ermonger, he has nothing to teachnthose who are not concerned withnvanquishing, as opposed to mere winning.nYugoslavia does not need a newncharismatic champion of mercilessnbetterment. The West does not neednanother false martyr and an even falsernprophet, leading us all into our “limitlessnfuture.” If there is anything limitlessnabout man it may be our gullibilityn—our optimism must not...

some freedom to act, most local communitiesncould move quite effectivelynagainst AIDS. Those few cities notnstrong enough to overrule the homosexualnlobby could be turned intonenormous public cemeteries, memorialsnto perversion as an alternativendeath-style.nTalk to Menby Frederick ButzennThe Silicon Society by David Lyon,nGrand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans;n$14.95.nThe last 20 years have seen the proliferationnof a machine that stores, organizes,nand...

22 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnA Month of Woes by Henry Regneryn”Evening must usner usher nigni, night, ni, night urge the morrow,nmonth follow month lonth with woe, woe. and year wake year tonsorrow.”n—ShelleynThe Book of the Month: Sixty Yearsnof Books in American Life, editednby Al Silverman, Boston: Little,nBrown; $17.95.nThe Book-of-the-Month Club,nnow in its 60th year, is an Americannsuccess...

24 / CHRONICLESnsmall group of people which havenmuch to do with which books makenthe best-seller lists, which books thenlibraries buy, which books are pickednup for review in other publications,nand, therefore, the reading habits of allnthose people who like to feel that theynbelong to the intellectual elite. I find itnhard to believe that people fromnMaine to...

26 / CHRONICLESnReenchanting the World by Herbert Schlossbergn”Do not seek to become a god. “nUnmasking the New Age by DouglasnR. Groothius, Downers Grove, IL:nInterVarsity Press; $6.95.nUnholy Spirits: Occultism and NewnAge Humanism by Gary North, Ft.nWorth, TX: Dominion Press;n$19.95.nOnce we begin to see that wenare all God, that we all haventhe attributes of God, then Inthink...

trate the unitarian mentality of NewnAgers: (1) All is one. Differences arenapparent only, without ontologicalnstanding; (2) All is God. The divinenessence is everywhere and in everything;n(3) Humanity is God. (Goodnnews for the would-be divinities, whontake their cue from The Next WholenEarth Catalogue: “We are as Gods andnmight as well get good at it.”); (4) Anchange...

U.S., A CaptivenNationnby John C. VinsonnThe Captive PubHc by BenjaminnGinsberg, New York: Basic Books;n$18.95.nBenjamin Ginsberg’s The CaptivenPublic is a breath of fresh cynicism.nWith insight and illustration, it arguesnthat mass opinion and majority willnare not necessarily the nemesis of BignBrother. In modern society, Ginsbergnargues, the Orwellian state can adaptnand even mold them for its purposes.nNor is...

32 / CHRONICLESnThen nightly sings the staringnowl,nTu-whit;nTu-who, a merry note,nWhile greasy Joan doth keelnthe pot—n—she jams it into a theory aboutnElizabethan marriage, converting bothnMarion and Joan from farm-girls intonhousewives for whom (there is zeronabout this in the text) “love has tonripen into friendship and tolerance.” Innote that standard Shakespeareannpractice is to identify scullions likenJoan only...

24 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnA Fool in the Forest by Fred Chappelln”Shall they hoist me up and show me to the shoutingnvarletry of censuring Rome?”n—William ShakespearenThe Tristia of Ovid, translated bynDavid R. Slavitt, Cleveland:nBellflower Press.nThe true facts of the case will lienhidden in time forever. For ournpurpose here, we can accept the officialnversion; that the emperor Augustusnin...

26 / CHRONICLESnBest Western Civ by Robert Nisbetn”Sic omnia fatis in peius ruere ac retro subhpsa referre.”n(All mortal things are subject to decay.)n—VergilnThe Triumph of the West: ThenOrigins, Rise, and Legacy of WesternnCiviUzation hy J.M. Roberts,nBoston: Little, Brown; $19.95.nThis is a handsome book in allnpertinent respects. It is stately ofnsubject, nicely written, well-edited,nand eye-winning in...

ly worse: teaching no history in thenschools or teaching history in the stylenof Little Red Riding Hood. If the childnreaches an age when he is no longernenchanted by Cinderella, can the goodnold Western pageant be far behind?nThe form seems to invite, to shmulatenand restimulate, recourse to thenhoary conventionalihes: those particularlynregarding Christianity, the medievalnera, the so-called...

