The Claims ofrnCommunityrnbyJ.O. TaternSex, Economy, Freedomrn& Community: Eight Essaysrnby Wendell BerryrnNew York: Pantheon Books;rn179 pp., $20.00rnThis sHm book packs quite a punch.rnIts author requires that, in order tornread him, we cast off the distorted languagernand prepackaged thought we absorbrnfrom the hum of the media. Indeed,rnhe wants us to awaken from thernslumber which that drone is...
Gathering the Desert
thus in the curious position of opposingrnthe mistreatment of womenrnand yet advocating their participationrnin an economy in whichrneveryone is mistreated.rnFor passages like that, and for other reasonsrnas well, Wendell Berry has earned arnspecial place as a sage. Better than anvrnone of his contemporaries, he has identifiedrnwhat is wrong with the way we livernand pointed to...
The Gospel of Pluralism
OPINIONSrnThe Gospel of Pluralismrnby Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr.rn”I esteem … Toleration to be the chief Characteristical Markrnof the True Church.”rn—John LockernReligious Liberty in the SupremernCourt: Cases That Define the DebaternOver Church and StaternEdited by Terry EastlandrnWashington, D.C.: Ethics and PublicrnPolicy Center;rn527 pp., $29.95rnThe Culture of Disbelief:rnHow American Law and PohticsrnTrivialize Religious Devotionrnby Stephen L. CarterrnNew...
Leaving the Losing Side
REVIEWSrnLeaving thernLosing Sidernby Terence P. JeffreyrnBeautiful Losers: Essays on thernFailure of American Conservatismrnby Samuel P. FrancisrnColumbia: University of Missouri Press;rn256 pp., $37.50rnThe main fact of American politics inrnthe 1990’s is that the elites of bothrnmajor parties have moved so far fromrnthe values and interests of the middlernclass that a third party has begun to risernalmost...
Uprooting Liberty
how can a counter-elite based on oldtimernrepublican values come to power?rn”The primary justification of its quest forrnpower,” Francis believes, “must be therncorruption, decadence, incompetence,rnoppressiveness, and alienation of the oldrnelite that it is seeking to replace.” In thernstruggle with this “old elite,” he offers arnrealpolitik for the right, focused less onrnwhat liberals profess as on how...
Carpe Diem
elite, no doubt, and even petty degrees ofrnpower tend to corrupt; yet no good end isrnserved by appointing a larger oppressor tornrule over a smaller one. “Experience hasrndemonstrated over and over again,”rnwrote John Taylor of Caroline, “that arnfree government cannot subsist in unionrnwith extravagance, heavy taxation, exclusivernprivileges, or with any establishedrnprocess by which a great...
Blaming the Sixties
Blaming the Sixtiesrnby Paul Gottfriedrn”In dirt and darkness hundreds stink content.rn—^Alexander PopernThe Dream and the Nightmare:rnThe Sixties’ Legacy to thernUnderclassrnby Myron MagnetrnNew York: William Morrow;rn320 pp., $23.00rnDespite the hype that welcomed thisrnbook—gushing praise in the WallrnStreet Journal and National Review and arnbash hosted by the Kristols for thernBradley Foundation—Myron Magnet’srnstudy of American pohtical culture isrnsurprisingly...
Pluggers
to trial because, of course, any open andrnfair judicial proceeding would have establishedrnbevond any doubt that secessionrnb- state government from the llnionrnis not treason. Who knows but that wernmight have here a rediscovered hero ofrnthe future, when the impatience of thernpeople with the ever-encroaching staternhas reached its limit, hi the meantime,rnif you wish to begin...
Short Constructions
honored for his selected poems FredrnChappell won the Bollingen Prize, primarilyrnon the strength of Midquest, anrnepic-length sequence of poems takingrnas their single point of departure thernDantaesque overtones of the poet’s 35thrnbirthday. Because readers familiar withrnChappell’s work will think of him, first,rnas the foremost (and perhaps funniest)rnliterary spokesman for Appalachia and,rnsecond, as a poet-novelist who is...
