Western LegitimacynHerbert R. Lottman: The Left Bank;nHoughton Mififlin; Boston.nSteven M. Tipton: Getting Saved Fromnthe Sixties; University of CalifornianPress; Berkeley.nby Daniel J. O’Neilnrlow many citizens can reject thenideological basis of a society before thatnsociety collapses? What happens to ansociety when its underlying beliefs,nmyths, and symbols cease to inspire?nThere have been historical periodsnwhen first the intellectuals and...

ably been strained by the followingnfactors.n(1) The breakdown of the traditionalnfamily has created a vacuum.nFor many the affection, warmth, andnsecurity once provided by the family isnno more. These human needs stillnexist; hence, the search elsewhere fornthe vital family services. The sect—nwhether religious or secular—oftennclaims to compensate by creating annew family based upon belief andncommitment rather...

Although they break little newnground, the recent biographies ofnRuskin and Gibbon by Joan Abse andnPatricia B. Craddock are full of insightsnand stylistic grace. But the scholar willncontinue to find useful the traditionalnbiographies of Gibbon by G.M.nYoung and D.M. Lowe and of Ruskinnby E.T. Cooke and R.H. Wilenski.nCraddock’s book is the first to makenuse of a...

one who claimed to have a special politicalnor religious insight denied to allnothers. His moods oscillated wildly fromnjoy to depression, and he was continuallynobsessed with young women. His marriagento Euphemia Gray ended in a messynannulment on grounds of nonconsummation.nHis search for emotional securitynoften bordered on the bizarre, as when,nfor example, he fell in love at...

calamity.” In his frenetic enthusiasmnRuskin waged war against social and artisticnapathy as well as irresponsible individualism;nhe championed unpopularncauses, helped to found the WorkingnMen’s College, and endlessly expoundednhis ideas in print and from the lectern.nNevertheless he was his own man whontried to deliver a message which everynsociety must hear if it is to survive. Hisnpersonal eccentricities...

strong appeal, and not just for the left.nMany a libertarian, though rejecting thenspending of taxpayers’ dollars for welfarenor foreign aid, has been seduced into andisarmament position by the hope that anreduced defense budget means smallerntax bills. However, this argument restsnon a dubious assumption: that militarynspending is inherently wasteful and thatnthe military provides no benefits comparablento...

This JjMirii.iI 111 i>pinkiiinis bL-iiii> hnuiylu to younby Thi.’ Kivivloni liislitiilf.nit ytni ari’ jlrtMtly .1 siiltscrilvr.nyou £ia” iiwiiii: ituii vc suiui InursquiiA.’nagdiiisi lod.iy’.s I ilvr.il (.’iillurtaiidnlilt” passive- pulilishirio ^-ult ol iiii.”-nUH)ism.nII Ihis is yciiir llrsi issui- ol ChmnU’lcs 0/nCiiltutv (or you’ve Ixvii Umowiiii! .1 rtyiyn.md warn Jor your own), .uid ymi .irc innIrimitxi by wliai...

Miss Grundy, the Brown ShirtnThe work of one of the liberal culture’sngurus, the late Mr. Roland Barthes,nresolves a number of perplexing politicolinguisticnconundrums. Said Barthes in anlecture at the College de France:nLanguage is fascistic because thensentences are based on subordination:nsubject, predicate, direct and indirectnobject.nThis, we presume, qualifies high schoolnstudents enrolled in grammar classes asnSoviets have continued...

ly news, and no group is more aware of itsncost than the professional soldiers whomnUdall pillories. But that does not changenthe fact that national leaders must benprepared to deal with a dangerous worldnFamily as Joke or IsolationnJohn Barth: Sabbatical; G. P. Putnam’snSons; New York.nAnne Tyler: Dinner at the HomesicknRestaurant; Alfred A. Knopf; NewnYork.nby Betsy Clarkenjyiore...

