OPINIONSrnThe Nationalist Imperativernby Wayne Allensworthrn”Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”rn—^Albert EinsteinrnEthnonationalism: The Questrnfor Understandingrnhy Walker ConnorrnPrinceton: PrincetonrnUniversity Press;rn226pp.,$M.95rnWhen James Bowie took his considerablernreputation as a brawlerrnand duelist, along with the famous knifernhis brother Resin had fashioned for him,rnto Mexico, married the daughter of thernvice-governor of the province of Texas,rnand became...

REVIEWSrnParadise Recoveredrnby Paul GottfriedrnThe End of Racism: Principlesrnfor a Multiracial Societyrnby Dinesh D’SouzarnNew York: The Free Press;rn•724 pp., $30.00rnMr. D’Souza might have reconsideredrnthe title of his book, for he isrnnot describing the end of racism. GlennrnLoury recently observed a predilectionrnfor “end” themes in recent neoconservativerntracts: Fukuyama with the endrnof history and D’Souza with the endrnof...

about the inhabitants of a society morernbackward than their own, a point thatrnD’Souza first concedes but then ignores.rnHis indignant comments about lynchingsrnin the American South in the earlyrnyears of the century assume an enormityrnof wickedness that is not borne out byrnthe facts. Black violence in Southernrncities m the 1880’s and 1890’s approachedrnlevels associated with thernunderclass...

or prevalence in certain circles. The NewrnColor Line points out how even the mostrnbasic principles and values undergirdingrnthe American constitutional order wererncorrupted by its own institutions throughrnthe stealth and cunning of ideologistsrnmotivated by their visions of racial “justice.”rnThat this could happen meansrnthat something is drastically amiss in ourrnpolitical culture. It also serves to warn usrnto...

OPINIONSrnGlad To Be of Usernby Samuel Francisrn”Satiate with power, of fame and wealth possessed,rnA nation grows too glorious to be blest;rnConspicuous made, she stands the mark of all.rnAnd foes join foes to triumph in her fall.”rn—George Crabbe, ThelibraurnIrnThe Next American Nation:rnThe New Nationahsm and thernFourth American Revolutionrnby Michael bindrnNew York The Free Press;rn436 pp., $23.00rnn...

REVIEWSrnNietzsche for Kidsrnby Thomas E. Woods, Jr.rnThe Letters of Ayn RandrnEdited by Michael S. BerlinerrnNew York: Dutton;rn681 pp., $34.95rnIt is a rare polemicist who makes a successfulrncareer in fiction. But in ThernFountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shruggedrn(1957)—and with all the subtlety ofrndropping a grand piano on her reader’srnhead—Avn Rand conveyed her harshrnphilosophy to a broad audience...

dominating the media and the academy,rnhave distorted our sense of American history.rnGoing back to original sources,rnreading neglected texts, and rethinkingrnold issues, he has refreshed our sense ofrnourselves and of our sense of nonsense.rnIn doing so, he has stepped on manyrna toe, for there are a host of politicalrnreasons why convenient myths are broadcastrntoday with religious...

Christianity. Dr. Pagels’ failure to discussrnthese roots is remarkable.rnSimilarly, her book lays great emphasisrnon Jewish-Christian conflict at the timernof the great Jewish-Roman war of 66-73rnA.D., a pivotal event reflected in thernGospel of Mark, the “wartime” polemicrnwith which Pagels begins her study. Itrnwould be embarrassing for her thesis tornhave a prewar Christian account which isrnthoroughly imbued...

OPINIONSrnPost Mortemrnby Robert C. Whittenrn”A genera] who sees with the eyes of others will never be able to commandrnan army as it should be.”rn—Napoleon IrnThe Generals’ War: The Inside Storyrnof the Conflict in the Gulfrnby Michael R. Gordon andrnBernard E. TraynorrnBoston: Little, Brown; 551 pp., $27.95rnIn Senate hearings in 1991, General AlrnGray, the Marine Gorps...

Up From Televisionrnby The Reverend Ian Boydrn”/ came to cast fire upon earth; and would that it were already kindled!”rn—Luke 12:29rnCrossing the Threshold of Hopernby His Holiness ]ohn Paul 11rnNew York: Alfred A. Knopf;rn229 pp., $20.00rnIn order to mark the 15th anniversaryrnof Pope John Paul IPs election to thernPapacv, Italian Radio and Televisionrncommissioned Vittorio Messori...

