tial number of conservatives, concludedrnthat standards should be developed to setrnhistorical education on track again.rnSurely, there existed a core of objectivernfacts related to histor’ (or any other subjectrnfor that matter) that an educatedrnAmerican could be expected to know.rnThis was admittedly an old-fashioned approachrnto education, pushing most complexrnarguments of interpretation back tornad’anced undergraduate or graduate-levelrncourses and...

women. In realitw fact is more complicatedrnthan myth. The frontier was a regionrnin which adventurous and optimisticrnempire builders worked tornrecreate the civilizahon of the East b assertingrnand establishing conventional socialrnvalues and customs. It was also arndraw not just for simple outlaws but forrnsocial ones as well—unconstrained soulsrnw ith what today would be described asrncountercultural inclinations...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnProphesying WarrnBack in 1994, the Atlantic Monthly publishedrna notable article by Robert Kaplanrnentitled “The Coming Anarchy.” Thernarticle dealt with what Kaplan took to bernglobal indications of impending chaos asrnresources dwindle, infrastructures decay,rnweapons are peddled, gangs and armedrnbands replace states, and ethnic, racial,rnand tribal loyalties prevail over less ferociousrnidentities. The article was...

be self-financed in the comingrntime of chaos, they will grow likernwildfire. Militias, cults like thernNation of Islam, and other armedrnorganizations will also rapidly growrninto full-blown armies.rnMr. Chittum also has some fascinatingrnscenarios of how the conflict will playrnout in various areas of the country, parficularlyrnthe South, where the ethnic andrnracial composition will be so mixed thatrncertain...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Romernby Andrei NavrozovrnWhere All BelongrnIn my letter last month I tried to describernthe noble seriousness of Italian life,rnunique in that it has given the modernrnworld a middle class with a human face.rnEven on a simple physical level such asrnthat of the naked eye or of the camerarnlens, one can observe this seriousnessrnlike a...

I know, the holocaust, sexual harassment,rnand intergalactic strife, may substituternthis with their own national cinematicrncliches, in glorious color orrnracially insensitive black-and-white. Thernpoint is, Saul became Paul.rnThe following day being Sunday, wernwent for a stroll along the Corso. ThernRomans, in couples or more complexrnfamily groups, promenaded, pausing tornexamine shop windows, and withoutrnthinking what this meant, we...

VITAL SIGNSrnFOREIGN AFFAIRSrnWhat Robert TaftrnCould Teach UsrnTodayrnby Jeffrey Thomas KuhnerrnSince the end of the Cold War Americanrnforeign pohcy has been incoherent.rnThe CHnton administration hasrnsent U.S. troops under U.N. authority tornSomaHa, Bosnia, and Haiti; tried to brokerrnpeace talks in Northern Ireland andrnthe Middle East; bombed Iraq; orderedrnAmerican warships to the Taiwan Straits;rnand antagonized China and Russia...

understood that it was in America’s longtermrninterest to have a multipolar worldrnand to avoid unnecessary military conflicts.rnFor Tali, trade policy and national securityrnwere closely intertwined: a nationrnmust have complete control over itsrneconomy as well as its national security.rnHe opposed having America’s economyrnor military intermeshed with those ofrnother countries. On trade issues, Taftrnwas a staunch protectionist...

berg wants to make this incident bear thernwhole weight of the American slaveryrnthat lasted two and a half centuries andrnthe Great Unpleasantness that ended it.rnThousands oi Amistad study kits havernbeen sent out to schools with this goal.rnThe trouble is, as an account of Americanrnhistory, Amistad will not bear thernweight. The Amistad had no influencernon the...

