OPINIONSrnDead Weightrnby Paul Gottfriedrn”A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.”rn—Benjamin DisraelirnDead Rightrnby David FrumrnNew York: Basic Books;rn220 pp., $25.00rnIt may speak volumes about Americanrnconservatives that David Frum’s critiquernof “big government conservatism”rnpermitted William Buckley—or so Buckleyrnclaims on the dust jacket—to enjoyrn”the most refreshing ideological experiencernin a generation.” To a conservativernmovement led by advocates of nationalrnuplift allied...

REVIEWSrnColonizing Europernby Michael WashburnrnRadical Right-Wing Populism inrnWestern Europernby Hans-Georg BetzrnNew York: St. Martin’s Press;rn226 pp., $18.95rnOver the past two decades, WesternrnEurope’s populist right has steadil’rnconsolidated its power. According tornProfessor Bctz, the issue that gahanizesrnsupporters of the populist parties isrnThird World immigration. Whether thernright-wing parties will ever muster thernpopular support thev need to win parliamentaryrnmajorities depends...

countries are reason enough to sta’ put.rnBut the continued presence andrnspread of the foreign population is arnsmall problem compared to the massiverninflux of poor non-Westerners, which isrncertain to continue until and unless thernpopulist parties either win control ofrnWestern European governments or exertrnenough pressure to force a thoroughrngoing reform of immigration laws.rnAmartya Sen, in an essay...

Lies, Damn Lies,rnand Absurditiesrnby Loxlev F. NicholsrnRecmering American Literaturernhy Peter ShawrnChicago: Iran R. Dee;rn203 pp., $22.00rnDespite its optimistic title. RecoveringrnAmerican Literature is realhrnal)out the seerit’ of illness, the magnitudernof loss. In a book \’eighted with e -rnidencc. Peter Shaw shous how literaturernhas suffered b- suberting art to polities.rnSubstituting the dogma of politicalrncorrectness for uniersal themes...

vidual texts and suggests an open-endedrnand unconnected “list.” Such quibblingrnis immaterial, however, in light of thernservice this book provides, the truth it establishes.rnFor in charting the disintegrationrnof intellectual discussion of severalrnof the nation’s (and the vvodd’s) greatrnbooks. Recovering American Literaturernproves that when criticism ceases to bernan open forum of ideas centered on arntext and emanating...

OPINIONSrnA Poetic Vortexrnby James Scrutonrn”There is no more self-assured man than a had poet.”rn—Martialrn”^Tt^^-f-Crn^&i?-±3-*£rn^•M^Mrn•im^^zrn»4, *t»f ^ i_rf ^ d pirn^iSij’.t.-:;:!”rnThe Fading Smile: Poets in Boston,rnfrom Robert Frost to Robert Lowellrnto Sylvia Plath, 1955-1960rnby Peter DavisonrnNew York: Knopf; 346 pp., $24.00rnSometimes it seems as though everyonernwho was anyone in postwarrnAmerican poetry was attending, teachingrnat, or at...

REVIEWSrnListen My Childrenrnby f.O.TaternPaul Revere’s Ridernby David Hackett FischerrnNew York: Oxford University Press;rn44S pp., $27.50rnSometimes you wonder. Having beenrntold by a Democrat that if we hadrn”screwed up” at Saratoga we would todayrnhave national health insurance, I suppressedrna number of reactions that camernto mind by deciding to start smokingrnagain. One was to suggest that if anyonernneeded...

tional importance, and we are better offrnfor having it. We would be even betterrnoff if our children absorbed some of itsrntruth by reading it in school, as teachersrnand pupils used to do in the old days.rn].0. Tate is a professor of English atrnDowling College on Long Island.rnDisappearingrnAmericarnby Wesley Allen RiddlernAmerica’s British Culturernby Russell KirkrnNew Jersey:...

A Lot of Nervernby Jane GreerrnNo More Bottomrnhy Richard MoorernAlexandria, Virginia: Orchises Press;rn75 pp., $10.00rnThe Investigatorrnby Richard MoorernBrownsville, Oregon: Story Line Press;rn220 pp., $18.95rnThe Rule That Liberates: Newrnand Pubhshed Essaysrnby Richard MoorernVermillion, South Dakota:rnThe University of South Dakota Press;rn124 pp., $10.95rnIt was an editor’s dream: poems of thisrncaliber, unsolicited and unexpected,rnin mv post office box....

“to stand apart from the natural worldrnand to dominate it.” In “Poetic Meter inrnEnglish: Roots and Possibilities,” we findrnin 17 pages one of the most enlightened,rnsuccinct analyses of American metrics torndate. Other essays tackle Yeats’ supernaturalrn”System” (it does not really matterrnas we read his poems), fanaticism,rnand “Words and Healing: What’s In Itrnfor the Poet?”rnThe Rule...