He Loved New York
as we drank our Saturday morning coffee.rnProphetic on his part, but such arnwarning hardly qualifies me to pass judgmentrnon Graywolf’s Stories From the NewrnEurope. Nevertheless, I agree with editorrnScott Walker’s assessment of “a massrnmarket and communications system thatrnthreatens to overwhelm localized customsrnand concerns.” And I sadly suspectrnthat this threat is far greater to regionalrnliterature than...
A Walk on the Dark Side
OPINIONSrnA Walk on the Dark Sidernby Wayne Allensworthrn”Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.rn-Thomas AdamsrnBlack Hundred: The Rise of thernExtreme Right in Russiarnby Walter LaqueurrnNew York: Harper Collins;rn288 pp., $27.50rnConspiracy theories have found arnready audience in many countriesrnin many different times. When cataclysmicrnevents shock a country to itsrnfoundations, when people feel impotentrnbefore history’s tidal wave, when war...
Moments in the Sun
REVIEWSrnMoments in the Sunrnby Clyde WilsonrnThe Neoconservative Mind: Politics,rnCulture, and the War of Ideologyrnby Gary DorrienrnPhiladelphia: Temple University Press;rn500pp.J34.95rnOne can no better describe the subjectrnof this book than by quotingrnthe publisher’s press release:rnOnce there was a group of liberalsrnand Leftists. They werernDemocrats, they were radicals,rnthey were freedom riders. Butrnthey became disillusioned by thernLeft. They moved...
Artist of the Wild
on the ncoconservative payroll will disagree.rnThe history of this “movement,”rnin the final analysis, is a history of opportunism:rnof leftists, that is, who usedrntheir elout with the major media to formrna very profitable alliance with the corporaternelites. At the very moment that thernAmerican economy was deteriorating atrnits base, the American social fabric wasrnunraveling, and the American...
Recomposing Sociology
have been forgiven for falling into indolence,rnyet another frontier celebrity, butrnAudubon soon grew impatient with therncompany of fellow hunters like Sir WalterrnScott and returned to America, notingrnto himself, “I must put myself in arntrain of doing . . . and thereby keep thernmachine in motion.” For the rest of hisrndays—he lived to the age of...
A Well-Spent Youth
success of all Jewish subcultures in freernmarket (or even quasi-capitalist) societies.rnHe applies the Noltean model tornthe interwar period with more enthusiasmrnthan I myself was able to muster forrnan essay on the same thinker for Horowitz’srnmagazine Society. Horowitz takesrnseriously Nolte’s view of interwar Europernas divided by a great ideological struggle,rnbetween self-conscious revolutionary andrnequally self-conscious counterrevolutionaryrnforces. Part...
The Survival of the Fattest
OPINIONSrnThe Survival of the Fattestrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”Pity the man who loves what death can touch.’rn—Eugene O’NeillrnThe Last Refuge: The EnvironmentalrnShowdown in Yellowstonernand the American Westrnby Jim RobbinsrnNew York: William Morrow;rn272 pp., $23.00rnLate one summer afternoon, tiredrnand dirty after four days’ campingrnand a 21-mile ride out of the Wind RiverrnMountains over rough granite trails, 1rnswung...
Machine Politics
Machine Politicsrnby Murray N. Rothbardrn”Modern liberty begins in revolt.”rn—H.M. KallenrnThe God of the Machinernby Isabel PatersonrnNew Brunswick, New jersey: TransactionrnPublishers; 292 pp., $21.95rnIn 1943, in the midst of the dark yearsrnof World War II when collectivismrnseemed to be sweeping all before it atrnhome and abroad, three fiercely independentrnand feist}’ women, all of themrnfriends and libertarians...