people’s welfare above Exxon’s and ITnand T’s and Anaconda Copper’s,” shensays of her ex-CIA agent husband),nSusan has accepted a teaching position atnSwarthmore. Fcnn, already the author ofna CIA expose, is thinking of letting hisnwife support him while he writes, unremarkably,na novel.nMore bad news: both Susan and Fennnhave doubles. Susan’s twin, Miriam,nonce gang-raped and worked over...

after entering into the ttaditional familynbonds.nDinner at the Homesick Restaurant isntherefore an exceptional effort withnmemorable characters in highly believablencircumstances. The novel is notnwithout humor, though more of it is atnthe characters’ expense than for theirnenjoyment. Still, the book seems notnentirely fair. Though devoid of the ideo­nInsights intonLong-Forgotten InbrogliosnBruce Allen Murphy: The Brandeis/nFrankfurter Connection; OxfordnUniversity Press;...

involved Bernard Baruch and is discussednin Schwarz’s biography far more fullynthan it is by Murphy. The War ProductionnBoard was headed by DonaldnNelson, who was regarded by Frankfurter—andnothers—as indecisive andninept. According to Murphy (who citesnno source whatever), by 1943 Frankfurternhad “become preoccupied with a secretnfear that the military might be maneuveringnto take complete control of thendecision-making...

not to discriminate along such lines,nbut a man from Cornell was” easier tonrespect than one from the Universitynof Missouri.nAs the continuing pertinence of thenpreceding paragraph makes clear,nSchwarz’s book provides valuable insightsninto long-forgotten controversiesnwhich have largely shaped our currentnsituation; in his account of the Eberstadtnaffair, for example, Schwarz gives anmuch more coherent picture of the differentnpolitical...

allowed an anachronism, a modem warhas-no-meaningnbias, to slijp into his picture,nwhich ultimately makes the novelnproblematic.n5ome conservative publicists havendeveloped a concept which they call then”Hive.” It might also be called the antithesisnof the conspiracy theory. “Hive”nmeans the community of journalists,npohticians, intellectuals, and activistsnwho, working independently of eachnother, all contribute to the goals ofnliberalism and socialism. The...

Rationalizing DriftnJeaneJ. Kirkpatrick: Dictatorships andnDouble Standards: Rationalism andnReason In Politics; American EnterprisenInstitute / Simon & Schuster; NewnYork.nby Edward J. LynchnM rs. Kirkpatrick has assembled anremarkable volume that ranges farnbeyond international relations. The subtitle,n”Rationalism and Reason innPolitics,” provides an accurate indicationnof its scope. Although presented as a collectionnof essays, the volume is truly anbook, complete with...

gion and interests in other dimensionsnbecause the American people at the timenshared an unquestioned adherence tonthe self-evident truths of the Declarationnof Independence. Mrs. Kirkpatrick’snability to write an essay on The Federalistnwithout reference to the Declaration isnmerely another indication of how thenpolitics of compromise and moderationnin contemporary America have becomendivorced from the common roots—thatnis, “abstract” truth—that...

Some Bathos & An Apotheosis of ImmaturitynChristopher Hope: A SeparatenDevelopment; Charles Scribner’snSons; New York.nDoris Lessing: The Making of the RepresentativenFor Planet 8; Alfred A.nKnopf; New York.nby Maura A. DalynD oris Lessing’s most recent novelnand Christopher Hope’s first novel arendivergent reflections on one particularlynmodern literary topos: the difficultynof the individual’s defining himself innrelation to society. This...

who live in harmony under benevolentnmlers. But an ice age is threatening theninhabitants and their planet with extinction.nAt first, the people believe that thenimmense black wall which Canopus,ntheir rulers, had instructed them tonbuild, will protect them from the encroachingnglaciers. Later, this hope abandoned,nthey await their promisednremoval to the clement planet, Rohanda,nonly to discover that it,...

gram drawn primarily from NormannThomas’s Socialist Party platform, withnsome infusions of communist doctrine.nThey promoted economic and socialnjustice in a very agrarian and conservativenpart of the country, where men oftennreacted violently to challenges to theneconomic and racial order. The alliancenbetween radical Christianity and socialismnhas continuing relevance even today,nwhen peasant-based underdevelopednsocieties are threatened by that samenalliance. Howard...