REVIEWSrnGeneology of arnMovementrnby Paul GottfriedrnThe Rise of Neoconservatism:rnIntellectuals and Foreign Affairs,rn1945-1994rnby ]ohn EhrmanrnNew Haven: Yale University Press;rn24lpp.,$27.50rnDuring many an evening conversation,rnSam Francis, Murray Rothbard,rnLew Rockwell, and I have dwelledrnon a particular topic with relish: Whornwas the first neoconservative? Our responsesrnvaried, depending on the latestrnneoconservative outrage and which obnoxiousrnhistorical personalities we werernthen reading about. After looking...

ogy of essays in America First!, I was remindedrnof this fact. Those pohticalrnhabits Kauffman defends as “repubhean”rnor “popuHst” were axiomatic forrnmost Americans 100 years ago. Nowrnthey arc presented as a rediscovered legacy:rnwhat Kauffman calls neo-isolationismrnwas once a corollary of decentralizedrnpolitical society with a constitutionallyrnlimited federal government. Like otherrnpaleoconservatives, Kauffman believesrnthat the American republic did notrnsimply...

mance. Judges have now had 42 years tornengineer a better world, and are not donernyet, as many school districts are still underrncourt supervision,rnhi Forced Justice: School Desegregationrnand the Law, David ]. Armor sheds lightrnon the results of this experiment. Armorrnexamines numerous studies involvingrnkey topics such as black self-esteem,rnhousing preferences, academic performance,rnand white flight. The conclusionsrnhe...

The EdinburghrnBruternby Theodore Pappasrn’The whole Sherloek Holmes saga is a triumphant illustration ofrnart’s supremacy over life.”rn—Christopher MorleyrnThe Oxford Sherlock Holmes:rnA Study in ScarletrnThe Sign of the FourrnThe Adventures of Sherlock HolmesrnThe Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesrnThe Hound of the BaskervillesrnThe Return of Sherlock HolmesrnThe Valley of FearrnHis Last BowrnThe Case-Book of Sherlock HolmesrnGeneral Editor, Owen Dudley...

REVIEWSrnWarts and Allrnby Thomas FlemingrnThe Poetry of Scotland:rnGaelic, Scots and EnglishrnEdited and Introducedrnby Roderick WatsonrnEdinburgh University Press; 714 pp.rnAnational poetry in three languages isrnhard to describe, much less anthologize,rnand, in fact, the situation is evenrnmore complex since so much good Scottishrnpoetry was written in Latin, a pointrnmade emphatically by Tom Scott in thernintroduction to his...

With his eves full of weather andrnscabirds,rnFish, and whatever morsel herngrows here.rnClear, too, is manhood, and howrneaeh man looksrnSecure in the love of a woman whornAlso knows the wisdom of the sunrnrising.rnOf weather in the eyes likernlandmarks.rnIt is a remote democraey, wherernmen,rnhi manaeles of plaee, outstare a searnThat rattles back its manacles ofrnsalt.rnThe mood’ jailer...

later admirers worshipped his works andrncame to eonclude, as the Oxfordiansrnhave, that no common Ehzabcthanrnman, a modestly educated glover’s sonrnfrom a backwater community, no matterrnhow gifted he might have been, couldrnpossibly have created the plays attributedrnto Shakespeare. Incidentally, Matus offersrnan accurate portrait of the Earl ofrnOxford, a man, himself, to be reckonedrnwith and remembered, though...

OPINIONSrnThe Sword in the Stonernby Pat Choatern”The call for free trade is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child for the moon.rnIt never has existed; it never will exist.”rn—Henry ClayrnOpening America’s Market: U.S.rnForeign Trade Policy Since 1776rnby Alfred E.EckesrnChapel Hill: University of NorthrnCarolina Press;rn382 pp., $34.95rnDuring the closing days of the 1993rncongressional debate...

The Future Belongs To Usrnby E. Christian Kopffrn”Reaction is the consequence of a nation waking from its illusions.”rn—Benjamin DisraelirnCharles de Gaulle: Futuristrnof the Nationrnby Regis Debmy. Translatedrnby John HowernLondon-New York: Verso:rnUI pp., $49.9SrnIn the 1960’s, when those of us vvho arernno\’ “of a certain age,” as the old-fashionedrnFrench expression goes, werern oung, wc used to...

REVIEWSrnEmbarrassing Victoryrnby Justus D. DoeneckernTemptations of a Superpowerrnby Ronald SteelrnCambridge: Harvard University Press;rn144 pp., $18.95rn” I he other side lost, but did wernA win?” So asks Ronald Steel coneerningrnAmerica’s foreign policy. Obviouslyrnthe world long familiar to us hasrnsuddenly collapsed. “Of course there is arnvictory,” writes Steel in reference to thernUnited States’ triumph in the ColdrnWar....