30 / CHRONICLESnThe Great Spirit ofnFormnby Stephen TannernSlow Homecoming by Peter Handke,ntranslated by Ralph Manheim,nNew York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;n$16.95.nMalcolm Bradbury describes PeternHandke as “unmistakably one of thenbest writers we have in that selfdiscoveringntendency in contemporarynwriting we have chosen to call postmodernism.”nAnd, true enough,nHandke is eminently skillful at whatnhe sets out to do. Poet and...

32 / CHRONICLESn’Timing Is thenThing’nby Buddy MatthewsnThinking in Time: The Uses of Historynfor Decision-Makers by RichardnE. Neustadt and Ernest R. May,nNew York: The Free Press; $19.95.nWhich is more important: to knownhistory well or to use what history younknow in making important decisions?nWith some hesitation (since one is antrained historian), the authors ofnThinking in Time decide...

events. The logical consequence ofnthis is that the individual is not primarilynresponsible for his actions, or, toncite an example given by Waugh, itnmakes sense for a judge to awardn$45,750 to a convicted rapist against andrunken driver from whom he hadnaccepted a ride on the grounds that thenman only started committing rape as anresult of his...

34 / CHRONICLESnTherefore, investigation of the intentnof the Constitution conventionallynconcentrates on the discussions innPhiladelphia. To pursue the meaningnof the Constitution further wouldnthrow us all the way back to thatnancient, once supreme but long discreditednidea of states’ rights.nMcDonald is our best historian ofnthe Founding era. No one has soundednthat era more deeply and fruitfully,nand it is...

OPINIONSnThe Padre From Chicago by John C. Chalbergn”He canonizes himself a Saint in his own hfetime.”n—Samuel ButlernConfessions of a Parish Priest bynAndrew Greeley, New York: Simonn& Schuster; $18.95.nExhibitionism is a sin yet to benlegitimized in Father AndrewnGreeley’s ongoing excursion into softnporn (or those novels which he euphemisticallynchristens his “comedies ofngrace”). But Greeley, the exhibitionist,nis on...

22 / CHRONICLESnSchool Daze by Phyllis Zaganon”A motive fair to Learning’s imps he gave. …”n—William ShenstonenThe Troubled Crusade by DianenRavitch, New York: Basic Books;n$8.95.nAgainst Mediocrity: The Humanitiesnin America’s High Schools, editednby Chester E. Finn Jr., DianenRavitch, and Robert Fancher, NewnYork: Holmes & Meier.nThe Schools We Deserve: Reflectionsnon the Educational Crisis of OurnTimes by Diane Ravitch,...

24 / CHRONICLESnLiberal StudiesnThe Rise and Decline of WesternnLiberalism by Anthony Arblaster,nOxford: Basil Blackwell.nStudies of political ideology come innand out of fashion. Conservatism is in,ncurrently, but off-brand Marxism runsna close second. It has been many yearsnsince an important study of liberalismnappeared. Anthony Arblaster has donenso good a job that it is hard to comparenhis book...

the 1930’s. Their forebodings becamenreahty during the 1970’s, when it becamenevident that the social welfarenside of the Federal budget was out ofncontrol and that the welfare systemnhad created a large dependent andnalienated underclass.nBut Curtis was more than a naysayernto the welfare state. According to hisnmemoirs, he is the father of perhapsnthe most important and constructivenamendment...

reader?nOf course, there’s no reason tonbegin Poison Pen with the dedication tonJoan Rivers or to enter the pubHsher’snone-Hner contest and win $25.00 bynbest completing “Joan Rivers? Hernmemory is so bad that …” as advertisednon the dedication page. You canndip in and out of this novel as if it’s anpub crawl and come out just as...

More Money Than GodnOPINIONSn”How shameless and how greedy all these peoplenare!n—Fyodor DostoevskynGreed and Glory on Wall Street:nThe Fall of the House of Lehman bynKen Auletta, New York: RandomnHouse.nCaptain Money and the GoldennGirl The J. David Affair hy DonaldnC. Bander, New York: HarcourtnBrace Jovanovich; $15.95.nMetal Men: Marc Rich and then10-Billion-Dollar Scam by A. CraignCopetas, New York:...