class rather than racial lines, that middleclassnblacks are quite as fearful of lowerclassnblacks with no stake in the system asnmiddle-class whites are.nAlthough American Journey resemblesnnothing so much as a disjointednpatchwork of information, it is possible tonfollow a few threads running through it.nOne such skein is the theme of responsibility,nboth personal and political. Anyncoherent society must...

very methods which the courts and thenFederal bureaucracy have used to imposentheir policies. Reeves quotes a formerndeputy to New York’s then-Mayor Kochnas saying that our political problems reallynbegan “when money was tied tonpolicy.” And he is right. The socialnengineers in the Federal bureaucracynhave gone from victory to victory wieldingnthe threat of funding cutoffs. But thisnis...

his ancestors and how and where theynlived. Mr. Drake assumes that the readernis interested, although the people henwrites about were not particularly interestingnor novel. What is interesting isnhow they developed a sense of place, hownthey carried it among themselves withoutnever saying much about it, and hownthey handed it along to Boyd, who spentnhalf a lifetime...

THE MONUMENTAL LITERATURE OF DWARFSn. . . CONTINUES.nTHE^ ROCKFORD PAPERS’ newnseries, “The Monumental Literature ofnDwarfs,” continues its critical looi< at contemporarynAmerican literature with essaysnon the following celebrated authors:nTHE REJECTIONIST SCHOOL. IsnJohn Barth the dean of a new school ofnnovel-writing that will push the traditionnforward, and is Robert Coover one of thenbrightest pupils — or are...

as the edelweiss romancenGraustark (1901) and the farcicalnBrewster’s Millions (1902);nnevertheless, the biographynA.L. Lazarus and VictorH.Jonesnhave written about him lendsnsome substance to the GreatnCham’s general observation.nThe man Lazarus and Jones portraynwas, like the minor poetsnDr. Johnson treated in his lives,nmerely one of those “writers ofnminor but creditable achievement,n” but his life story reveals ansurprisingly complex man....

S( RI:I:NnFacing FascismnHans-Jiirgen Syberberg: Hitler, A Filmnfrom Germany; Farrar, Straus &nGiroux; New York.nby Stephen MacaulaynHans-Jurgen Syberberg is a filmmakernwho was born in Germany (Pomerania)nin 1935. In the history of film,npost-World War I German productionsnare highly rated. Lang, Murnau, andnPabst, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,nThe Last Laugh, and The Joyless Street:nall are names that stem from...

Crosby’s minstrel heritage is intriguing,nand he is illuminating on the similaritiesnand differences in the piano styles of JellynRoll Morton and Professor Longhair. Hisncomments on the symbiotic relationshipnbetween Jewish songwriters and blacknjazz musicians in the first half of this centurynare thought-provoking.n”The blue note is endemic in jazz,nblues, and gospel,” he writes, “and hasnsettled in every corner...

double binds that sustain and entanglenthe white jazz musician. The chaptei onnDexter Gordon incorporates a briefnhistory of the saxophone in modern jazznand transmits some of the frustration of anmajor American artist who finds morenacceptance abroad than at home.nWhile Giddins has a vision that allowsnhim to place music in societal andnpolitical perspective, he has refrainednfrom polemicizing...

C()RRESP()M)I:N( 1. ~fnLetter from New York: The Merit and The Glorynby Thomas MolnarnIhe Manhattan intelligentsia foundnits literary Fidel Castro when GabrielnGarcia Marquez was awarded the NobelnPrize. The New York critics noted withnunconcealed satisfaction that in GarcianMarquez they have a giant of the novelnandz friend of Fidel and AUende. It apparentlynthrills them that this prize recipientnis...

lives hell with name-calling in print andnon the movie screen? What should thenvets feel guilty about? That they tried tondefend a small nation, perhaps corruptnin its ancient ways, against the cruel, formidable,nperfidious tyranny of internationalncommunism? Mr. Marin’s pals innThe Nation made this defense impossible,nand now dislike the picture of vetsnswearing vengeance before the names ofntheir...

that Henry Ward Beecher, during thenwar that he “helped to produce,” “livednin luxury in Newport and Europe.”nBeecher lived in Brooklyn throughoutnthe war. He never lived in Newport.nAnd he never lived in Europe, thoughnhe made a lecture tour there duringnthe war, defending the North in thenface of violently hostile pro-South,nBritish audiences.nAnother of the reviewer’s charges isnthat...

