30 / CHRONICLESnEz and Old VORTnby Brian MurraynPound/Lewis: The Letters of EzranPound and Wyndham Lewis, editednby Timothy Materer, New York: NewnDirections; $37.50.nAmong Wyndham Lewis’ nearly 50nbooks are found such classics as Timenand Western Man (1927) and the novelsnTarr (1918), The Apes of God (1930),nand The Revenge For Love (1937). But atnthe time of his death...

Still, the two remained friends andnoff-and-on correspondents. In Pound/nLewis, Timothy Materer has collectednin chronological order more than 200nnotes and letters that were passed betweennthese controversial figures betweennthe year of their meeting and thenlate 50’s, when Pound signed off asn”Ez” and Lewis as “Old VORT.” Mostnappear in print for the first time; manynare detailed, revealing, and...

32 / CHRONICLESnin the merchant marine increased,nthough, and the non-Slavic nationalitiesndefected in greater numbers thannbefore.nThe KGB list ends in 1969, butnKrasnov has searched available sourcesnto give us an accurate picture of defectorsnsince then. In the 1970’s, 300,000nSoviets, mosdy Jews, immigrated legally.nThis wave of immigration, tied tondetente, the pressure of dissidents, andnWestern publicity, ended in 1979.nNonetheless,...

definition of mental illness in criminalncases have frequently had the effect ofnconfusing the jury, as competing psychiatristsncloud the issues in a welter ofnincomprehensible jargon.nMaeder warns against the folly ofnabolishing the insanity defense so longnas there are insane people. Such annabolition would likely result in either anmerciless system of justice or an evasionnof the law by...

22 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnIn the Land of Cotton by Clyde Wilsonn”The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and wenare not saved.”n—JeremiahnBreaking the Land: ThenTransformation of Cotton, Tobacco,nand Rice Cultures Since 1880 bynPete Daniel, Urbana, IL: Universitynof Illinois Press.nAs Rare as Rain: Federal Relief innthe Great Southern Drought ofn1930-31 by Nan ElizabethnWoodruff, Urbana, IL: University ofnIllinois...

recognize that every enlightened andnprosperous nation on the globe makesnspecial provision for its farmers, andnnot from an obsolete affection for thenyeoman ideal. The truth is that thenagricultural market is the great unsolvednproblem of the modern economy.nNo one Has as yet devised morenthan a makeshift solution to the cyclesnof overproduction and underproductionnand price fluctuation that havenbeset...

2B / CHRONICLESnHillbillies and Rednecks by Tommy W. Rogersn”Taake my word for it, Sammy, the poor in a loompnis bad.”n—TennysonnThe Southern Redneck: AnPhenomenological Class Study bynJulian B. Roebuck and MarknHickson III, New York: Praeger.nTwo professors at Mississippi StatenUniversity, a sociologist and ancommunicationist, have decoupagedntheir observations, experiences, andnintrapsychic projections into a “phenomenologicalnanalysis” of the Southernnredneck. If...

power from limiting restraints in thenquest for social good. The authorsnspring heavy with good deeds.nIf the authors could somehow enlightenntheir redneck subjects, couldninfect them with enough social sciencensepticemia to cause them to throw offntheir Southernism — with its outmodednreligious and political values—ntheji society could be shoved towardn”meaningful structural change,” andnthe “masses might be persuaded tonwork...

Pastor to thenPariahsnby James L. SauernWho Speaks For God? by CharlesnColson, Westchester, IL: Ctossway.nDramatic conversions happen. F.F.nBruce, the noted New Testament scholar,nis not alone in insisting that no onencan understand Paul of Tarsus withoutnconsidering his experience on the roadnto Damascus. And whether you believe,nas Christians do, that he therenmet the resurrected Christ or not, allnadmit...

orists, Kronick portrays Emerson, Thoreau,nWhitman, Henry Adams, EzranPound, William Carlos Williams, HartnCrane, and Wallace Stevens as deconstructionistsnand then deconstructsnthem. The book is an encyclopedia ofnthe jargon terms of poststructuralismnand a showpiece of the kind of incomprehensiblensentences that radical theoristsndelight in. Here is his thesis statementnfrom the introduction: “A poeticsnof history shifts the ground of historicalnstudies...

of the emperors in Byzantine chronicles.nEven Daniel Boone, shoehornedninto this history despite never havingntraveled within 1,500 miles of California,nis reduced Irom being an authenticnAmerican hero to a quizzical oldngrouch.nIt is only when Richard Henry Dananenters the scene two-thirds of the waynthrough the book that Batman’s tableauxnmomentarily comes to life. Dananis a very empathetic figure, a...