OPINIONSrnMoving Beyond Mythsrnby Christine Haynesrn”The difficulty in life is the choice.”rn-George MoorernWho Stole Feminism? How WomenrnHave Betrayed Womenrnhy Christina Hoff SommersrnNew York: Simon & Schuster;rn320 pp., $23.00rnPlease excuse the personal anecdotes scatteredrnthroughout this essay. As a woman,rn1 found it difficult to write a standardrnthird-person review and instead drew onrnmy own experiences and emotions in respondingrnto...

REVIEWSrnIf Nixon Had BeenrnFriends With BobrnWoodwardrnby Arnold BeichmanrnThe Agenda: Inside the ChntonrnWhite Housernby Bob WoodwardrnNew York: Simon & Schuster;rn352 pp., $24.00rnFor starters, I propose to say the unthinkable:rnthe unnamed coauthorsrnwith Bob Woodward of this book arernPresident and Mrs. Clinton. All the insidernstories dealing with the first 18rnmonths of the Clinton administration,rnthe reported dialogue, who said...

ists like Michael Kramer of Time magazine,rnJoe Klein and Jonathan Alter ofrnNewsweek, and Michael Kelly of the NewrnYork Times (and now of the New Yorker)rnare ^dumping on the Clintons, Mr.rnWoodward has demonstrated somethingrnJoseph Schumpeter once said: “Selectiverninformation, if in itself correct, is anrnattempt to lie by speaking the truth.”rnHe has shown us that Mr. Clinton...

tion of the minds of those people—perhapsrnthe majority of Americans—whornunderstand neither the framework of thernnatural law nor the way in which ourrnConstitution was intended to operaterntherein. Very few readers, I suspect, willrnactually take the time to slog throughrnsome 700 pages (plus another 200-oddrnof footnotes), beginning with a litany ofrnevery social gathering, meeting, piece ofrncorrespondence, speech,...

this country’s fundamental law. Thernfirst fruits of that research resulted in ArnWorthy Company, a fascinating collectionrnof biographical sketches of the menrnwho gathered for Philadelphia’s GreatrnConvention in 1787. In his last andrnposthumously published book, OriginalrnIntentions: On the Making and Ratificationrnof the United States Constitution,rnBradford applies his knowledge of thern18th-century milieu to the Philadelphiarnand state ratifying conventions,...

OPINIONSrnRothbard Against the Dismalistsrnby Justin Raimondorn”Wisdom is neither inheritance nor legacy.”rn—Thomas FullerrnMan, Economy, and State: A Treatisernon Economic Principlesrnby Murray N. RothbardrnAuburn, Alabama: Ludwig von MisesrnInstitute; 987 pp., $25.00rnIn his keynote speech to a meeting ofrnthe John Randolph Club, Murray N.rnRothbard exhorted his colleagues to takernup the task he sees as central to the successrnof...

REVIEWSrnThe CosmopolitanrnTemptationrnby Paul GottfriedrnThe Emerging Atlantic Culturernby Thomas MolnarrnNew Brunswick: Transaction;rnIB pp., $27.95rnBlood and Belonging: Journeys Intornthe New Nationalismrnby Michael IgnatieffrnNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;rn263 pp., $21.00rnThe two books reviewed here providerna contrast both in style and in substance.rnWhereas Thomas Molnar treatsrnUtopians and historical optimists withrnexuberant contempt, Michael Ignatieffrnbewails the fact that nations and...

starting with frenzied “cosmopolitan”rnjournalists.rnIgnatieffs book also substantiates arngeneralization that Murray Rothbardrnand I have been testing for years: that allrnleft-liberals are obsessive Teutonophobes.rnIgnatieff hates hnperial Germany, whichrnhe intemperately attacks in a discussionrnof German and other nationalisms. Inrn1913, the German imperial governmentrnerected a monument commemoratingrnthe victory of several German states overrnNapoleon at Leipzig in 1813. This, forrnIgnatieff,...

It seems that Professor Guinier’s fundamentalrnpoint of contention is tliat thernpresent system of governance is unfair:rnunfair not because we do not electrnenough blacks to elective office, but becausernblacks do not get what they wantrnwhen it comes time to consider whatrndoes and does not get passed as legislation.rnThis is the point she emphasizes,rntime and again, through...

