421 CHRONICLESnlook I said to the leavesnbreaking into flocks around mentakingnmy voice awaynto the far side of the hillnand way beyond gusting downnthe long changesnFortunately, Ammons does not worshipnnature on bended knee. If he findsnspiritual and intellectual satisfaction innhis dialogues with mountains, songbirds,nand colorful stones, he just asnoften writes whimsically. Ammons’snrange of subject and response...

261 CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnReader^s Digest by Russell Kirkn”Ask the booksellers of London what is become ofnall these lights of the world.”n— Edmund BurkenA Reader’s Delight by NoelnPerrin, Hanover, NH: UniversitynPress of New England.nSome 40 nonclassic books are discussednby Professor Perrin in thisnpleasant volume of literary preferences.nBy a classic, Noel Perrin means a worknthat everyone recognizes as highly...

281 CHRONICLESneasily than a rich man?nIt would be an agonizing reappraisal,nthat final weeding of the shelves.nWell, let me set down here merelynthree such books from my own library,nby way of supplementing Perrin’s 40nand suggesting what a rich diversity ofnchoices every one of us CommonnReaders possesses.nOne of those three might benDreamthorp, by Alexander Smith, anlittle book...

321 CHRONICLESnCaudillo and Generalissimon^’People will not look forward to posterity, whonnever look backward to their ancestors.”n— Edmund BurkenFranco: A Biography by J.P. Fusi,nNew York: Harper & Row; $25.00.nThe Franco Regime, 1936-1975 hynStanley G. Payne, Madison:nUniversity of Wisconsin Press;n$30.00.nNot long before his death on Novembern20, 1975, FrancisconFranco asked a young aide if he thoughtnSpain’s future was...

ment took charge in 1975, it was ablento complete the “inevitable” democratizationnpeacefully. Moreover, undernthe capable leadership of King JuannCarlos, the government showed a farnmore human face than it would havenhad a totalitarian form of democracyntriumphed in the civil war. For a mannwho was born in the wrong centurynand who died with the mummified armnof Saint...

3e I CHRONICLESnthe psychological motives for agnosticismnand atheism. Paul Vitz has writtennan important book which deservesnto be widely read.nKirk Kilpatrick is a professor of educationnat Boston College.n”Here Is FreenCountry”nby Myron B. KuropasnFreedom’s Child hy WalternPolovchak with Kevin Klose, NewnYork: Random House; $17.95.nDuring the 1930’s many Americansnwere enamored of the “grand and noblenexperiment” called the Soviet...

OPINIONSnA Portrait of the Artisan as a Young Mannby Gregory J. Sullivann”Who are those hooded hordes swarmingnOver endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth “n—T.S. EliotnEvelyn Waugh: The Early Yearsn1903-1939 by Martin Stannard,nNew York: W.W. Norton; $24.95.nMany 20th-century literary figuresnhave undergone such exhaustivenbiographical treatment that a scholarnwishing to venture into well-traversednterritory is compelled to proffer a...

Waugh: “His early books spring fromnthe liberating notion that human beingsnare mad; the war trilogy, a work ofnmaturity, draws on the meatier notionnthat the horrible thing about humannbeings is that they are sane.” An explicationnof this transformation — whichnmust be viewed against Waugh’s increasingnwithdrawal from the worldnand his deepening Catholic sensibilitynSpeaking for God or Men?...

American Piety, Then and Now by K.L. Bnungsieyn”All the good the Savior gave to the world wasncommunicated through this book [the Bible]. Butnfor it we could not know right from wrong.”n—Abraham Lincolnn”The Cosby Show is the greatest teacher of moralsnin American society.”n— Sheldon Hackney, president,nUniversity of PennsylvanianVoices From the Heart: FournCenturies of American Piety bynRoger...

Reading Swift Straight by F. W. Brownlown”A joke is an epitaph on an emotion.nThe Alluring Problem: An Essaynin Irony by D.J. Enright, NewnYork: Oxford University Press.nTelling truth in the form of a lie isnone of the odder things humannbeings do. It is hard to imagine irony innParadise, and there can certainly bennone in Heaven, where...