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 ttiat comes from absorbingnthe contents of each issue simply by detaching thencard that accompanies this page and forwardingnit—filled in—along with your check.nIn...

having, and the principles not sonmuch.nAs much as Thurber lived and achievednin New York City, he seems to have considerednlife there a kind of manic existencenwhich could ultimately destroynhealth, happiness, sanity, and finallynhumor. He describes it as:nA city made of steel and cement, withnvery few trees, and such trees as theynare, paltry and vulgar, sad...

that develops beyond these three criteria,nas most contemporary democratic regimesnhave, is not likely to fulfill the conditionsnof the minimum state acceptably.nHe devotes a large portion of his book toncase studies of contemporary governmentsnthat either have failed to providenthese conditions (most of the Westernndemocracies) or have provided them untemperednby any other considerationsn(the totalitarian or, as Crozier...

The conclusion must be, then, thatnthere is some other desideratum besidesnthe three criteria of the minimal statenthat Crozier reveals to us. I would suggest,nwithout further elaboration, thatnthis desideratum consists precisely of anpublic orthodoxy that views man as bothnfixed and flawed and of the preservationnof a social and political structure fluidnenough to prevent the monolithic concentrationnof...

plottings of the American elite. “Thenmass media of the United States are anpart of the national power structure andnthey therefore reflect its biases andnmobilize popular opinion to serve its interests,”nhe declares. Thus, Hermannmust pretend that the major networksnand newspapers are conservative, anticommunistnforces. He claims that Sterling’snThe Terror Network was “heavilynand uncritically reviewed by the leadingnmedia...

The Holocaust architects could claim nonsuch rational cover. Miss Arendt explainednthe German experience asnreflecting “the banality of evil.” Innanother work she traced its source to then”destratification” of elites in Germany.nThe “cultural middle class” employed innthe civil service, she argued, bore honornbut lacked corresponding wealth and politicalninfluence. Such destratificationnresulted in a nation of “the merelynwealthy,” “the...

rial ambitions to blossom in Germany,n”because a committed value pluralistnnegates the idea of citizenship as a moralncommunity.” A deep historical defectnwas thus made into a modern virtue. Asnsocial-science professor and SS leadernReinhard Hflhn put it, “shared valuencommitments are destructive of a Volksgemeinschaft.n” When the German armiesnset out to create a “new order” innthe East, only...

from it of the ‘values’ that ought to benobtained elsewhere, i.e., the moral,nsocial, and philosophical values whichnliterature and art were once expected toncommunicate.” Richard Poirier in Thencontemporary American women muddlingnalong in an attempt to achieve independence,nself-fulfillment, and satisfactorynrelations with those less-thanadmirablencreatures, men. If Hawkes’sn”This book is thoroughly cerebral: it uses eroticism to arouse thought.n-Timen”Reading Hawkes,...

kind of career. Their relationships withnmen are unsatisfactory, primarily becausenmen are essentially cruel or reallyncan’t tell women apart and considernthem mere adjuncts to themselves andnkeepers of their houses. Their attractionnto men is frankly acknowledged as lust.nChildren and family life, aside fromnhusband-wife conflicts, are left out ofnconsideration. Southerners are bigotednsubscribers to the “Protestant-Puritannmyths.” The moral tone,...

paid scant attention to military commandersnexcept on technical matters,nand strategic input from the Army wasnminimal.nCounterinsurgency was appealing tonliberal leaders because it contained anlarge element of reformist sentiment.nAlthough Colonel Summers does notnpursue this issue, it is relevant to hisnthesis. When Hubert Humphrey proclaimednhis desire to build a “TVA onnthe Mecong Delta” and so win the heartsnand...