38 / CHRONICLESngotten. Tuveson’s study leads the readernto consider what happens when a country,nwhich began its history motivatednby the beUef that faith in God requirednmen to perform righteous acts, loses itsnfaith but retains its zeal. One possibilitynis that it will continue to act with anfervent confidence in its own purityneven as it loses its formerly...

OPINIONSnShotgun Marriage by Carol McMillann”The Shadowy Female absorbingnThe enormous Sciences …”nReflections on Gender and Sciencenby Evelyn Fox Keller, New York:nYale University Press.nMothers and Such: Views ofnAmerican Women and Why TheynChanged by Maxine L. Margolis,nBerkeley: University of CalifornianPress.nMother Care/Other Care by SandranScarr, New York: Basic Books.nReproductive control and geneticnmanipulation have been makingnthe headlines for years. One...

18 / CHRONICLESnround of dinner parties would leavenone with a bad taste in one’s mouth, sontoo women need other interests. Butnare day-care centers really the answer?nOr might it not be better if the homencould once again become a dynamicncenter in the community, obviatingnthe need for women to seek a way ofnescaping the horrors of boredom...

22 / CHRONICLESnLove and Death in the American West by Odie B. Faulkn”Let sixteen cowboys come sing me a song. . . .nFor I’m a young cowboy and I know I’ve donenwrong.”n—Anonymous, “The Cowboy’s Lament”nThe Real American Cowboy by JacknWeston, New York: Shocken Books;n$19.95.nDaughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery:nProstitutes in the American West,n1865-90 by Anne...

24 / CHRONICLESnThe Gelded Age by Allan C. Carlsonn”If the Model Boy was in either of these Sundaynschools, I did not see him.”n—Mark TwainnBoys Together. English PublicnSchools, 1800-1864 by JohnnChandos, New Haven: YalenUniversity Press.nManhood: A New Definition bynStephen A. Shapiro, New York:nG.P. Putnam’s Sons.nThe Redundant Male: Is SexnIrrelevant in the Modern World? bynJeremy Cherfas and...

26 / CHRONICLESnare extremely vulnerable to rapid extinction.nSexual reproduction confersna great many long-term advantages—ngreater diversity, more rapid adaptation,nheightened protection againstndisease — which the authors dancenaround, and in the end cannot honestlyndeny.nWhile it is probably true that advancesnin petri-dish conception andnartificial wombs may soon allownwomen to choose to dispense withnmen altogether, it would also seemnpossible for...

Mountain,” a prayer for his late fathernthat plays delicately on the biblicalnassociations of North Carolina mountains:nI see my father has gone to climbnEasily the Pisgah Slope, takingnthe timenHe’s got a world of . . .nHe is alone, except what voicesnout of timenCome to his head like bees tonthe bee-tree crown.nThe voices of former life asnindistinct...

20 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnThe Chapel and the Voting Boothn”J do not yet see the absolute necessity of extirpatingnthe Christian religion from among us.”n—Jonathan SwiftnReligion in American Public Life bynA. James Reichley, Washington, DC:nThe Brookings Institution.nIam sure it is possible to praise toonhighly James Reichley’s Religion innAmerican Public Life, but it wouldntake some doing. Reichley, a SeniornFellow...

24 / CHRONICLESnThe Rights of Tradition by Jay Mechlingn”Ah, kuinel, you see, Injun man ain ‘t strong likenwhite man!”n—William Gilmore SimmsnA Poison Stronger Than Love: ThenDestruction of an OjibwanCommunity by Anastasia M.nShkilnyk, New Haven: YalenUniversity Press.nThe Reservation Blackfeet,n1882-1945 A Photographic Historynof Cultural Survival by William E.nFarr, Seattle: University ofnWashington Press.nWe are approaching an importantncentenary, though...

merely a new version of Disneyland,nwhere alienated modern tourists cannglimpse briefly a purportedly “authentic”ntradition before returning to theirnsterile institutional lives.nThis debate among folklorists comesndown to the practical question ofnwhether anything can be done in ancommunity like Grassy Narrows.nOnce traditions die at the hands ofnmodernity, can they be revived? If so,nthen what sort of public policy...

worship need not interfere with othernplans for the night. As Keillor notes, itnis the ones lured away by the pleasuresnof modernity “who can afford to bennostalgic,” Lake Wobegon is the lostnAmerican Eden, the communitynabandoned in the pursuit of othernforms of happiness.nIn the library at Lake WobegonnHigh is still to be found a globe, thengift of...