American interest is lacking, and its interventionrnwould be misunderstood.rnThe United States, Steel writes, has “nornresponsibility to defend break-away statesrnthat unilaterally declare their independence.”rnCertainly it must not lead anyrn”global fire brigade.”rnThere is one sense in which Steel hasrnsomething in common with many isolationists;rnthis concerns his claim thatrnthreats to American security are now internal.rnAmericans suffer from a...

OPINIONSrnBabylon Revisitedrnby J.O. Tatern’When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,rnwe shall become as corrupt as Europe.”rn—^Thomas JeffersonrnTerrible Honesty: MongrelrnManhattan in the 1920’srnby Ann DouglasrnNew York Farrar, Straus & Giroux;rn606 pp., $27.50rnThis snowball of a book, gatheringrnmass as it accelerates, is studdedrnwith accretions and revisions. A work ofrncultural criticism rather...

REVIEWSrnTackling thernJudiciaryrnbv Paul GottfriedrnIn Defense of the Constitutionrnby George W. CareyrnIndianapolis: Liberty Press;rn202 pp., $7. SOrnAmong con,scr’atie constitutionalrnscholars, George Carcv bestrndemonstrates the knack of remainingrnperpetually relevant. From his collaborationrnwith his own mentor WillmoorcrnKendall in the 1960’s through his manyrnw ritings on the federalist papers oxerrnthree decades, some included in thisrnN’olumc, Carev has worked to show...

arrangement, the source of unity will notrnbe philosopher kings who rule by socialrnengineering but from a shared culturalrnframework, from what Carey’s preceptorrnWillmoore Kendall called “agreementrnabout first principles.” Owing to hisrnconcern for the role of citizenship andrnthe preconditions for popular government,rnCarey also recognizes the limitsrnof modern democracy. True self-rule, hernbelieves, requires cultural cohesion, arncautious immigration policy,...

strict sense, history did not begin inrnSumer—it began in Greece, the home ofrnscience, tragedy, and democracy—thernmanv discoveries that did begin in thernFourth and Third Millennium wodd ofrnMesopotamia still affect our lives in waysrnwe do not notice or understand.rnA continuous cultural tradition dominatedrnthe urban world of the ancientrnNear East from the third Millenniumrnuntil Cyrus the Persian...

books and essays that incorporate historyrnand political thought with personal experience.rnAnd while the prime motive ofrnboth men was to earn extra income, eachrnhad an energetic style that continues tornbring readers back to their work.rnRoosevelt and Churchill owe theirrnreputations not just to the fact that thevrnled their governments in critical times,rnbut to the personal traits that...

REVIEWSrnWhat CausernWas Lost?rnbyBienan R. NieimanrnA Government of Our Own:rnThe Making of the Confederacyrnby William C. DavisrnNew York: The Free Press-rn550 pp., $27.95rnThe War for Southern Independencernreminds us of many things, notrnleast of which that there were once manyrnmen who were wilHng to take up armsrnto defend what they believed to be theirrnbirthright as Americans. It...

How Do You Spellrn’Individualism’?rnby William J. Watkins, Ji.rnThe Myth of American Individualism:rnThe Protestant Origins ofrnAmerican PoHtical Thoughtrnby Barry Alan ShainrnPrinceton: Princeton University Press;rn394 pp., $39.50rnApopular belief about the foundingrnera is that America was a society ofrnatomistic individuals. All that Americansrndemanded, according to myth, wasrnthat their life and property be protectedrnby government; the remainder of theirrnaffairs...

stake, proved such bad prophets, whyrnthen blame a bunch of academics,rnarmed with nothing more dangerousrnthan their software, for their failure tornpredict the overnight collapse of the SovietrnUnion?rnThe real issue, of course, is not thernfailure of these scholars to predict therncourse of Soviet history. It is rather, saysrnWalter Laqueur, that they—mainstreamrnSovietologists, like Beatrice and SidneyrnWebb in...

OPINIONSrnAlien Futurernby Paul Craig Robertsrn”A nation scattered and peeled,… a nation meted out and trodden down.”rn—IsaiahrnAlien Nation: Common Sense AboutrnAmerica’s Immigration Disasterrnby Peter BrimelowrnNew York: Random House;rn291 pp., $23.00rnLike Romans in ancient times, Americansrnare losing their country tornimmigration, and few seem to know it.rnOne who does know is Peter Brimelow,rnhimself an immigrant and recently naturalizedrncitizen....