A Touch of Class by Thomas P. McDonnelln”The market may have its martyrdoms as well as thenpulpit; and trade its heroisms, as well as war. “n—John RuskinnHonorable Men by LouisnAuchincloss, Boston: HoughtonnMifflin; $15.95.nWe were two old parties, my visitingnbrother and I, sitting under the grapenarbor at the end of a mild summer day.nWhen I say...

The Bureaucrat and the Shoe Salesman by Samuel T. Francisn”Among the many priests of Jove . . . all passednmuster that could hidenTheir sloth, avarice, and pride. “n—Bernard MandevillenThe Bureaucratization of the Worldnby Bruno Rizzi, New York: The FreenPress.nBruno Rizzi’s La Bureaucratisationndu Monde, first published in Parisnin 1939 and Part I of which is herentranslated...

30 / CHRONICLESnBetrayed by Britain by Momcilo Selicn”And hung my head and wept at Britain’s name.”n—Samuel Taylor ColeridgenTito’s Flawed Legacy by NoranBeloff, Boulder, CO: WestviewnPress.nIf there be monsters, they yawn fromnwithin.nIt is hard not to see justice in thenstory of an empire, brought low by itsnunwilhngness to defend itself “Thisnbook is in part a penance...

34 / CHRONICLESnA Spymaster Defectsnby F. W. BrownlownA Perfect Spy by John Le Carre,nNew York: Alfred A. Knopf; $18.95.nAs a member of the last generation ofnEnglish middle-class boys brought upnon great expectahons of prosperity,nglamour, and power, John Le Carrenfirst became famous in America whennhis obsession with the failed promise ofnhis own society supplied an analogy...

ley imitating Dickens.nThe good parts of this book are thenscenes of spying: the hero’s recruitment,nhis experiences in mihtary intelligence,nand his wife’s defeat of hisnCzech handler. In fact, somewhereninside this big, fat book there is annamusing little story about a pretentious,nincompetent English spy, recruitednby the Czechs at the outset ofnhis career, who spends 20 increasinglynbewildered years...

36 / CHRONICLESnmay miss in these books the intellectualndaring they relish in a man who willndefy fashion to eall things by their rightnnames.nThe reasons for all these responsesnhave, I suspect, much to do with thenforce of generic conventions. It is notnthat Buckley excludes or softens in thennovels the unwavering opposition tonCommunism one finds in his...

In the absence of a profit test, toonmany government officials make programngrowth their only criterion fornsuccess. Most innovations in the publicnsector are imposed either by outsidersnor by catastrophe. Drucker believesnthe reversal of these trends and thentransformation of the public sector isn”the foremost task of this generation.”nBecause he finds macro-planning incompatiblenwith an entrepreneurialneconomy, he rejects “industrial...

22 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnClippingthe Angel’s Wings byBryceJ. Chmtensenn” . . . Words strain,nCrack and sometimes break.nThe Rustle of Language by RolandnBarthes, New York: Hill and Wang;n$25.00.nThe Humiliation of the Word bynJacques EUul, Grand Rapids, MI:nEerdmans; $14.95.nRhetoric and Form: Deconstructionnat Yale, edited by Robert C. Davisnand Ronald Schleifer, Norman, OK:nUniversity of Oklahoma Press.nThe ancients, wiser than modemntheorists,...

Sons of Jacob by Paul Gottfriedn”I pray you think you question with the Jew.”n—William ShakespearenThe Merchant of VenicenThe Jews Under Roman andnByzantine Rule by M. Avi-Yonah,nNew York: Shocken Books.nJudios, Espanoles en la Edad Medianby Luis Suarez Fernandez, Madrid:nEdiciones Rialp.nL’eclipse du sacre by Alain denBenoist and Thomas Molnar, Paris:nla Table Ronde.nT hen26 / CHRONICLESnJews Under Roman...

