dians of New Mexico, who had acquired and hoarded gunsrnone at a time, revolted in 1680. Pueblo attacks in the next 16rnyears killed hundreds of whites and pushed white settlementrnout of Santa Fe, all the way back to El Paso. In the 1750’s, Comanchernraiders, using guns supplied by the French, forcedrnSpain to abandon north Texas.rnWhen...

Indians laid a foundation for America’s attachment to the gun,rnit does not provide a convincing explanation of why Americarnstill cherishes the gun, long after the danger of an Indian raidrnhas passed.rnThe frontier conditions which forced so many Americansrnto own guns for protection have changed, but they havernnot disappeared. The lawless frontier is no longer found...

CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrn* On Islam, Multiculturalism, and Immigration *rnISLAM AND THE WEST—February 1999—Thomas Fleming defends decadentrnChristendom, James George Jatras exposes America’s collaboration with Islam, HaroldrnO.J. Brown warns the West against submitting to a quiet jihad, and Srdja Trifkovic discussesrnIslam and the multicultural myth. Plus Philip Jenkins on the New York Times andrnthe...

“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” igns( of tl)e ®imes;rnVol. 1 No. 6 June 1999rnAmerica went to war against the Serbsrnin March, ostensibly because of their refusalrnto sign the so-called peace agreementrnput forward by the United States andrnits allies at Rambouillet, France. Manyrnother reasons were subsequently advanced,rnbut this was the original one.rnPresident Clinton told us that...

serve under Clinton. “I’ve beenrnaround the military for morernthan 30 years and I have neverrnseen morale this low,” Simonsonrnsays. “Bill Clinton has destroyedrnthe soul of our armedrnforces.” . . .A psychologistrnwho treats obsessions says Clinton’srnpreoccupation with hisrnlegacy could be viewed by mentalrnhealth professionals as a warningrnsign over the President’srnstability. “There are enoughrnoutward signs that the...

similarities between communism andrnwhat (before Mr. Hyde took over Dr.rnJekyll entirely) used to be distinguishedrnas neoconservatism—between internationalrncommunism and global democracy,rnwhich are chiefly differentiated at thisrnpoint in history by the fact of the first havingrnMade In The U.S.S.R. stamped onrnit, the other Made In The U.S.A. WithrnGood Intentions? is valuable not only forrnits defense of worthy,...

of the personality of each child, arnthousand different schools mightrnbe considered an excellent idea.rn”Not many years ago,” the great manrncontinued,rna considerable body of opinion inrnthis country . . . thought that whatrnhappened to children was a matterrnfor the parents to decide. The staternshould not come between a fatherrnand his s o n . . ....

small portion of actuality which can bernmeditated on and explored. Windowsrncan work wonders, the protected, projectivernprocess, the gift received and returned.rnOne recalls the brilliant windowrnpaintings of Pierre Bonnard and HenrirnMatisse, and remembers what a usefulrnmetaphor the window is for any artist.rnThe overall tone of the collection isrnelegiac and admonitory, and why wouldrnit not be for...

tenance of national memory. In short,rnshe thinks hke a matriarch. She is selflesslyrndevoted to the transgenerationalrnsense of our country and voices only thernnoblest of patriotic sentiments. ThoughrnMrs. Clinton presents herself as a FirstrnLady through and through, some may bernas disappointed as I was that she did notrnchoose to reveal her secret method forrnmaking a 10,000...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnPolitics Without a RightrnIt took only a few days after the rout ofrnthe Republicans in their battle to drivernBill Clinton from office for the leaders ofrnthe Beltway Right to decide that the warrnwas over and the only thing left to do wasrnannounce surrender. Four days after thernSenate “acquitted” the President of...

out reservation to the authentic Americanrnculture that the super-culture dominatesrnand seeks to destroy. Hence, anyrnsuggestion of cultural and political radicalismrnby the Old Right or the New towardrnthe goals of uprooting the dominantrnculture has been greeted b)- thernneoconservatives as “extremist,” “reactionary,”rn”racist,” “antisemitic,” or “anti-rnAmerican.” That is how they greetedrnChronicles, as well as Pat Buchanan inrnthe 1980’s...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnBanausiarnby Michael McMahonrnThe Aptly Named WoodheadrnLovers of Gilbert and Sullivan will notrnneed to be reminded that the second actrnof The Gondoliers is set in “Barataria,” arnfictional land which is ruled by “arnmonarchy that’s tempered with republicanrnequality.” The opera sadrizes the inflexiblernsocial order of Victorian societyrnby turning it on its head and mocking thernno-less-absurd result....