32/CHRONICLESnof the 50’s and 60’s — Donne, Marveil,nAusten, Fielding — all wellnworked over, the comment well withinnthe expected, aimed straight at annacademic audience. Only a very thinskinnednacademic will object to thencarefully oblique censure of the revoltingnBrecht. Like Enright, mostnacademics will share Wayne Booth’snsurprise that a student’s paper on deerhuntingncould be sincere, and sympathizenwith Dan Jacobson’s...

34 / CHRONICLESndeath they find in Scripture. For them,nthe sacraments, as important as theynare, do not have salvific value, butnrather fiinction as a means of sanctifyingngrace for those — and only fornthose — who respond in Christiannfaith. Molnar finds this view “impersonal,nreified, and alienating” for thenchurch. He thinks that rejecting transubstantiationnconsigns worshipers tonthe mere phenomena...

claimed by the pope … to be his devoutnson, the son’s all-too-serious sin,neven suspicion of it, would fall toonheavily on the father’s shoulders.”nThe immediate objectives may havenbeen achieved, but the Church’s strategynhas proved disastrous in the long run,ndiverting attention from the real issuesnand exposing the Church to centuries ofnridicule. While many Christians justlyndenounce the methods...

36/CHRONICLESnA professor in the department ofnAfro-American studies at the Universitynof Massachusetts at Amherst, Lesternconverted to Judaism in 1983. A metaphysicalnprodigal son, Lester would saynhe simply came home — after a hazardousnjourney, at that.nThe intellectual odyssey of this minister’snson started in the 1940’s South,nwhen as a child he discovered that onenof his great-grandfathers, namednAltschul, was a...

26 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnEmpire, Again by William R. HawkinsnThe Rise and Fall of the GreatnPowers: Economic Change andnMilitary Conflict from 1500 ton2000 by Paul Kennedy, New York:nRandom House; $24.95.nYale historian Paul Kennedy’s booknhas been a great success, but unfortunatelynwith the wrong people fornthe wrong reasons. Attention has focusednon his concept of “imperial overstretch”nwhich comes about when...

The Crash of the Greed Machine by Thomas L. Ashtonn”Thy money perish with thee, because thou hastnthought that the gift of God may be purchasednwith money.”n—Acts, 20nThe Great Depression of 1990 bynRavi Batra, New York: Simon andnSchuster; $17.95.nThe Empire Builders: Inside thenHarvard Business School by J.nPaul Mark, New York: Wm.nMorrow; $19.95.nLevine & Co.: Wall Street’snInsider...

Why Spy? by Michael Wardern”A wise man in time of peace prepares for war.”n— HoracenSpy Catcher. The CandidnAutobiography of a SeniornIntelligence Officer by PeternWright, New York: Viking Press;n$19.95.nConspiracy of Silence: The SecretnLife of Anthony Blunt by BarrienPenrose and Simon Freeman, NewnYork: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;n$22.95.nWhy did some of the best and thenbrightest of Great Britain...

He spent virtually his whole subsequentncareer in defense-related science.nWatson admitted under questioningnto having had numerous faceto-facenmeetings with four differentnRussian KGB agents but said it was tonlearn more about the Soviet Union. Hennever admitted to having been a spynbut was transferred out of defensenwork, ostensibly for failing to disclosenhis Communist background or that ofnhis wife and...

38 / CHRONICLESnthe Soviet Union for thatnfailure, one is effectivelynblaming all those Americansnwho are responsible fornformulating and selling thenagreements.nMuch of the worst damage has beenndone not by the liberals but by thensupposedly tough, hardheaded realists.nThe arms control process began in thenEisenhower administration with the appointmentnof a Special Assistant fornDisarmament (Ike selected HaroldnStassen). Nixon and Kissinger,...

providers. Supply of a given service isntherefore also limited. If demand remainsnconstant, the price of the servicenwill tend to rise. Monopoly rents, as theneconomist calls them, are captured as anresult.nThis means that regulation’s beneficiariesnreceive higher-than-marketnincome thanks to government intervention,nenriching themselves at the expensenof consumers. The situation isncomplicated by “escalator” effects innlicensing, which intensify regulationnand expand...

industry, and John D. Rockefeller andnthe oil industry are the focus of thisnintriguing economic history which isnsimultaneously scholarly and immenselyninteresting. Folsom presents the subjectsnas they were, warts and all, avoidingnshrill accusation or exoneration ofnshortcomings. When the state has dabblednin economic development throughnsubsidies, tariffs, regulation of trade, andnother interventions, it has often failed,nand the view that...

