAmericans with whom the visitors camenin contact were baffled by the nuancesnwhich permit pro-free-market preferencesnto coexist with softness towardnMoscow, or skepticism about Americannwill to protect Europe...

Let us be frank—^those evocative adjectives liberal andnconservative have become semantic crutches. They no longerndenote judgment, principle, and discernment, but rather preference,nmood, penchant, sudden sympathy, immature choice,nprefebricated emotion, political directive, econometric estimate.nThey meant something different at the outset of thisncentury, as well as in the 1870’s. Henrik Ibsen wrote: “He hasnthe luck to be unhampered...

and magnanimously open minds, all so celebrated in the nowmonopolizedncultural communications networks. We standnaccused of wishing to suppress the humanitarian impulse innman, but no one mentions the defaced humanitarianism of thencultures in which homo has been replaced by ego, where thenwealth of humanness that took millennia to accumulate hasnbeen pulverized into cheap solipsism. Since social...

OlMMONS & VlI.WS TnBuilding with Broken ToolsnBarry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison:nThe DeindustrializaUon ofnAmerica; Basic Books; New York.nStephen Hilgartner, Richard Bell,nand Rory O’Connor: Nukespeak;nSierra Club Books; San Francisco.nWalter E. ^Kllliams: The State AgainstnBlacks; McGraw-Hill; New York.nby William R. HawkinsnProduction and distribution are twonparts of economic theory. They also designatena line of division between the politicalnright and...

must also be concerned with unemployment.nIf they are not, the right will suffernpolitically as the public mms to the leftnfor “solutions.” The economy will alsonsuffer because leftist solutions do notnwork.nAn example of the left’s attempt toncapture the reindustrialization issue isnBluestone and Harrison’s The Deindus-npiece of business is to re-establish a publicncommitment to the maintenancen(and indeed...

creased cost of this factor of productionnin the wake of the 1973 OPEC price hikenhas been a major cause of stagnation innthe years since. Economic growth ratesnamong the industrialized nations averagednin 1974-79 only half what they didnin 1960-73- The lost production in thenOPEC-induced 1974 recession cost thenU.S. more than the entire Vietnam War.nbureaucratic red tape,...