Second Adamnby John L. RomjuenJesus Through the Centuries: HisnPlace in the History of Culture bynJaroslav Pelikan, New Haven, CT:nYale University Press; $22.50.nMost persons now living can expect tonwitness the turning from the second tonthe third millennium of the Christiannera. The year 2000 anno Domininlooms as a seeming tower in time,ncommanding our attentive awe as wcnapproach...

30 / CHRONICLESnican theologian Reinhold Niebuhr returnednin The Nature and Destiny ofnMan in 1939, at a time when mankindnwas relearning the reality of evil innhuman nature.nFar from a merely interesting surveynof Christian doctrine, Pelikan’s wellillustratednstudy examines such visualnrepresentations of Christ as the mysticallynlighted Savior of El Greco, paintedn”from the eye of a faith-filled soul,”nand the...

is remarkably incisive.nSo the reader follows Barrett’s thesisnas one follows an adventure. The worknof Locke or Berkeley takes on life innthe space of a few pages. Viewednthrough Barrett’s lens, Leibnitz is ansurprisingly sympathehc philosopher,nwhile Hume seems wholly inadequate.nKant—on whom Barrett rightlynconcentrates — looms as the singlenprodigious genius to dominate the discussionnof consciousness; yet evennKant’s system...

True, Ashbery can still write an evocative,nclever poem like “Frontispiece”nin Shadow Train or “Just WalkingnAround” in A Wave. In these he seemsnto be communicating with his ownnfriends, to be letting his verbal netsnhang to dry in a moment of sincerity.nIn so doing he draws the reader in withnhis grace and sensitivity, and henachieves anew his...

a continuity between nature and thenhuman spirit, which the poets locatednin a common origin in infinity. Wasnnot nature infinite? And was not thenspirit that rose to meet it also infinite?nWere man and nature not twonindissoluble—and at happy moments,nindistinguishable — parts of a singlenentity? To call the Romantic poet egocentricnin a pejorative sense is rathernlike trying...

32/CHRONICLESnwithin the modern poet of an ahennrationahty, of the mascuhne pure reasonnof an Apollonius at the feast ofnpoor Lamia … has provided both andazzhng clarity of analysis and expressionnand has threatened to initiate anpotentially fatal disunity within thentotal personality, setting reason at oddsnwith imagination, skepticism againstnthe impulse toward faith, surgical selfconsciousnessnagainst the impulse towardnsynthesis.”nJames Applewhite...

Amazing Gracenby Carl C. CurtisnThis Grace Given by David H.C.nRead, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.nIn the New College at Edinburgh inn1934, young divinity students stimulatednthemseKes by turning over old andnnew ideas: Calvinism, Barthianism, thenrole of the bod’ of Christ in the world,nthe form of the liturgx, the purpose ofnmissions—in other words, the samenissues that, mutatis mutandis,...

38/CHRONICLESnpsychoanalytic theory in detail. Woodnreviews the classic theoretical criticismsnof Freudian theory by Sir Karl Poppernand Sir Peter Medawar. Even supportersnof Freudian theory such as AdolfnGriinbaum (the eminent philosopher ofnscience) and Arnold Cooper (past presidentnof the American PsychoanalyticnAssociation) admit that its theoretic underpinningsnare weak. A number ofnempirical studies have likewise shownnpsychoanalytic therapy to be ineffectivenand even...

A noble task, nobly done, / Full ofnvirtue veiled with fun.nCaroline Morgan is a drama and artncritic in New York City.nDecent Folk FromnGeorgianhy Stephen L. TannernCold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns,nNew York: Ticknor & Fields.n”Livin’ is like pourin’ water out of antumbler into a dang Coca-Cola bottle.nIf’n you skeered you cain’t do it, youncain’t....

26 I CHRONICLESnThe War Against the WestnOPINIONSn”Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. “n— TennysonnThe Expansion of InternationalnSociety, edited by Hedley Bull andnAdam Watson, Oxford: ClarendonnPress; $39.95.nThe Lawful Rights of Mankind: AnnIntroduction to the InternationalnLegal Code of Human Rights bynPaul Sieghart, Oxford: OxfordnUniversity Press; $15.95.nn our day the mere mention ofnI imperialism...