OPINIONSnIn Praise of Toughness by Michael Levinn”A system-grinder hates the truth.”n—Ralph Waldo EmersonnThe Failure of Feminism bynNicholas Davidson, New York:nPrometheus; 329 pp.; $24.95.nDuring the 25 years of its existence,ncontemporary feminism has receivedna measure of gentle chiding fornits excesses. Not even the most indulgentneye can completely overtook feministncomparisons of marriage to prostitution,nchildbirth to defecation, or the...

281 CHRONICLESnArt as Politics: Rebecca West’s UnpleasantnMirror by Ana Selicn”All that is necessary for the triumph of evil isnthat good men do nothing.”n— Edmund BurkenRebecca West: A Life by VictorianGlendenning, London:nWeidenfeld and Nicolson.nThere is a photograph of RebeccanWest taken shortly before herndeath: she sits in a throne-like armchairnlooking slightly off camera. One of hernhands rests...

281 CHRONICLESnSimple, straightforward heroism wasnmade to seem passe. As West put it,nsimple heroism has something “dawdynabout it, while treason has certain style,na sort of elegance, or, as the vulgar say,n’sophistication.’ ” In this invertednworld. West went on to say, “peoplenwho practice the virtues are judged as ifnthey have struck the sort of a falsenattitude which...

Stardust by Dabney Stuartn”Not till the Hre is dying in the grate/nLook we for any kinship with the stars.”n— MeredithnSource by Fred Chappell, BatonnRouge, LA: Louisiana StatenUniversity Press.nThe post-Wodd War I shatterednvisions of Pound and EHot arenperhaps fundamentally less differentnfrom the incoherencies of Kerouac andnCorso, the randomly referential allegorynof Ashbery, or the associativenanarchy of Bly...

321 CHRONICLESnTerror. Returned to shapenHis thoughts and suffer thenwindburn historiesnOf city and animal and star.nHis hand is pure and alone.nLucretius, however, is not revitalizednby his daring, for the poem ends “Wensaw you in the white fountain of deliriumn/ Burning but not purified.”nThe other extreme of the terrestrialnspecks pointed out earlier are those innintergalactic space, the...

with the mean place in which she livesnthat she’s compelled to write about it,nexplicitly and with great care, and thenwriting is compelling as a result. It’s asnsimple as that, and there ought to be anlaw against writing a book any othernway. Readers will smell the mud andndung, drink the spring water Hasselstromndrinks, fight fire with...

341 CHRONICLESneighth-century definition of incest (finallynabandoned in the 13 th century)noutlawed marriage even between thosen”spiritually related” through godparentsnand between very distant bloodnrelatives who shared a great-greatgrandfather.nGreedy clergymen alsonweakened the family through their frequentnpractice of promising salvationnto dying fathers who would will theirnpossessions to the Church, thus impoverishingntheir heirs. Understandably,nMartin Luther took the defense ofnmarriage and...

more beautifial and morenexalting than the experience ofnlove between man and woman.nWhen a young man andnwoman are attracted to eachnother, their love arouses thendeepest emotions, the highestnexpectations, they have evernknown. For them, nothingnseems to matter but their love.nNothing seems impossible tontheir love. For each of them, thenother is “the only you there is.”nWhat sort of...

381 CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnNew York Writing by Thomas P. McDonnelln”To write simply is as difficult as to be good.”n— Somerset MaughamnThe BonHre of the Vanities bynTom Wolfe, New York: Farrar,nStraus & Giroux; $19.95.nIt is just possible that Tom Wolfe’snfirst novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities,nmay be more important for extraliterarynreasons than for purely literarynones. Of course, there...

wonder, momentarily, just how Mr.nWolfe would have us pronounce thenword “talk,” if not tawk, or does henwant the “1” pronounced, too, as inntalc? Frankly, if more prudently editednon the side of bulk alone. The Bonfirenof the Vanities would make the verynzinger of a tape-recorded book. It fairlynbristles with sound effects. But in thenend, after all...