In the Fullness of Time
REVIEWSrnIn the Fullnessrnof Timernby Peter f. StanlisrnThe Metaphysics of Edmund Burkernby Joseph L. Pappin lUrnNew York: Fordham University Press;rn225 pp., $30.00rnPerhaps the best way to understandrnand appreciate Joseph Pappin’srnunique achievement is to consider thisrnfine book in the hght of previous scholarshiprnthat attempts to ascertain thernrehgious and moral sources and foundationsrnof Edmund Burke’s political philosophy.rnJohn Morlev,...
A World Suffused by Money
(which Hooker could not have conceived),rnand thus the government wernerect will have to deal with rational, selflimitingrnbeings, not with Hobbes’s worldrnof predators.rnXT’^SSJE;rnu) hlH^ DBsUyrni(J to Ihe ps^frEornYet Hoppe’s natural reason has farrnmore in common with Hobbesian “reckoning,”rnor calculation, than with Locke’srnjerrybuilt ethical defense of liberty.rnWhen Hoppe discusses ethical universals,rnhe clearly means the human capacity,rndiscussed in...
Lonesome No More
tention, then ethical law can have norncredibility or authority’ for the reallv “liberated”rnindividual, whether he stylesrnhimself a “left” radical or a “right” libertarian.rnThis view proposes or entails arn”deification of the individual,” rooted inrnthe “extravagant claims for the powers ofrnthe individual that we find in Emerson,rnThoreau, and Whitman.” Left or right,rnthe modern American often has anrn”Emersonian...
The Real Clarence Thomas
OPINIONSrnThe Real Clarence Thomasrnby Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.rnThe Real Anita Hill:rnThe Untold Storyrnby David BrockrnNew York: The Free Press;rn438 pp., $24.95rnBitter attacks, tenacious defenses, andrngreat promotion—not to speak ofrnthe best TV in a generation—have madernDavid Brock’s book on The Real AnitarnHill a best-seller. As Brock admits, hernproves neither Clarence Thomas’s innocencernnor Anita Hill’s perfidy. But...
Love and Work in the Modern Age
Love and Work in the Modern Agernby Jean Bethke ElshtainrnFrom Cottage to Work Station:rnThe Family’s Search for SocialrnHarmony in the Industrial Agernby Allan C. CarlsonrnSan Francisco: Ignatius;rn181pp.,$l2.95rnMy mother would call Allan Carlsonrna man gifted with “commonrnsense.” In her eyes this was high praise.rnShe was right in this as in so manyrnthings. Carlson’s most recent entry...
The Self-Same Beast
REVIEWSrnThe Self-Same Beastrnby Paul HollanderrnJudge On Trialrnby Ivan KlimarnNew York: Alfred A. Knopf;rn540 pp., $25.00rnThe collapse of eommunist systemsrnhas not eliminated the need for arnbetter understanding of the impaet theyrnhad and how and why they persisted.rnOnly in the aftermath of their unravelingrnhas it become possible to gain insightrninto these matters as books earlier suppressedrnare published...
Arguing With Jesus
viction and utter faith in the Tightness ofrnits actions.”rnThe hero’s perspectives on both thernmoral and material deprivations of lifernunder socialism and on the complexitiesrnof the human condition are deepenedrnby a prolonged academic trip tornthe United States (where the authorrnhimself spent a considerable amount ofrntime). Presumably, this visit contributesrnto the insight that “one would never findrnfreedom...
The Shock of Recognition
or if he is the insider, then much that hernsays makes the rest of us outsiders.”rnIndeed, this is the Jews’ long-standingrnquarrel with Jesus and the Christians:rndespite their claim to be the legitimaternprolongation of biblical Israel, and tornhonor the Jews, Christians have madernJews outsiders. (Of course, it was not thernChristians who started this, inasmuch asrnthe Jews...
Almost an Idol
an extended fashion. That book teachesrnus much about Mozart as well as aboutrnJane Austen; but even better it demonstratesrnsomething vital about the culturernof the day as suggested in the constructionsrnof two great artists. It remains onernof the best books ever written about literaturernand music.rnEmily Bronte and Beethoven: RomanticrnEquilibrium in Fiction and Music (1986)rnis a companion...