Reimagining a Riverrnby Stephen BodiornGila: The Life and Death of anrnAmerican Riverrnhy Gregory McNameernNew York: Crown; 215 pp., $24.00rnIn 1944, a party of German prisonersof-rnwar escaped from a camp inrnPhoenix, armed with old maps and withrnthe intention of stealing a boat and sailingrnto Mexico. When they saw the “pitifulrntrickle” that is the modern Gila, theyrnbegan...

OPINIONSrnSeven Yearsrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”The Gaseous Verterbrata who own, operate and afflict the universe have treatedrnme with excessive politeness, and when I mount the gallows at last I may well sayrnwith the Psalmist (putting it, of course, into the prudent past tense): The linesrnhave fallen unto me in pleasant places.”rn—H.L. MenckenrnMencken: A Lifernby Fred HobsonrnNew...

REVIEWSrnThe Missionary’srnSonrnby Allan CarlsonrnHenry R. Luce: A PoliticalrnPortrait of thernMan Who Createdrnthe American CenturyrnRobert E. HerzsteinrnNew York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;rn521 pp., $30.00rnHenry Luce both created and dominatedrna new form of national journalismrnbetween 1930 and 1960.rnFounder and editor-in-chief of Time,rnLife, and Fortune, he is best rememberedrnfor his 1941 Life essay “The AmericanrnCentury,” a robust call for...

The ComingrnCampaignrnby Clyde WilsonrnAmerican Populism: A Social Historyrnby Robert C. McMath, ]r.rnNew York: Hill and Wang;rn245 pp., $19.95rn^^ Tjopulist” is a term so fraught withrnJ. distortion and so apt to raise misleadingrnconnotations that we probablyrnshould find another word to use. It isrnworse in this respect than even “Whig”rnor “liberal.” Taken precisely, it refers torna political...

or prevent them. They havernagreed together to ignore in therneoming eampaign every issue. . . .rnIn this crisis of human affairs thernintelhgent working people andrnproducers of the United Statesrnhave come together in the namernof justice, order and society, to defendrnhbcrty, prosperity and justice.rnClyde Wilson is a professor of history atrnthe University of South Carolina.rnThe Russian...

prisoners, by homegrown fascists likernValentin Rasputin and unrepentant communistsrnlike Vladimir Skurlatin. BrucernLincoln closes with an appreciation ofrnSiberia’s complexities and of its uneasyrnrelationship with Russia. Like his earlierrnhistories of the Red Army and of revolutionaryrnRussia, The Conquest of a Continentrnis thoroughly satisfying. I wishrnonly that the author had found room inrnhis ample bibliography for V.K. Arsenevev’srnstirring...

OPINIONSrnGo Figurernby Arnold Beichmanrn”A politician… one that would circumvent God.”rn—^William ShakespearernNixon: A Lifernby ]onathan AitkenrnWashington, D.C.:rnRegnery Publishing;rn633 pp., $28.00rnIn preparing my review of this rivetingrnbiography, I gathered samples of whatrnhas recently been written about RichardrnM. Nixon, and I must say they make arnbewildering collection. Here are a few:rn”A monster of a million disguises.”rnAndrew Kopkind, the...

REVIEWSrnFather Abrahamrnby Brenan R. MermanrnThe Last Best Hope of Earth:rnAbraham Lincoln and thernPromise of Americarnby Mark E. Neely, ]r.rnCambridge: Harvard University Press;rn214 pp., $24.95rnI t now appears that the safest way forrnscholars to treat Abraham Lincohi isrnin discrete segments of his life, leaving itrnto other, perhaps braver, souls to drawrnthe appropriate conclusions. This meansrnthat, as...

Real Jewsrnby Gerald RussellornConservative, American & Jewish: IrnWouldn’t Have It Any Other Wayrnby Jacob NeusnerrnLafayette, Louisiana: HuntingtonrnHouse; 232 pp., $9.99rnA Jewish Conservative Looksrnat Pagan Americarnby Don FederrnLafayette, Louisiana: HuntingtonrnHouse; 238 pp., $9.99rnI Shot an Elephant in My Pajamas:rnThe Morrie Ryskind Storyrnby Morrie Ryskind, with John H. RobertsrnLafayette, Louisiana: HuntingtonrnHouse; 238 pp., $12.99rnExploration of the relationship...

seems to have borne some resemblancernto the Jewish neoconservatives of a laterrnera in his lack of interest in religion. Ofrncourse, J Shot An Elephant is not meantrnto be a theological treatise or statementrnof belief, but rather the story of an influentialrnpopular writer in a time whenrnconservatives still had some say in thernnation’s cultural institutions. Ryskind...