REVIEWSrnConstitutionalrnDisorderrnby George W. CareyrnRecapturing the Constitution: Race,rnReligion, and Abortion Reconsideredrnby Stephen B. PresserrnWashington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing;rn398 pp., $24.95rnThe Supreme Court, as StephenrnPresser laments, has wandered farrnoff course; increasingly its Justices haverntaken to reading their own preferencesrnand prejudices into the Constitution,rnthereby abandoning their solemn obligationrnto act as its guardians by interpretingrnits provisions in accordance with the...

many—even those most sympathetic tornhis arguments—might well question hisrnbold assertion that Federalist 10 “impliesrnthere will be a single national interest”rnwhich “the framers believed” wouldrn”emerge . . . through the working of divinernintervention.”rnOf particular interest in Presser’s analysisrnof how the Court has strayed offrncourse is his treatment of the Brown decisions.rnHe maintains—correctly, in myrnview—that the Court...

nation of military spending and businessrnderegulation espoused by the RepublicanrnParty in 1964, and, again, in 1980.rnPopulists disliked, and still do dislike,rncorporations and the federal government,rnwhereas the Goldwaterites werernnot notably hostile to either.rnWith a bit more probing, Kazin mightrnhave discovered the obvious: that establishmentrnconservatives care even lessrnfor right-wing populists than he does.rnWhence the fighting on the...

Cherished Voidrnby Bill KauffmanrnGene Roddenberry: The Mythrnand the Man Behind Star Trekrnby ]oel EngelrnNew York: Hyperion;rn283 pp., $22.95rnBeyond Uhura: Star Trekrnand Other Memoriesrnby Nichelle NicholsrnNew York: Putnam’s;rn320 pp., $22.95rnTo the Starsrnby George TakeirnNew York: Pocket Books;rn406 pp., $22.00rnGene Roddenberrv was a hustlingrncx-cop who wanted to strike it richrnin tcleision, and he did, with a seriesrncalled...

OPINIONSrnA Happy Man in a Terrible Centuryrnby Max Oelschlaegerrn”Happiness is at once the best, the noblest, and the pleasantest of things.”rn—^AristotlernNaturalistrnby Edward O. WilsonrnWashington, D.C: IslandrnPress/Shearwater Books;rn380 pp., $24.95rnThe claim to objectivity on the partrnof reviewers is, if not ill informed,rnprecious. I make no claim to offer thernone true reading of Edward O. Wilson’srnautobiography. However,...

REVIEWSrnLight Literaturernby Stephen L. TannerrnCashboxrnby Richard S. WheelerrnNew York: Forge;rn381pp.,$23.95rnOne of the easualties of the currentrnculture wars is the Western. Nornother genre, it seems, is so pohticallyrnincorrect. The Western is accused ofrnracism, sexism, and imperialism—threernstrikes and you’re out. These charges receivernsophisticated expression in JanernTompkins’ West of Everythhig, publishedrnunder the prestigious imprint of OxfordrnUniversity Press. According...

what Wheeler is aiming at. It is the storyrnof a Montana silver-mining town thatrnblossoms and withers between 1888 andrn1893. The town is modeled on the aetualrnmining town of Castle, and the novelrnreflects a good deal of historical research.rnThe descriptions of mining technologv,rnfrontier journalism, labor relations, siherrnpolitics, and the social makeup and activitiesrnof such a town...

counterproductive to the long-rangernfuture of America that it often doesrnseem Hke a conspiracy. Yet the problem,rndear Brutus, lies not so much in the FordrnFoundation as in our natural ambivalencernabout immigration. The real problemrnis how tightiy Americans still cling tornthe mvths surrounding the Statue ofrnLiberty. Historically, immigration hasrnbeen an important part of American historv:rnwe have taken...