Truth and Public Truth
OPINIONSrnTruth and Public Truthrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”It is as hard to tell the truth as to hide it.”rn—Baltasar GracianrnChallenging the Civil RightsrnEstablishment: Profiles of arnNew Black Vanguardrnby Joseph G. Conti and Brad StetsonrnWestport, Connecticut: Praeger;rn240 pp., $22.95rnWhile the conservative movement,rnlike the liberal one, has its sharernof dishonest and fraudulent people, liberalismrnis itself an inherently dishonestrnbusiness...
The Roads Both Taken
The Roads Both Takenrnby Michael M. Jordanrn”Sin maketh nations miserable.”rn—Proverbs 14:34rnA Reinhold Niebuhr Reader: SelectedrnEssays, Articles, and Book Reviewsrnedited by Charles C. BrownrnPhiladelphia: Trinity Press International;rn208 pp., $18.95rnNiebuhr and His Age:rnReinhold Niebuhr’s PropheticrnRole in the Twentieth Centuryrnby Charles C. BrownrnPhiladelphia: Trinity Press International;rn400 pp., $34.95rnIn “On the Reading of Old Books,”rnC.S. Lewis bemoans the fact...
The American Exception
REVIEWSrnThe AmericanrnExceptionrnby Larry PrattrnThe Samurai, the Mountie, and thernCowboy: Should America Adopt thernGun Controls of Other Democracies?rnby David B. KopelrnBuffalo: Prometheus Books;rn420 pp., $28.95rnAfavorite exhortation of those seekingrnto further restrict or remove the privaternpossession of firearms in the UnitedrnStates is to “look at other countries,”rnwhere lower murder rates are supposedrnto be a result of gun...
Pro Patria
his fully automatic firearm at home.rnThe murder rate in Switzerland is actuallyrnlower than that in Japan, where therncivilian population has virtually no accessrnto firearms. For centuries the Swiss havernviewed weapons as synonymous with citizenship;rnin Switzerland, to put it differently,rnthe symbol of a free man is ownershiprnof one or more firearms. (Itrnshould be added that while...
Beautiful Excess
have absolutely no respeet for thernevidence of reason. Young peoplernwho have been taught to distrustrnall authority as a deception recenth’rnexposed—who have experiencedrntoo much change to believernin permanence—agree easily thatrnnothing can be taught or learned.rnThey gravitate naturally toward responsesrnto reading and informationrnthat search only after relevancern—often an anachronistic orrnfar-fetched connection to the tendentiousrnand/or topical concernsrnof a...
Credo
Colonel William Thomas Alison. Hisrnmind is no longer trustworthy but hernstill retains some of the grandeur of arnplantation owner, onee the master ofrn106 slaves. “He had twelve children byrntwo wives and almost lived forever,” hisrngrandson Willie tells us, omitting tornmention here the black side of the famil-,rnthe Negroes who claim Alison paternityrnand live with the...
Lizzie Borden’s Mama Was No Writer
OPINIONSrnLizzie Borden’s Mama Was No Writerrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”One bates an author that’s all author.”rn—Lord ByronrnThe Ghost in the Little House:rnA Life of Rose Wilder LanernhyW’iWiamWolizrnColumbia: University of Missouri Press;rn425pp.J29.95rnThe line between the Old Americarnand the New is closer than most ofrnus think. A single generation separatesrnnot only the Western pioneer from thernSt. Louis suburbanite,...
History Is Catching Up
History Is Catching Uprnby Richard Lessnerrn”Education is the process of driving a set of prejudices down your throat.”rn—Martin H. FischerrnWhy Johnny Can’t Tell Right FromrnWrong: Moral Illiteracy and the Casernfor Character Educationrnby William KilpatrickrnNew York: Simon & Schuster;rn366 pp., $23.00rnInside American Education:rnThe Decline, the Deception,rnthe Dogmasrnby Thomas SowellrnNew York: The Free Press;rn368 pp., $24.95rnIn March...