401 CHRONICLESnDealhead of the Century by Janet Scott Barlown”Hey, if you hit the ball right, it goes. What can Intell you.”n— Lenny Dykstra, author and New York Mets outfieldernTrump: The Art of the Deal bynDonald J. Trump with TonynSchwartz, New York: RandomnHouse; $19.95.nSix years ago my husband addednaction to an idea and started hisnown business....

421 CHRONICLESnAn UnpeaceablenKingdomnby Paul T. StallsworthnUncivil Religion—InteneligiousnHostility in America, edited bynRobert N. Bellah and Frederick E.nGreenspahn, New York: CrossroadnPublishing Company; $17.95.nIt was one of those Saturday nights thatnspills over into Sunday morning. Invitedninto the home of a main-line Protestantncouple in split-level northern NewnJersey, the 40ish group was made up ofnJews and Roman Catholics from thenneighborhood...

34 I CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnRevolution in Technology, the Arts, and Politicsnby James W. Tuttletonn”In the end physics will replace ethics just asnmetaphysics displaced theology. The modernnstatistical view of ethics contributes toward that.”n— Soren KierkegaardnShifting Gears: Technology,nLiterature, Culture in ModernistnAmerica by Cecelia Tichi, ChapelnHill: University of North CarolinanPress.nThe Futurist Moment:nAvant-Garde, Avant Guerre, andnthe Language of Rupture bynMarjorie PerlofF,...

3e I CHRONICLESnWork of Art in an Age of MechanicalnReproduction” (1936) — when he remarkednthat the Futurist glorificationnof war was “evidently the consummationnof Tart pour I’art.'”nBut despite these authoritative leftistndismissals, Professor Perloff is still nostalgicnabout the artists of the avantnguerre. For her, the Futurist momentn”has a special pathos” because it “producedna short-lived but remarkablenrapprochement between...

381 CHRONICLESnfederally financed compensation to thenformer masters for lost property wouldnhave facilitated such magnanimity. Anrevived paternalism might also havenaccepted the duty of schooling blacksnin the ways of freedom and responsiblencitizenship, recognizing that if the twonraces were to live in harmony, whitesnwere obliged to aid blacks in elevatingnthemselves.nJohn Dennett and the AMA agentsnfound surprisingly little anger...

Libyan opponents and political moderatesnfrom Arab and African countries.nThe authors discuss CIA warnings tonthe White House that a military attacknon Libya would neither overthrownQaddafi nor significantly reduce terrorism.nAnd, familiar with the relevantnscholarship on Libya, Blundy and Lycettnassist the reader with an excellentnindex.nInterestingly, Qaddafi’s view of societynis a holistic one. His “Green Book”noccasionally sounds like a...

401 CHRONICLESnas criminals for taking up arms; in thenRepublic, all shades of Republican sentimentnare publicly tolerated, exceptnthe IRA. A citizen of the Republicnmust monitor British airwaves if henwants to hear or see representatives ofnthe IRA. They are banned from thenRepublic’s radio and television in theninterest of “controlling terrorism” andnpreventing a full discussion of the realnsituation...

ners for gay American AIDS patientsnis over eleven hundred.” Yet Amis, sonquick to satirize dissolute behavior inngeneral, tells us that the homosexualnrevolution “was, on the whole, a vividnand innocuous adventure, one thatnseemed to redress many past confusions.”nWho’s confused?nAmis has already displayed considerablenliterary talents, and it is lamentablenthat The Moronic Inferno shouldndisclose a blinkered and gratuitouslyncondescending...

281 CHRONICLESnPaz by Fred ChappellnOPINIONSn”Amazed at the moment’s peak,nResh became word—and the word fell.”n— Octavio Paz, A Draft of ShadowsnThe Collected Poems of OctavionPaz, 1957-1987, edited by EliotnWeinberger, New York: NewnDirections.nConvergences: Essays on Art andnLiterature by Octavio Paz, SannDiego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.nUpon a confirmed gringo like me,ncontemporary Spanish languagenpoetry makes much the same impressionnas contemporary...