This is mentioned in the film but notrndweh on: the Northern judges ruledrnagainst the freedom of the Amistad captives.rnThe Supreme Court, with a majorityrnof slaveholding Southerners, renderedrnthe proper decision: the Africansrnhad been illegally seized and were freed.rnThen, according to American law, theyrnhad to be sent back to Africa. In addition,rna law professor tells me that...

eing, imagine the effect it would havern1 millions less warped. The resultingrniritual rejuvenation would bankruptrne sex-and-violence business overnight.”rnOther people will remember thern1958 film A Night to Rememher (basedrnon Walter Lord’s historical report andrnanalysis) in which the ship is the wholernstory, and nothing is lost by the absencernof a subplot. These were movies of anotherrnage, if...

A Classic Work on America’s FoundingrnFRIENDS OF THE CONSTITUTIONrnWRITINGS OF THE “OTHER” FEDERALISTS, 1 7 8 7 – 1 7 8 8rnEdited by Colleen A. Sheehan and Ciary L. McDowellrnThough The Federalist Papers arc rightly renowned as arnprimary exposition of the principles and purposes of thernproposed United Slates Constitution, there were many writersrnother than John...

A iMPOitrAxr M:W BOOK O TIU: liTiniirnOF FIJI (ATI0 i out DliMOCIlACYrnEducationrnand Democracy:rnRe-imaginingrnLiberal Learningrnin America -.J S?-;rn’^A wonderfully timely celebration andrnrevisiting of Dewey and the pragmatic tradition.”rn—Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Educationrn^^An invaluable, fresh approach to addressingrncurrent concerns about the goals and strategiesrnof liberal education.”rn—Thomas Bender, New York Universityrn$22.95 (paperback) 005899, $29.95 (hardcover) 005880rnFor...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnART DIREGTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.J. Brown, KatherinernDalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rn].0. Tate, Michael Washburn,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, Srdja TrifkovicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternPUBLICATION DIREGTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnGIRGIILATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn928 Nortfi Main Street. Rockford, IL...

forms, Lenin published “Left-WingrnCommunism: An Infantile Disorder” inrn1920. Now, there’s nothing wrong withrnlifting an occasional phrase from the leftists,rnor gleaning a lesson or two from theirrnexperience. But Francis’s dependencernon Marxism is too disturbing to ignore.rnHe disparages the Christian Coalition’srnmessage as a “false consciousness,” arnMarxist term for an ideology that distractsrnworkers from legitimate ideolog)’.rnHe identifies the...

ed at the federal level under Tito’s communistrnconstitution of 1974. Why arndead red dictator’s arrangements—neverrnfreely negotiated, or voted upon by thernpeople concerned—should be acceptedrnas inviolable principles a quarter of arncentury later is left unexplained.rnAfter Kosovo becomes a federal republic,rnthe Croatian/Bosnian scenario for secessionrnwould be duly applied: the assemblyrnin Pristina will call a referendumrnon independence, with...

went off (although this may not havernmattered, since McVeigh placed hisrntruck on the wrong side of the buildingrnwhere the daycare, not the BATF, wouldrnget the worst of it). BATF informantrnCarol Howe and federal informant Can,’rnGagen have also testified that theyrnwarned the authorities well in advancernthat an attack was going to take place inrnOklahoma City. On...

During the debate on the tort lev}’, citizensrnhad the opportunity to address thernboard, and Rockford received a foretasternand promise of things to come. StevernBland, the pastor of Pilgrim BaptistrnChurch (one of the largest black churchesrnin Rockford), displayed a stunning disregardrnfor the legal system by asking, “Ifrnthe tort fund was right before [JudgernRapp’s ruling declaring its...

“Redefining the American Right:rnFrom Aristotle to Pat Buchanan^^rnThe Rockford Institute’s First Annual Summer Schoolrn27 July-l Augustrnat The Rockford Institute, Rockford, IllinoisrnWhat is the American conservative tradition, and how does it fit into the broader Westernrntradition? Through a series of lectures and discussion sessions, instructors and studentsrnwill examine this question. Each day will feature two lectures...