Letters From Tocqueville by John Lukacsn”I am rich in letters. …”nAlexis de Tocqueville: SelectednLetters on Politics and Society,nedited by Roger Boesche; translatednby James Toupin and RogernBoesche, Berkeley: University ofnCalifornia Press; $24.95.nAlexis de Tocqueville was an immenselynprolific writer. His friendnGustave de Beaumont wrote that “fornone volume he published he wrote ten;nand the notes he cast aside...

30 I CHRONICLESnnot a “mother-idea”; Ancone is the citynof Ancona; Clelie is the heroine of annovel by Mile. Scudery. They printnand “translate” such things withoutnexplanation, while at the same timenthey print hundreds of words in unnecessarynfootnotes telling the Americannreader who Guizot or NapoleonnIII were. They do not know Englishnwell enough: They write such phrasesnas “at...

34 I CHRONICLESnRendering Unto Caesarn”Parnell came down the road, he said to ancheering man:n’Ireland shall get her beedom and you shallnbreak stone.'”n—W. YeatsnTheologians Under Hitler by RobertnP. Ericksen, New Haven andnLondon: Yale University Press.nThat some Protestant theologiansnmeshed Christianity with Nazismnand became ardent supporters of Hidernshould surprise no one familiar withnthe activities of theologians who supportna...

medieval to modern times from Englandnand America. There are lettersnfrom Jeb Stuart and Abigail Adams,ndocuments dealing with Gilbert andnSullivan and FDR. These essays willndelight and beguile the pedantic andnprecise, the lover of the factual andndetailed. (ECK)nGoing Back tonCharlestonnIntellectual Life in AntebellumnCharleston, edited by MichaelnO’Brien and David IVloltke-Hansen,nKnoxville: University of TennesseenPress; $45.00.nThe United States were once...

38 I CHRONICLESntion charge dismissed for insufficientnevidence)—the reader is to gather thatnGarwood was, above all things, a “survivor,”na supreme achievement. Thentreatment of Garwood’s motives —n”nature or nurture”—is even more dubious.nWith sneers at the Marine Corpsnand Middle America, the authors depictntheir subject as the hapless productnof a rootless America and of an absurdnwar the volunteer Marine...

hensive account of a type of criminalitynthat, in its rationality and structure,nstands in marked contrast to ordinaryn”street crime.” With roots in bothnAmerican and southern Italian culture,norganized crime developed in the moralnclimate created by the robber barons ofnthe late 19th century. These “captainsnof industry” became folk heroes by theirnascent from rags to riches, and manynused their...

20 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnLame Hands of Socialist Faithn”You . . . have been borrowing goblins from thencapitahst. …”n—John RuskinnThe Nature and Logic of Capitalismnby Robert L. Heilbroner, New York:nW.W. Norton.nSocialism and America by IrvingnHowe, New York: Harcourt BracenJovanovich.nFor numerous well-known Westernnintellectuals, capitalism versus socialismnremains the great dilemma,nthe principal philosophical and institutionalnalternahve of our times. It isnfar...

22 / CHRONICLESnvigorously embraces the Marxist ideanof the dehumanization wrought by thencash nexus, seen in the commerciahzationnof sports in the U.S. and thenconversion of ideas into commodities.nDespite his distaste for capitahsm,nhe grudgingly admits that “politicalnfreedom in modern times . . . hasnonly appeared in capitalist states” andnthat “nonstate employment” seems tonbe a requirement of political...

24 / CHRONICLESnNot a Prayer by Joseph Schwanzn”(Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism,nSaihng on obscene wings athwartnthe noon …”n—Samuel Taylor ColeridgenWithout God, Without Creed: ThenOrigins of Unbelief in America bynJames Turner, Baltimore, MD: JohnsnHopkins University Press.nHabits of the Heart: Individualismnand Commitment in American Lifenby Robert N. Bellah e^ al., Berkeley:nUniversity of California Press.nIndividualism is the question...

Faith and Empathy by Jonathan Chavesn”Well, I do believe some things, of course . . .nand therefore, of course, I don’t believe othernthings.”n—G.K. Chesterton, The Incredulity of Father BrownnThe Chinese Rites Controversy FromnIts Beginning to Modern Times bynGeorge Minamiki, S.J., Chicago:nLovola University Press.nThe progressive turning away fromnbelief in God that characterizednWestern intellectuals during the 19thncentury...