Such reflections are the product ofrna Hfe that has spanned two continentsrnand two eras. Looking back in a 1989rnessay for American Heritage on thernmonumental changes he has witnessed,rnLukacs claimed that he had hadrn”enough brushes with history” and thatrnhe did not wish for more. In the prefacernto this volume, however, he writes:rn”‘Enough for One Life?’ I...

OPINIONSrnFree Speech or True Speech?rnby Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr.rn”Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit: and not a series of disconnected acts.rnThrough just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.”rn—Edmund BurkernThere’s No Such Thingrnas Free Speech . . . and It’s arnGood Thing, Toornby Stanley FishrnNew York: Oxford University Press;rn332pp.,$2S.OOrnFew names are more...

REVIEWSrnTalk of theTownrnby Wayne LuttonrnI Heard It Through thernGrapevine: Rumor inrnAfrican-American Culturernby Patricia A. TurnerrnBerkeley: University of California Press;rn276 pp., $25.00rnMany black Americans are convincedrnthat they are the targetsrnof a vast array of white-authored schemesrndesigned to spike their food with contraceptives;rnforce them to engage in selfdestructivernbehavior, especially drugrnaddiction; and kill them, to use theirrnbodies for...

lie virtue, as if a reduction in corporaternand marginal tax rates could restorernthe work ethic and the integrity of thernfamily. Despite this linkage, Gray notes,rnaltered fiscal policies effected no importantrnchange in the moral climate ofrneither Great Britain or the United States;rnthose social goods the New Right attributedrnto capital accumulation andrnlower taxes stemmed rather from culturalrnand...

recreate the familial and national valuesrnit scorned in its youth. But the social orderrncannot be restored by an abstractrndiscussion of “values,” whose essentialrncontribution to human existence needsrnto be demonstrated. The value of ProfessorrnO’Neill’s book is that it providesrnjust such a demonstration.rnWilliam R. Hawkins is Senior ResearchrnAnalyst for the Republican ResearchrnCommittee in the U.S. House ofrnRepresentatives.rnStill...

Wiring to the Futurernby Gregory McNameernNews Over the Wiresrnby Menahem BlondheimrnCambridge: Harvard University Press;rn305 pp., $39.95rnThe current debate over the so-calledrncyberstream, the data highway thatrnfuturists promise will lead us to a technoutopia,rnhas many people bewildered, sorndense is it with rhetoric and empty assertion.rnThis is not surprising: most ofrnthe debate is filled by boosters of gadgetryrnon...

OPINIONSrnThe Rise of the Red-Brownsrnby Wayne Allensworthrn”Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”rn—^William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicusrn.<-, —rn–ijrnThe Last Drive to the Southrnby Vladimir ZhirinovskyrnMoscow: Pisatel; J 43 pp.rnIn his 1990 pamphlet “How to RevitalizernRussia,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsynrnwrote, “When our fathers and grandfathersrnthrew down their weapons duringrna deadly war [World War I], desertingrnthe front in order...

REVIEWSrnReal Plain Speakingrnby Clyde WilsonrnGeorge Wallace: American Populistrnby Stephan LesherrnReading, Massachusetts:rnAddison-Wesley;rn320 pp., $29.95rnIn a healthy society people live with arnwide time frame. They know andrnmake use of the experience of their forebears.rnThey build houses and plant treesrnthat will be enjoyed by their descendants.rnAmong the many things whichrnour Founding Fathers took for grantedrnbut which we have...

nomic issues! After all, his state actuallyrnspent money on welfare and soughtrnfederal dollars! As if there was a singlernRepublican governor, congressman, orrnpresidential contender who did not dornexactly the same. And all in defense ofrnthe Nixon regime of price controls andrnaffirmative action.rnFrom this juncture, looking over thernevidence of that day, it is clear that whatrnthe left...

lennia nevertheless.rnPfaff is particularly alert to all aspectsrnof the political situation in Germany andrnCentral Europe. He has a high appreciationrnof the value of the multinationalrnsocieties that we smashed in WorldrnWar I: Austria-Hungary and the OttomanrnEmpire. His thesis is that nationalismrnis a phenomenon of recent origin,rnhaving first arisen in England andrnFrance in the course of the...

OPINIONSrnFive Votesrnby Gregory J. Sullivanrn”Much law, but little justice.”rn—Thomas FullerrnA Justice for All: William J. Brennan,rnJr., and the Decisions ThatrnTransformed Americarnby Kim Isaac KislerrnNew York: Simon & Schuster.rn303 pp., $22.00rnWith fi c votes around liere yourncan do anything,” JusticernWilliam Brennan told his law clerks, thusrnsummarizing the quintessence of Brennanism,rnThat constitutional law is notrnsomething derived from...