PERSPECTIVErnDial M for Murdochrnby Thomas FlemingrnPublishers and writers are inveterate enemies. It is a combatrndecreed by nature, like the eternal war between dogs andrncats, oil and vinegar, teenage girls and their mothers. Any realrnwriter, no matter how mercenary or corrupt, cares somethingrnfor the craft that publishers regard as at best a pretext for marketingrn(much as...

Mr. Turner and his wife (former star of soft-porn flicks like Barharella)rnare no match for the greatest press lord to date: RupertrnMurdoch.rnMr. Turner, on the grounds that it takes one to know one, hasrncalled Mr. Murdoch another “Adolf Hitler” (which puts him inrncompany with Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, PatrnBuchanan, and the editors of this magazine),...

apologized to Patten and promised him a settlement of anrnundisclosed amount.rnThe darker side of the picture has been the silence of thernMurdoch-owned London Times. The Times’ media editor, justrnafter the nick of time, admitted that it was a mistake not to coverrnthe story but denied that he had been “leanf’ on, insisting thernwhole thing was...

VIEWSrnA Hothouse of GoofinessrnThe American Book Industryrnby Tony Outhwaitern,rn/ Mrn• * t j jrn^ ^rn~’^=^rnmmi ^rn”^^W^wfesifi^lFrn^ ”’ I^BaiL^-^Jj—-rn•^^ggfESaiil^SrnX ugasHrn^% ^^^fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^h !^tfrn^ — frnIggtpi^fc, ^.^B^Ki^l^^^MrnThe renowned American jazzman Charlie Parker, introducedrnto Jean-Paul Sartre in a Paris club during the 1949rnjazz feshval, reportedly said, “I’m very glad to have met you,rnMr. Sartre. I like your playing very...

of almost adolescent, antagonistic willfulness to take hold, whatrnHunter Thompson might call “bad craziness.” Good sense hasrnyielded to a lunatic enthusiasm for pointless multiculturalism,rna tabloid appetite for scandal, trash, and weirdness, and continuedrnunreasoning support for peculiar, destructive ideas like revisionism,rnsocialism, victimization, and the petulant viewpointrnthat all who do not agree with them are somehow unclean...

certs they have attended, parties they have been to, bars andrnrestaurants they have discovered. They also talk about howrnhard they work and how serious they are about books. Yet whatrnremains of the industry’s badly damaged editorial process stillrnproduces delusional books suggesting that Columbus was arngenocidal maniac or that Goebbels was just a regular guy, passesrnoff...

ica, and there are legions of readers eager to find out whetherrnKatie Couric really has a wolverine, or how Johnny Depprnamassed that extraordinary collection of Woolworth turtles.rnNot only that, but does Kate Moss know about this and whatrndoes she think? What we have here are the publishing equivalentsrnof what Alan King, commenting years ago about...

,^.srn&1rnEurope at BayrnOvercoming the Schism: European Divisionsrnand U.S. PoUcyrnA Joint Conference of The Rockford hvs^tutdChronicles andrnthe Lord Byron Foundation for Ballcan StudiesrnMAY 8-10,1998rnTHE RAMADA CONGRESS HOTELrn520 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUErnCHICAGO, IL 60605rnLyan European unity be restored, or must the Cold Warrn__ division of Europe persist?rnHow do Orthodox and Western Christian interests in Europe converge,rn_ _ _...

Maxwell Perkins Is DeadrnThe Decline of Commercial Publishingrnby Clay ReynoldsrnIn an industry that trades on rumors of disaster, the tales flyingrnaround New York (which I use here as a synecdoche for majorrnpublishing houses anywhere) for the past several years arernhorrendous. Though some of the horror stories may be exaggerated,rnat least insofar as the specific publishers...

their daiK’ sales figures; some, one Fort Worth Borders managerrnconfessed, make more money on coffee and pastn,’ sales thanrnthey do on books. A manager for a San Antonio Barnes & Noblernoutlet told me that they sell more copies of book reviewrnpublicahons than actual books. “Of course,” she noted, “periodicalsrnare considerably cheaper than books, and for...