Christmas holiday, prompting those whornspotted it to claim that the governmentrnwas ashamed ofhaving to make it. But arnmore cynical (and possibly more accurate)rninterpretation would be that therngovernment is planning for a future withoutrnteachers—at least, without teachersrnin the traditional sense of the word. Afterrnall, the standard of those candidates whorndo come forward to be trained has...

ed that grades were awarded for lessonsrnthat had not even taken place. (Preciselyrnthis happened to a colleague of mine recently,rnwho received grading for fourrnlessons, though only two had been observed.)rnAnalysis by the Times EducationalrnSupplement, the professional journalrnof teachers, claims that one in sixrnschools classified by Ofsted as failing (arncataclysmic condemnation) should notrnhave been. According to...

rich soldiers who would be coming.rnOnce the soldiers arrived, they were horrifiedrnto discover that the Americansrnwere not allowed off the base except forrnofficial duties. Near one of the manyrnAmerican bases scattered throughout thernTuzla valley, a beautiful new buildingrncontains a restaurant named “KaliforniarnPizza,” or something along those lines.rnThe building is remarkable for its glitterrnand for the...

the Albino Rage Commando; and thernCalHsteatopygian Coalition will be presentrnat all oral examinations to monitorrnthe tones of voice, facial expressions, andrnbody language of the examiners for anyrnsigns of racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativism,rnhomoabilitarianism, andrnlookism, A sign-language option will bernavailable for the differently abled.rnOnce again. Professor Stodgett strainedrnhis colleagues’ patience with a lot of prepostmodernistrncarping and quibbling,rngoing...

two-sided entity, yielding a key orrngrid equally present in the signifyingrnand the signified series. It maneuversrnnomadically through therntext, at once word and thing, namernand object, sense and denotatus,rnexpression and designation, exploringrnthe semantic, phonetic, andrnmorphological connections silently,rnlaboriously, obsessionally, compulsively;rnand with the stealth of arnthief in the night it swells up withrneverything it had previously swallowedrnbut is...

to decide everything.”rnI murmured something by way of po-rnHte disbelief. What exactly was he talkingrnabout? Voodoo? Brainwashing?rnHypnotic influence? “More like telepathy,”rnhe replied, unsmiling. “You’ll see.rnWhen the crunch comes, you’ll find outrnthat they can read your mind.” Graduallyrnthe subject petered out, and by therntime we sat down to lunch at the smallestrnand coziest of the five...

VITAL SIGNSrnUnder, Over, andrnWorlds Apartrnby George McCartneyrnEight MillimeterrnProduced by Columbia Picturesrnand Hofflund/PolonernDirected by ]oel SchumacherrnScreenplay by Andrew Kevin WalkerrnReleased by Columbia PicturesrnOctober SkyrnProduced by Charles Gordonrnand Larry FrancornDirected by Joe JohnstonrnScreenplay by Lewis Colickrnand Homer HichamrnReleased by Universal PicturesrnAnalyze ThisrnProduced by Tribeca ProductionsrnDirected by Harold RamisrnScreenplay by Ken Lonerganrnand Peter TolanrnReleased by Warner Bros.rnWatching film...

begrimed, yet shrouded in an aura ofrnworking-class dignity. Then the screenrnfills with what seems to be the folds of anrniron-gray curtain. Only when these foldsrnbegin to move and the camera pulls backrndo we realize that it’s a huge reel of steelrncable hauling the mine elevator up fromrnthe depths, bringing one crew of minersrnto the surface...

by the usual crowd of activist ideologuesrnat her college. Her husband Rick, arnhigh-school chemistry teacher who hadrnalready clashed with his department overrnthe attempted introduction of a “whole”rnscience curriculum, had been invited tornaccept an award at an American ChemicalrnSociety meeting in San Diego. Onernof the speakers, molecular biologistrnMichael McKeown of the Salk Institute,rnclosed his remarks with...