Political Science
REVIEWSrnPolitical Sciencernby Christine HaynesrnImpure Science: Fraud, Compromise,rnand Political Influencernin Scientific Researchrnby Robert BellrnNew York: ]ohn Wiley & Sons;rn301 pp., $22.95rnIn December 1982, Dr. Jack Yoffa ofrnSyracuse, New York, took Zomax, arnpainkiller, just before driving to the hospitalrnfor minor surgery. About halfwayrnthere, Yoffa began to itch and turn red.rnWithin 60 seconds, he was unconscious.rnHis car hit...
Inescapable Horizons
duct is a secondary yet significant themernrunning throughout his book. Bell emphasizesrnagain and again that silencernequals guilt. As the hero of one of hisrncase studies, an anthropologist who lostrnhis NSF grant because of the rumors hisrnrivals on the peer review panel circulatedrnabout him, reasons: “Ultimately… everyrnscientist that individually and collectivelyrnfails to confront abuses and wrongdoingrnin...
Sixteen Hundred Years
equality, which at present override thernpursuit of local goods. Taylor does notrnseem fully to recognize how far his principlesrnlead him away from social democracy.rnhi ‘J Tie Ethics of Authenticity, CharlesrnTaylor has sketched an intellectual andrnpolitical program to save modernity fromrnitself. He is convinced that the attemptrnis worthwhile. Those of us less certainrnthat modernity is worth...
Thy Will Be Done
times of tranquility and the rcalit’ ofrnJewish achievement.” From the beginningsrnof Jewish settlement in the Rhine,rnin Roman times, to the first Crusade, arnperiod of 700 years, Jews in the Germanrnlands enjoyed a normal and ordinary life,rnwithin the context of normality thatrnthen prevailed. It was only with the massrnkillings at the time of the plague of...
Truth or Consequences
VITAL SIGNSrnCOMMONWEALrn>-•«^’? _:rn*”T5 V ATrn.rn•-‘W’^^^^^fycmm^rn^MJj^^Krii^^^iV/^’r’* ‘^rn^^^•^•FT^ ‘^rn- ^ ‘ W g ^ “”Tji^trn^ ^ ‘^’IMMMMSM^’i!^^rn^ …wU.–rnTruth orrnConsequencesrnfcj Theodore PappasrnRedefining PlagiarismrnATrojan horse has passed throughrnthe gates of the academy, virtuallyrnunnoticed. The Sinon is Keith Miller, anrnassistant professor of English at ArizonarnState University and author of Voice ofrnDeliverance: The Language of MartinrnLuther King, jr., and Its Sources...
Who Cares Who’s Number One?
OPINIONSrnWho Cares Who’s Number One?rnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”All the great things have been done by little nations.”rn—Benjamin DisraelirnPreparing For the Twenty-FirstrnCenturyrnby Paul KennedyrnNew York: Random House;rn428 pp., $25.00rnThe Passionate Attachment:rnAmerica’s Involvement With Israel,rn1947 to the Presentrnby George W. Ball and Douglas B. BallrnNew York: W.W. Norton;rn328 pp., $24.95rnThere is definitely less to Paul Kennedy’srnnew book...
Gloomy Conservatives
Gloomy Conservativesrnby Donald Devinern”A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk.”rn—Franklin D. RooseveltrnThe Conservative Movement,rnRevised Editionrnhy Paul GottfriedrnNew York: Twayne Publishers;rn214 pp., $26.95rnThis is a very disturbing book, concludingrnthat “America will one dayrnbe ‘one with Nineveh and Tyre,'” andrnthat the general principles of conservatismrnwill only reappear...
Roots of a New World Order
REVIEWSrnRoots of a NewrnWorld Orderrnby William R. HawkinsrnTo End All Wars: Woodrow Wilsonrnand the Quest for a New World Orderrnby Thomas ]. KnockrnNew York: Oxford University Press;rn381 pp., $30.00rnThough Thomas Knock draws nornexplicit comparisons betweenrnWoodrow Wilson’s plans for a post-rnGreat War world and the policies GeorgernBush tried to fashion for a post-ColdrnWar world, his use...