The pressure for demonstrable and quick success mountedrnalong with the workload. The typical editor now has about 20rnbooks on his desk at one time, all on serious deadline, and eachrncomes with a profit and loss forecast sheet that says exactly whatrnnumbers that book has to turn to pay out. If it fails, the writer isrngone....

rounds of editors and agents? It means each of them must learnrnto write for category’, to figure out what’s hot, and to deHver itrnpromptly before the category cools. They must forget aboutrnwriting well and learn to write popular. They must abandonrnany notions they ever had about merely telling a good story withrnintereshng characters or even...

The problem is, then, larger than it seems, with more villainsrnthan we may wish to recognize. (Fear of being labeled as paranoidrnhas left us easily vulnerable to all kinds of villainy.) Publishingrnis only part of the problem. Also deeply involved, responsiblernfor much that is wrong, are other parts of the literaryrnestablishment, including the academies and...

es needed to publish Sunday School curricula, Bible study resources,rnand theological treatises that reflected their own theologicalrndistinctiveness. Nondenominational tract societies, collegernstudent ministries, and other groups committed tornevangelism and the promulgation of the Christian faith alsornturned to publishing, a fitting medium particularly for thernstrongly Word-centered emphasis of Protestant evangelicalism.rnIn Michigan, a number of pious laymen of...

the deep pockets and corporate backing of Zondervan and NelsonAVord.rnPopular authors developed by the small publishersrnjumped ship to the big players for multimillion dollar advances,rnsums unthinkable for the small publishing houses. As a result,rnthe. small houses found themselves having to play the samerngame. They needed celebrity authors and surefire best-sellersrnto remain competitive. While some publishers...

ing academic readership. As John Lukacs writes in his memoirrnConfessions of an Original Sinner,rnScholars no longer read much, not even each other’srnbooks. They will read some books; more often, articles;rneven more often, reviews; and the latter only in certainrnpublications. . . . We are in the presence of a situationrnthat has few precedents in the...

adopted son. The book is an appalling mess that sounds all therncurrently fashionable alarms. There are many others like it inrncurrent university-press catalogs, diatribes masquerading asrnscholarship.rnFruge urges publishing smaller but better lists, suggestingrnthat, as a start, presses coldheartedly cane out the bottom tenrnpercent from their current programs—the books that don’t sell,rnthe books that no one...

Three Poems by Wendell BerryrnTo a Writer of Reputation In Art Rowanberry’s BarnrnHaving begun in public anonymih’,rnyou did not count on thisrnliterary enterprise by whichrnsome body becomes a “name” —rnas if you have died and have becomerna part of mere geography. Greet,rntherefore, the roadsigns on the road.rnOr perhaps you have become deaf and blind,rnor merely...

contested publication of Hubert Selby,rnJr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn. Buying sleazernand looking down a blue nose, the Americanrnpublic has been confused about thisrnpoint since the days of Cotton Mather,rnand still is.rnVolume one of these crime stories isrnmuch the better of the two, boastingrnseveral classics. These were thernbooks that people actually read for pleasurerninstead of duty,...

not so much a lyrical novel as a restrictedrnepic. The world of the carnival is presentedrnas a trope, an image of society, notrnunlike the Pequod. Stanton Carlislernlearns “the secret” of deception and manipuladonrnand goes from being a lowlyrnhuckster to a classy con man. Nothing isrnbetter than the “Reverend” Carlisle’srnspurious sanctimony as he bilks the pigeonsrnwhom...

trove mined by Hersh are the interviewsrnhe conducted with insiders—some wellrnknown, others shadowy figures—associatedrnwith the New Frontier, or with theirrnheirs. Interviews, of course, are a mostrnvaluable way of checking one storyrnagainst others, and Hersh uses them skillfullyrnto establish not only Kennedy’s sexualrnromps (including one with a suspectedrnEast German spy) but Joe Sr.’s ironrncontrol over the...