“Now Jack,” asks the interviewer, “inrnwhat way would a woman or a minorityrnlearn [math] differently than I learnedrnit?”rnJack: “All of the research that has beenrndone with gender differences or ethnicrndifferences has been—males, for example,rnlearn better deductively in a competitivernenvironment. . . . [W]omen have arntendency to learn better in a collaborativerneffort when they are doing...

nomic growth.rnThere is also Httle local support for thisrn”country” in which the U.N.’s High Representative,rnCarlos Westendorp, has chosenrnthe currency and the flag, and hasrneven dismissed the elected president.rnThere is no end in sight for an Americanrntroop mission which was originally supposedrnto last just a year.rnIntervention in Kosovo is even morernperverse. Not only does the West...

one, America should set the Europeansrnfree to make their own decisions andrnbear the resulhng consequences. Let thernmembers of the European Union, with arncombined GDP of eight trilUon dollars,rnpopulation of nearly 400 million, andrnarmed forces of more than one million,rnsort out the problems of the Balkans ifrnthey believe doing so to be worth therncost.rnWhile Yugoslavia obviously...

he warns of the dies irae and prays for therngrace of understanding.rnBut to return to territory more famiUarrnto the sociologist and the historian,rnnamely, the course of worldly events:rnWith hardly an exception. ProfessorrnSorokin’s detailed predictions of the directionrnour society would take in the remainderrnof the century have turned outrnto be almost completely accurate. Thernaccuracy with which...

Modern Editions of Classic Works for Readers TodayrnEMPIRE AND NATIONrnLetters from a Farmer in Pennsylvaniarn(John Dickinson)rnLetters from the Federal Farmerrn(Richard Henry Lee)rnSecond EditionrnEdited by Forrest McDonaldrnTwo series of letters that have been described as “the wellspringsrnof nearly all ensuing debate on the limits of governmentalrnpower in the United States” are collected in this volume. The...

1 effcrt to repairrnour uflKrstffliding ofrnChrisAn truth.”rntrn—Jos^h Sobran,rnNationally syndicatedrncolumnist;rnEditor, SOBRAN’srn”This is a very significantrnbook, one thatrnis sociologically andrnhistorically wellrnresearched, theologicallyrnwell thought out,rnand forthrightly andrnclearly written. It deservesrna fearless andrnserious discussion.”rn— Thomas Weinandy,rnO.F.M., Cap., ThernWarden of Greyfriars,rnOxford; Tutor andrnLecturer in Historyrnand Doctrine, thernUniversity of Oxford.rnS P E N C ErnPUBLISHING CO.rnWhy do men stay away from...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, Jr.rnMANAGING EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnARTDIRKCIORrnH. Ward SterettrnGONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rn].0. Tate, Michael Washburn,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, Donald Livingston,rnWilliam Mills, William Murchison,rnAndrei Navrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnFOREIGN AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja TrifkovicrnLEGAL AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnRELIGION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnEDI rORIAL SECRE lARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnA publication of...

is a clear disjunction between a politicalrnclass “manipulating” the “ideologicalrnsymbols” connected to its dominancernand the same political class “embracing”rnthose symbols, hi my view, there is nornsuch disjunction.rnIt is not simply an accident of historyrnthat most members of the dominantrnelites in the Western world in this centuryrnhave “manipulated” the idea-systemrngenerally known as “liberalism.” Thosernideas clearly serve...