REVIEWSrnA Documented Lifernby Frank BrownlowrnCurriculum Vitaernby Muriel SparkrnBoston: Houghton Mifflin Company;rn213 pp., $22.95rnMuriel Spark (1992 winner of thernIngersoll Foundation’s T.S. EliotrnAward) is a prolific writer with some 19rnnovels to her credit as well as volumes ofrnpoetry, short stories, criticism, and biography.rnYet she was a surprisingly laternstarter. She was nearly 40 when her firstrnnovel, The Comforters,...

she never mentions a faet that mustrnstrike anyone who knew that world: forrnsomeone in her situation to make a writingrncareer in postwar London was so diffieultrnas to be virtually impossible. Shernexperienced some appalling times in thernnext 12 vcars, struggling to make a livingrnon the fringes of the literary world, writingrnpoems, essays, reviews, and biographies.rnIler experience...

and its nianv flashes of insight.rnJolin Elder first came to Japan, likernBouvier, under Basho’s influence. As arnprofessor of both environmental studiesrnand wodd literature, however, he alsorncame to it in the hope of solving a riddle,rnat least to his own satisfaction: Whywouldrna people who love nature as muchrnas the Japanese do work so hard to destroyrnit?...

OPINIONSrnSouthern Supplementsrnby Clyde Wilsonrn”We have sung of the soldiers and sailors, but who shall hymn the politicians?”rn—Herman MelvillernNathan Bedford Forrest:rnA Biographyrnby ]ack HurstrnNew York: Alfred A. Knopf;rn434 pp., $30.00rnRichard Taylor: Soldier Princernof Dixiernby T. Michael ParrishrnChapel Hill: University ofrnNorth Carolina Press;rn570 pp., $34.95rnThe Civil War World ofrnHerman Melvillernby Stanton GarnerrnLawrence: University Press of Kansas;rn544 pp.,...

REVIEWSrnCatholic Momentsrnby Paul GottfriedrnCatholic Intellectuals andrnConservative Politics in America,rn1950-1985rnby Patrick AllittrnIthaca: Cornell LMversity Press;rn328 pp., $29.95rnPatrick Allitt’s study of Catholic intellectualsrnand their relationship tornpostwar conservatism is clearly presentedrnand full of stimulating perceptions. Basicrnto this book is the contrast betweenrntwo generations of American Catholicrnthinkers with some connection to thernright: the generation of the 50’s as typifiedrnby...

For Lukacs, Wills, and Novak, Allittrnmakes clear, the designation “conservative”rnremains a positive one linked torntheir Catholic faith: they are quarrelingrnonly with its application to those ofrnwhom they disapprove. One might noternthe dissimilarity between these Catholicrnintellectuals and the Jewish neoconservativesrnwho were and are their contemporaries.rnThough the latter might havernchosen by the late 70’s to define themselvesrnas...

rich planting friend, no doubt seeingrnhimself in the man: “Each year at harvestrntime his family noticed that he hung onrnthe wall of his house on the plantation arnsheaf of rice, and removed the one hernplaced there the year before. Two yearsrnago, when he died at a ripe old age, hernrequested his family to place the...

Mountain Musingsrnby Gregory McNameernFlat Rock Journalrnby Ken CareyrnSan Francisco: Harper San Francisco;rn230 pp., $18.00rnThe Ozark Mountains make up anrnarea that American literature hasrnlargely passed by, leaving it the provincernof folklore and song, of homespun storiesrnthat seldom make their way to the lowlands.rnKen Carey’s fine new book aboutrnthe region. Flat Rock journal, fills a greatrnvoid, and...

OPINIONSrnDegrade and Fallrnby Christine HaynesrnAmong a people generally corrupt^ liberty cannot long exist.rn—Edmund BurkernSade: A Biographyrnhy Maurice Leverrn’Translated by Arthur GoldhammerrnNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;rn626 pp., $35.00rnIwas reading Arthur Goldhammer’srntranslation of Maurice Lever’s Sadernas the Senator Packwood scandal ragedrnon, and although I wouldn’t want torndraw anv unwarranted comparisons betweenrnthe two bonhommes, the parallelsrnbetween Ancien...

REVIEWSrnGettingrnSolzhenitsynrnRightrnby Wayne AUenswoithrnSolzhenitsyn and the Modern Worldrnhy Edward E. Ericson, jr.rnWashington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway;rn433 pp., $24.00rnYears after his arrest by the Soviet authorities,rnAleksaiidr Solzhenitsyn,rnwhile recuperating in a prison hospitalrnafter a cancerous tumor had been cutrnfrom his body, cast out the last remnantrnof a spiritual tumor from his soul. Arnprison doctor, soon to die by the...