concern was unlikely to push for andeclaration of war. One can sympathizenwith Summers’s desire that the Army notnbe committed until the country was committed,nbut the reality of world politicsnmakes this an ideal that will seldom benrealized. America is still the only worldnpower capable of blocking communistnexpansion. To do that, the U.S. will havento be able...

from aboveground nuclear testing.nAlso toxic waste polluted our processednbaby food. We all fear bonencancer, an abbreviated life. Chemotherapynis always on the horizon. Sex,non the other hand, is intelligible. Itncan be performed in the safety ofnone’s own bed. See what I mean?nEven though there’s no meaning to benseen, Sommer expects us nevertheless tonpart with our coin,...

We the People: Forest, Trees, or Roadside ZoonPeter Davis: Hometown: A ContemporarynChronicle; Simon & Schuster;nNew York.nJohn Shelton Reed: One South: AnnEthnic Approach to Regional Culture;nLouisiana State University Press; BatonnRouge.nby Marion MontgomerynJreter Davis’s Hometown is anstranger’s imposition of ideas aboutn”America” upon a local community ofnsome 63,000 unsuspecting souls; fromnthat community he selects some 12 specimenncitizens to...

the actual subject in the interest of categorizing.nIt is the chief virtue of his booknthat Mr. Reed is not able to levitate tonsuch a plane, which gives virtue to somenof his recognitions rather than detractingnfrom them. That he is aware of divisionnin his own mind is reflected by the ordernof his essays. In the first...

celebration, then, that sociology departmentsnare now “thoroughly entrenched”nin the South’s major colleges and universities.nWhat is rather more certain is thatnin those regional institutions there arenfewer of the Howard Odum branch thannthere are thoroughgoing determinists.nThe distinction is one Davidson makesnbetween Odum and others when he seesnRupert Vance, Odum’s colleague andnanother of Mr. Reed’s mentors, as in...

hard-working people and their way ofnlife, which she spends the rest of her timentrying to escape. Her mother, acaricaturenof Cinderella’s stepmother, tricks Jill intonadmitting she has had intercourse withnher college boyfriend, and the stage isnset. While Jill strives earnestly to becomena poet, men grab at her clothes. Seldomndoes she resist for long. However, an'[In Braided...

THE MONUMENTAL LITERATURE OF DWARFSn. .. CONTINUES.nTHE^^ ROCKFORD PAPERS’ newnseries, “The Monumental Literature ofnDwarfs,” continues its critical look at contemporarynAmerican literature with essaysnon the following celebrated authors:nTHE REJECTIONIST SCHOOL. IsnJohn Barth the dean of a new school ofnnovel-writing that will push the traditionnforward, and is Robert Coover one of thenbrightest pupils — or are both,...

CSS of The Precedence of Women, itinerantnlecturess, talkshow personality, andncryptolesbian.” Jude and her hard-corenfriends lure Samantha away from Victornwith a promise of an upwardly mobilenposition as assistant editor of a newnwomen’smagazine. Bill and Victor comenhome one evening to find notes fromntheir wives announcing that they havengone to do what is really important tonthem. Viaor plots...

form and not the substance of Fishwick’snculture: Harlequin becomes EmmetnKelly becomes Ronald McDonald.nSimilar impulses manifest themselvesndifferently depending on the era. For example,n”the idea of having saaed thingsnis no less prevalent today than it was yesterday,”nbut Homo religiosus has nowntransferred his fixation from thingsnspiritual to things athletic; thus footballnis our faith, and the Super Bowl today’snmost...

world, and many who were bored withnthe old eagerly set sail. But psychedelicnadventures themselves were not Leary’snmain selling point for LSD. He purported,nsomewhat arrogantly, to offernmore than a mere stimulant, and deridednthose many poor fools who failed tonappreciate his favorite drug’s social andnscientific significance. Inexplicably,nmany academicians and psychologistsnlegitimized LSD’s widespread use. Conferencesnand journals devoted enormousntime...