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnABORTION has been a part of thernAmerican national rehgion for severalrndecades, and in February a federal courtrnin Oregon decided that it was blasphemyrnto criticize the ritual sacrifice of unbornrnchildren. At issue was a pro-life websitern(“The Nuremberg Files”) featuring Western-rnstyle wanted posters for “physicians”rnwho made their living by practicing infanticide.rnIn the course of the trial,...

knowledge how little virtue meant tornthem and, perhaps, that the Americanrnpresidency was not as important as thernchampions of big government havernthought, if such a man could be left inrnsuch a position.rnPresident Clinton’s defenders willrnlikely continue piously to pronouncernthat he was wrong to do what he did, butrnby their actions in permitting him to remainrnPresident, they...

cle would have been as completely futilernas it was disgraceful.rn—Srdja TrifkovicrnA LAME DUCK PRESIDENT? Tornsuggest that this is Bill Clinton’s conditionrnis to be unkind to handicapped fowl.rnClinton and his colleagues seem to bernon the brink of madness. The administration’srndomestic policy moves arernhaunted by the ghosts of the impeachmentrnprocess, while its foreign policyrnteam stumbles like drunkards...

CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrn* On Family Policy, Welfare, and ImmigrationrnEUROPEAN AMERICA: LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE FRENCH—rnApril 1998—Thomas Fleming on the heail’s geography, Jean Raspail on defending civilization,rnKenneth McDonald on how culture and federalism can coexist, Scott P. Richertrnon the European roots of American life, and Samuel Francis on the other...

PERSPECTIVErnDefending the Family From Its Defendersrnby Thomas FlemingrnThe phrase “family vakies,” as it is used by pohticians,rnmarks one of the official borders between left and right inrnthe United States. The fact is infuriating to Republican moderatesrnwho want to turn their party in the direction of opportunityrnand choice, which—translated into moral terms—meanrnadultery, divorce, and infanticide, the...

In most political debates, only the smallest particles of historicalrntruth are allowed entrance—as much as will provide thernskeleton for one or another ideological myth, hi the debaternover family values, historical scholarship on the left and rightrnhas emphasized the uniqueness of the bourgeois family, and althoughrnI am doing violence to the differences among ideologicallyrndiverse social historians...

medieval families, and even in the ancient world Greeks, Romans,rnand Jews practiced differing marriage customs and pursuedrnsomewhat different styles in rearing children, but one ofrnAristophanes’ characters—Strepsiades in the Clouds, for examplern—could have swapped stories with the patriarchs or with thernfather of the Prodigal Son, and both might come to appreciate,rnafter a few weeks of observation,...

the agricultural sector had the greatest affect on the establishedrnpopulation because, until 1930, half of the U.S. populationrnlied in rural areas. The break in farm prices in 1920, for example,rnwas followed by a fertilit}’ decline in rural America.rnMore than ten years later, urban fertility fell in response to thernGreat Depression.rnThe U.S. fertility rate was reviving...

tive-born fertility rate, ineluding what would have been itsrnpeaks.rnThe U.S. fertility rate drifted lower through the 1960’s, declinedrnfaster after the first oil-price increase, and reached a newrnlow, 1.7 children per woman, in 1976. Among whites, the fertility’rnrate declined to approximately 1.4 children per woman.rnThese rates are well below the number needed to replace thernpopulation. (A...

tility rate adjusts to conditions created by the high (or low)rnchildbearing of the previous generation; thus, both high andrnlow fertility are self-correcting over time.rnRapid population growth in a post-frontier, post-industrialrnsociety is one cause of the many reverses in opportunity, financialrnsecurity, and lifestyle that native-born Americans have experiencedrnin the latter half of this century. The United...

This assumption of rather than to promote good institutions,rnauthorih’ creates an obvious confusion.rnWith so many fingers in the pie of “family policy,” it is easyrnto see why the meaning of “family” is often missing.rnAt the end of the 19th centur}’, France basically pursuedrnpro-natalist policies based largely on argimients deyelopedrnby demographers, who were interested in the...

ture. This conception is fundamentally different fromrnthat which makes the individual (autonomous and isolated)rnthe basic unit of society, which would then consist,rnsimply, of one individual added after another. This secondrnperspective ends up in the notion of the individualistrnfamily . . . the family becomes an option, one mode ofrnsocial existence among others.rnTo illustrate concretely the...

doxical in itself, at least if one considers that the ideal situationrn(promoted by a family policy) is that a child has both motherrnand father. This concern, in France, led the participants of thernConference on the Family to put their finger on the dangersrnlurking in measures reserved strictly for isolated parents.rnWe are at the frontier between...