REVIEWSrnFriends All Overrnthe Worldrnby Philip JenkinsrnThe Revolt of the Elitesrnand thernBetrayal of Democracyrnby Christopher LaschrnNew York: W.W. Norton;rn276 pp., $22.00rnIn this final book of his splendidrncareer, Christopher Lasch seeks tornanswer two questions, one that isrnincreasingly heard in political debate,rnthe other still too subversive for considerationrnin polite society. The first isrn”What’s wrong with America?”—an issuernnot too...

supposes community or at least communities,rnsome commonly accepted formsrnof belief and ideology. Absent “a commonrnground, common standards, arncommon frame of reference . . . societyrndissolves into nothing more than contendingrnfactions . . . a war of all againstrnall.” To see the process of social disintegrationrnat work, and under governmentrnsponsorship, just glance at the categoriesrnof an...

farmer.” Hybrid seed corn (price $20 arnbushel) drove out open pollinationrnstrains ($3 a bushel), as standardizationrnbecame the buzzword. At the urging ofrnExtension Agents and bankers, mostrnUnion County farmers either modernizedrnand expanded, or shut down.rnThe social effects were vast. Amongrnwomen, some of the wealthier farmrnwives made the transition to full-timernhomemakers. But most eventually tookrnoff-farm jobs, simply...

was the solid foundation of the greatestrnand most benign empire the world hasrnever known. Modern Christians who railrnagainst the inhumanity of infanticide orrnsexual perversity in the ancient worldrnouglit to take a good look around themrnbefore presuming to quarrel with Gibbon’srnjudgment that the age of the Antoninesrnwas “the period in the history ofrnthe world during which...

OPINIONSrnA Setting Sunrnby Mark G. Malvasirn”/ would rather that the people should wonder why I wasn’trnPresident than why I am.”rn—Salmon P. ChasernThe American Presidency:rnAn Intellectual Historyrnhy Forrest McDonaldrnLawrence: University Press of Kansas;rn528 pp., $29.95rnContra Ecclesiastes, the Americanrnpresidency was something newrnunder the sun. With no explicit precedentsrnto guide them, the Founding Fathersrnconstructed the office and definedrnits...

What Atheists Knowrnby Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr.rn’When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcomernis terror. It ends in forced labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.”rn—Flannery O’ConnorrnThe Politics of Virtue:rnIs Abortion Debatable?rnby Elizabeth Mensch and Alan FreemanrnDurham: Duke University Presa;rn264 pp., $M.95rnFullness of Faith: The PublicrnSignificance of Theologyrnby...

that as Theonomists or Reconstructionistsrnthey tried to offer “practical proposalsrnfor public life” by “insisting on carefullyrnformulated theological foundationsrnfor political action” pushing “toward arnmore self-conscious political reflectionrnthan is customary in the evangelicalrntradition.” But this is an inexcusablernunderstatement. Much more needs tornbe said of these men and their influence.rnBoth Rushdoony (whom I havernknown personally for over 10...

The Bell Curve: Intelligencenand Class Structure innAmerican Lifenhy Richard j. Herrnstein andnCharles MurraynNew York: The Free Press;n845 pp., $30.00nRace, Evolution, and Behavior:nA Life History Perspectivenhy j. Philippe RushtonnNew BrunswicknTransaction Publishers;n334 pp., $34.95nFor about four years before the publicationnof The Bell Curve last fall,noccasional news reports dribbled out tidbitsnof information about the book andnits coauthor. The...

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Lifenby Andrew MotionnNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;n570 pp., $35.00nSelected Letters ofnPhilip Larkin 1940-1985nEdited by Anthony ThwaitenNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;n791 pp., $40.00nIn the popular memory the interwarnyears in Western Europe were a periodnof instability, inertia, and poverty or, asnAuden described the 1930’s, “a low dishonestndecade.” ‘ One seldom hearsnabout...

A Pig in a Pokenby Arnold BeichmannOn the Make: The Rise ofnBill Clintonnby Meredith L. OakleynWashington, D.C.: Regnery;n592 pp., $24.95nNever did I appreciate so much tliengenius of the Founding Fathers asnafter finishing this remarkable biographynof President Clinton. The authors of thenConstitution created a governmentnwhich makes it impossible for the UnitednStates to be transformed into a...

that Hillary would not have to divulgenthe names and clients she representednbefore state agencies.” There is, however,none name Ms. Oakley passes overnlightly but that I predict will becomenbetter known in the months ahead: DannLasater. His involvements with the Clintonsnin the Arkansas years have yet tonunfold. And when they do . . .nArnold Beichman, a research...

Britain, and still survives in Japan. Indeed,nuntil the latter part of the 60’s,nmany mainstream eeonomists considerednMilton Friedman a right-wing nutnrather than a serious economic theorist.nExcept for his macroeconomic views,nmost of the Keynesian construct hasndisappeared. Today exports, not governmentnexpenditures, are seen as the enginenof growth and expansion of demand.nThe export multiplier of Keynes’nopponent, Fritz Maehlup, has...