Mickelson, who ran the gallery. Leftrnhanging for the reader is the question ofrnwhat happened to these photographs.rnWere they destroyed, and if so by whom?rnDid the FBI, which seemed to knowrnmore about JFK than JFK himself, everrnsee them? Did they become part ofrnHoover’s blackmailing of the President?rnDid JFK send copies to the participants,rnmuch as other politicians...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnAbraham the Unreadyrn(This column is based in part on an addressrndelivered at a “Colloquium on Lincoln,rnReagan, and National Greatness”rnsponsored by the Claremont Institute inrnWashington, D.C., on February 12,rn1998.)rnL’affaire l^winsky was the obsession ofrnthe headlines and conversations ofrnWashington throughout February, obscuringrneven the jolhness promised byrnanother airborne stomping of Iraq andrnthe possible obliteration...

federate independence and the right ofrnsecession. Technically, he may havernbeen correct in some of these claims, butrnhis insistence on them in the face of therndissolution of the Union and thernprospect of war and at a time when evenrnradicals on both sides were suggestingrncompromises reveals his mediocrityrnas a national political leader. Seward,rnAdams, Sen. Lyman Trumbull of...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Romernby Andrei NavrozovrnNothing Better to DornI have always wanted to spend some timernin Rome, for a whole rosary of personalrnreasons. As with much else in a person’srnprivate life, to recount these in print is tornexpose oneself to public ridicule. Yes,rnRome is a wonderful city. Yes, the foodrnis good.rnBut then in England, where I...

tresses, and no taxi drivers who have hadrnseries pilots produced. But what one observesrnemanating from each individualrnsoul is extreme, almost sacramental seriousnessrnwith respect to its predicamentrnat this or that given moment in time.rnUntil it became the mark of the bourgeois,rnthis solemn self-satisfaction used tornbelong to no particular social group andrnmarked equally the upper and the...

VITAL SIGNSrnPUBLISHINGrnThe Life andrnTimes of the KingrnPlagiarism Storyrnby Theodore PappusrnThree death threats, one left hook tornthe jaw, 40 rejections from 40 publishersrnin 40 months, and a sold-out firstrnedition. Such was the response to myrn1994 book, The Martin Luther King, Jr.,rnPlagiarism Story.rnChronicles and I first became interestedrnin this story in mid-1990, when wernheard 1) that a...

findings.” But perhaps the journal’srncravenness should not have surprised us.rnAfter all, the Journal tipped its hand in itsrnNovember 15 editorial, when it stressedrnthe importance of covering this story in arn”carefully modulated” manner.rn”Carefully modulated” is perhaps thernbest way to describe the book industry’srnapproach to this story. Clayborne Carson’srnvolumes of King’s papers —inrnwhich the evidence of King’s...

ly’s approach to intellectual propertyrnrights became accepted practice.rnMr. Branch is right: by delaying publishingrnprojects with excessive red tape,rnor by derailing them altogether with exorbitantrnfees, the King estate can in effectrnstymie scholarship and censor history byrncontrolling who receives permission torncomment on King and his work. Thisrndanger was not lost on David Garrow, arnfrequent critic of the...

MEDIArnReturn of thernAlehousernby Jesse WalkerrnWe are, they say, entering an age ofrnNew Media, of talk radio, desktoprnpublishing, and the World WidernWeb. Not everyone in the old media isrnpleased. “The new media cater to andrnare built up by people who used to sit onrnbar stools and complain to each other,”rndeclared NBC correspondent Gwen Ifillrnin 1994. “Now...

wider range of issues —something beforernCongress one day, something before cityrncouncil the next. And they just don’trnhave the bulk of the coast-to-coast programs.rnThey have less to lose from coveringrnsomething risk- or obscure or fromrntaking a controversial stand.rnThere are, of course, good syndicatedrnshows. Most talk stations mix local andrnnational shows. Many mix mainstreamrnand radical opinions: with...