The Menendez case raised questions about just why andrnwhen ordinary’ Americans had come to accept sucli an apocalypticrnview of the extent and severit)’ of intra-family abuse. Thernbeginning of the trend can be dated quite precisely to 1962,rnwhen an epoch-making article in the journal of the AmericanrnMedical Association, “The Battered Child Syndrome,” declaredrnthe discover}’ of baby-battering,...

ther”), the means by which the alleged facts are produced arernprofoundly suspect.rnConsider, for example, one case of the late 1970’s, whichrnhappens to have been studied in great detail. (Though thernevent took place some years ago, little has changed in ternrs ofrntherapeutic orthodoxies; if anything, therapists have becomerneven more credulous.) When Kenneth Bianchi was first arrestedrnfor...

“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” igns; of tj)e tCimesJrnVol. 1 No. 5 May 1999rnThe best commentary on the Clintonrnaffair predictably came from abroad.rnWriting in the Daily Telegraph (London)rnon February 10, Ambrose Evans-rnPritchard lamented the fact that the Republicansrnwere too timid, or too enmeshedrnin Clintonian intrigue themselves,rnto pursue the real charges againstrnClinton. The counts concerning Lewinskyrnwere...

in Bosnia, condemned the offensivernin a speech at the RoyalrnUnited Services Institute: “Therncontinual TV images of the VJest’srnhigh-technology systems causingrndeath and destruction to peoplernin the Third World will not berntolerated forever by civilisedrnpeople.”rnTurkey’s help—and the use of its airrnbase at Incirlik, in eastern Anatolia—rnproved fai’ more important to Washingtonrnthan the Kurds’ struggle. Ocalan’s capturernwas preceded...

liturgical rubrics, current events in a biblicalrnperspective, and a Christian approachrnto psychotherapy.rnThe Fathers of the Egyptian Desertrnwould have recognized the problemrnright away: illusion. A self-conscious “orthodoxy,”rnespecially with all its hyphenations,rnis no guarantee against spiritualrndelusions, hi fact, in today’s Church, itrnmay become a proximate occasion ofrnthis sin. Perhaps a more precise, andrntherefore more charitable, title for...

ence of the pan-orthodox, anything-goesas-rnlong-as-Fm-not-a-modernist minimalismrnin contemporary CathoHc Hfe. Jonesrnhas been combating this attitude forrnsome time, so it is surprising that he doesrnnot categorically indicate it as the fundamentalrn”permissive cause” of the Medjugorjernmess. For most of the book, he onlyrnhints at it. Perhaps he does so out of arncertain deference for authority, especiallyrnthat of the...

a protection mechanism against suchrnhurt: modesty. Modest)’ is what makes arnwoman instinctively pull back fromrnsleeping with a man of whose lasting affectionsrnshe is not sure. But a womanrnwho refuses premarital sex today is usuallyrncounseled to overcome her “hangups”:rnSociety no longer sanctions femalernmodesty. “Before,” as Miss Shalit pointsrnout, “it was a woman’s prerogative to sayrnno—she didn’t...

Principalities & Powersrnbv Samuel FrancisrnThe Un-Magnificent ObsessionrnAlmost precisely a year after the name ofrnMonica Lewinsky began to displacernthose of Princess Diana and Jackie Onassisrnfrom the headlines of snpermarketrntabloids, the one-time object of MissrnLewinsky’s more tender affectionsrnemerged triumphant over his foes inrnwhat are still laughingly called the “conservativernmovement” and the “RepublicanrnParty.” The conservative and Republicanrncrusade to...