So Late the Day
The LEP settlement would have beenrnimposed by the victorious Allies on therndefeated Central Powers. This Wilsonrnwanted to avoid, favoring instead arn”peace without victory” negotiated betweenrnequals of their own free accord.rnThe aims of the Allies were no betterrnthan those of the Central Powers, Wilsonrnthought; neither war nor peace should bernbased on national advantage. Wilsonrnhad long hoped...
The State of the Art
worse, in real time and place. Therefore,rnAmerican history is not a reservoir of officiallyrnapproved slogans and abstractrnpropositions, but a living experience. Forrnthis reason Garrett can in three-and-ahalfrnpages say more that is original, true,rnand significant about the Civil Warrnthan any number of pompous pseudointellectualsrnin 15 hours of governmentsubsidizedrnTV.rnThe writer who emerges from this richrncontext is not...
Goodbye, Columbus
tions. Flannery O’Connor, Walter Sullivan,rnMadison Jones, and Merrill JoanrnGerber, for instance, all studied the craftrnof fiction with Andrew Lytic. EudorarnWelty and Peter Taylor have known himrnfor a long time and share a certain collegialityrnwith him. Other writers belong tornother regions, perhaps, or have modulatedrntheir tones in different ways, or havernopened their stories to different realmsrnof...
Women and Biographers First!
OPINIONSrnWomen and Biographers First!rnby F.W. Brownlowrn”One would suffer a great deal to he happy.”rn—Marly Wortley MontagurnEvelyn Waugh: The LaterrnYears 1939-1966rnby Martin StannardrnNew York: W.W. Norton & Company;rn512 pp., $25.95rnTo be really successful a modernrnwriter must reach and hold a hugernaudience, and there seems to be essentiallyrntwo ways of doing it: the journeymanrn(or tradesmanlike) and the...
Who Needs the Historical Jesus?
Who Needs the Historical Jesus?rnby Jacob Neusnerrn”Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”rn—Hebrews 13:8rnA Marginal Jew: Rethinking thernHistorical Jesusrnby John P. MeierrnNew York: Doubleday;rn484 pp., $28.00rnThe Historical Jesus: The Life of arnMediterranean Jewish Peasantrnby ]ohn Dominic CrossanrnSan Francisco: Harper;rn507 pp., $30.00rnIhave never heard of a book about “thernhistorical Moses,” and while philosophersrnstudy the thought...
The Placed Person
REVIEWSrnThe Placed Personrnby Stephen L. TannerrnFidelity: Five Storiesrnby Wendell BerryrnNew York: Pantheon;rn201 pp., $20.00rnSabbaths, 1987-1990rnby Wendell BerryrnGolgonooza Press: Ipswich, Englandrn(distributed by Gnomon Press ofrnFrankfort, Kentucky);rn48 pp.. $9.50 ‘rnFor about 30 years Wendell Berry hasrnbeen writing fiction, poetry, and essaysrnmotivated by what he identifies asrn”a desire to make myself responsibly atrnhome in this world and in...
Straight Talk
community are fully confronted and recognized.rnThe community is happy inrnthat it has survived its rememberedrntragedies, reshaped itself coherentlyrnaround its known losses, and embracedrnits eccentrics, invalids, sinners, and fools.rnSabbaths, 1987-1990 continues a patternrnof poetry begun in an earlier volumerntitled Sabbaths that included poemsrnfrom 1979 to 1986. It is nature poetry ofrnthe kind Berry himself describes in...
Airs, Waters, Places
same students would fare much better atrnlocal community colleges or vocationalrnschools that have less prestige than thernelite four-year colleges. Why have theserncvnical admissions policies not provokedrnmore protest? Precisely because the appearancernof compassion and sensitivityrntoward minorities is easier than the applicationrnof hardlieaded policies thatrnwould actually work to their benefit.rnWhat Hentoff sees as a struggle overrnthe right...