Ages in Chaos by Samuel Francisn”In history tlie way of anniliilation is invariablynprepared by inward degeneration. . . . Only thenncan a shock from the outside put an end to thenwhole.”n— BurkhardtnTreason in Tudor England:nPolitics and Paranoia by LaceynBaldwin Smith, Princeton:nPrinceton University Press; $25.00.nConspiracy of Silence: The SecretnLife of Anthony Blunt by BarrienPenrose and Simon...

381 CHRONICIESnJerry-Built America by Fred Butzenn”By their fruits, so shall ye know them.”n— Jesus of NazarethnMies van der Robe: A CriticalnBiography hy Franz Schulze,nChicago: University of ChicagonPress.nThe year 1986 marked the 100thnanniversary of the birth of LudwignMies, the man who, under the name ofnMies van der Rohe, did the most tonshape modern American architecture.nOf the...

381 CHRONICLESnThe Discoverynby David HallmannThe Southern Vision of AndrewnLytle by Mark Lucas, BatonnRouge: Louisiana State UniversitynPress.nThe old saw tells us that all things comento those who wait. And what a joy it isnto find Andrew Lytle, in his vigorousn80’s, receiving his just due, howevernlate. The Richard Weaver Award bynThe Ingersoll Foundation, a generousngrant by the...

Lytle writes that the book was intendednto “tell his daughters who they are andnwhere they come from.” A veritablengold mine of anecdotes and tall tales,nLytle’s book is a marvelous introductionnto the writer whom Robert PennnWarren has called the “best story tellernin America.” In his The SouthernnVision of Andrew Lytle Lucas leads usnto a writer who...

26 I CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnRevenge of the Nerd by Arthur Ecksteinn”He can be compelled^ who does not know hownto die.”n— SenecanQuiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in anTime of Madness by Lillian Rubin,nNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.n^^'”Phat’s IT. I’ve HAD it withnX bourgeois-liberal guilt!” In disgust,nmy friend slammed Lillian Rubin’snnew book back across the table atnme. We had...

protecting ourselves — not in the longnrun, but right now? This is the dilemmanBernhard Goetz faced; this is whynhe is neither a vile figure nor a heroicnone, but rather a tragic one.nA final thought. It’s no accident thatna psychotherapist who fully partakes ofnthe dominant political culture of thenBay Area should write a book in whichnBernhard...

34 I CHRONICLESntheir culture — their food, their JohnnDeere caps, their pickups. But theirntrucks are made in Japan and thosencaps come from Taiwan.” Paul Hogan’snsuccess in “Crocodile” Dundeenwas anomalous and perhaps portentous:nthe American public reached tonthe Antipodes for a retread of GarynCooper, once so close to home.nI will surrender the books of Kirbyn(even Reed) in...

36 I CHRONICLESnsweeping claims to truth whether it benfrom the party or a literary giant.nSolzhenitsyn’s creative and historicalnwork is epic in nature. Voinovich isna satirist capable of laughing at himselfnand others while Solzhenitsyn feelsnresponsible for saving Russian history,nlanguage, and literature. It grates uponnother Soviet emigre writers thatnSolzhenitsyn is not on the publishingncircuit and stays in...

32 I CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnJefferson, New and Improved by Clyde Wilsonn”I tremble for my country when I reffect that Godnis just.”n— Thomas JeffersonnIn Pursuit of Reason: The Life ofnThomas Jefferson by Noble E.nCunningham Jr., Baton Rougenand London: Louisiana StatenUniversity Press; $24.95.nWith the exception of the drivennand depressed Lincoln, nonmajor figure in American history is, innthe final analysis,...

36 I CHRONICLESnschools as an arm of the state tonrearrange society (though he did favorna necessary orthodoxy of pohticalnteaching in support of repubhcanismnwhich our civil libertarians, committednto leftist revolution, will not allow).nOur public school system was builtnupon a Massachusetts-Prussian modelnthat proceeded from the beginningnwith nearly opposite goals. Its purposenwas to provide not leaders but a...