28 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnUncivil Rights by William A. Donohuen’It is better that some should be unhappy, than thatnnone should be happy, which would be the case in angeneral state of equality.”n—Samuel JohnsonnAlan R. White: Rights; ClarendonnPress/Oxford University Press; NewnYork; $19.95.nNicholas Capaldi: Out of Order;nPrometheus Books; Buffalo, NY;n$17.95.nMichael Novak: Freedom WithoutnJustice; Harper & Row; SannFrancisco.nRichard A. Posner:...

301 CHRONICLESnPosner challenges the conventionalnincorporation theory of the FourteenthnAmendment which holds that thenAmendment makes the Bill of Rightsnapplicable to the states. The Bill ofnRights, he instructs, was designed tonweaken the Federal government;n”Apply the Bill of Rights to the statesnthrough the due process clause andnyou weaken the states tremendously bynhanding over control of large areas ofnpublic...

32 / CHRONICLESnwhat he imagines to be a circle ofnkindred souls anticipating his ownnmind-set, he assigns no real significancento ideas not dependent on materialninterests.nHe treats Protestant traditionalists asnselectively as he does the exponents ofnthe work ethic. Diggins claims to admirenthe Evangelical Christians of then1850’s for mobilizing Americansnagainst slavery. He also praises thenPuritan component in American...

34 / CHRONICLESnthink) that ideologists do not includenfreedom in their blueprints for thenfuture. Since the ideologist definesnboth freedom and the terminus (thenfuture good society) in quite differentnterms from Minogue’s, he is substitutingna syllogism that uses his own definitionsnfor those of real ideologists. Tonscore points off a straw man—ornagainst second-rate or atypical thinkers,nas Minogue occasionally does—isnto...

36 / CHRONICLESndecadence, of the American poetrynscene.nThe truths lost on these professorpoetsnare that success in academianrequires acceptabihty, whereas successnin art requires individuahty that risksnunacceptabihty, and then that successnin the former does not guarantee successnin the latter. This second truthnaccounts for why so many professorpoetsnnowadays are embittered aboutnthe lack of commensurate success forntheir poetry. Isn’t this...

10 / CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnBefore the Big Bang by Bryce Christensenn’Oh hide the God still more!’nPaul Davies: Superforce: The Searchnfor a Grand Unified Theory ofnNature; Simon and Schuster; NewnYork; $16.95.nChristine Sutton: The ParticlenConnection: The Most ExcitingnScientific Chase Since DNA and thenDouble Hehx; Simon and Schuster;nNew York; $16.95.nHenry H. Bauer: Beyond Vehkovsky:nThe History of a Public Controversy;nUniversity of...

this current preoccupation with thenforce or appeal of narrative, the onendemonstrating fertile abundance in varietynof character and incident withinnthe limits of realism, the other demonstratingna similar fertility in self-nStephen Tanner is professor of Englishnat Brigham Young University.njj Stephen L. Tannernft Judgement,nk Cycle Playsn;ious anti-realism.ne War of the End of the World is annal treatment of...

Tocqueville Redivivusnby Clyde Wilsonn”America does not repel the past or what it hasnproduced.”n—Walt WhitmannJohn Lukacs: OutgrowingnDemocracy: A History of the UnitednStates in the Twentieth Century;nDoubleday; Garden City, NY.nWere some power, either repubhcannor princely, to entrust menwith a classroom of promising youthnwho were to be educated to becomenthe best possible historians of thenfuture—well, I would find...

OPINIONSnGuns, Butter, and Guilt by Lee Congdonn”Guns will make us powerful; butter will only makenus fat.”n—Hermann GoeringnHenry Ashby Turner Jr.: German BignBusiness and the Rise of Hitler;nOxford University Press; New York.nR.J. Overy; Goering: The “IronnMan”; Routledge and Kegan Paul;nLondon and Boston.nKay Heriot: To The Edge; The BooknGuild; Sussex, England.nIt is 40 years now since the...

Embarrassment of Riches by Brian Murrayn”Semper inops quicumque cupit’n(Whoever yearns is always poor)nMartin Amis: Money: A SuicidenNote; Viking; New York; $16.95.nAnita Brookner: Hotel du Lac;nPantheon Books; New York; $13.95.nDuring the 1950’s, an increasingnnumber of middle Americans nonlonger took seriously the principle thatnhonest work carefully performed is itsnown true reward. As the exhortativenance Packard and a...

The Bear and His Claws by William R. Hawkinsn”The wisdom of all these latter times, in princes’naffairs, is rather fine deliveries, and shiftings of dangersnand mischiefs when they are near, than solid andngrounded courses to keep them aloof “n—Sir Francis BaconnRichard F. Staar: USSR ForeignnPolicies After Detente; The HoovernInstitution Press; Stanford, CA.nJoseph Churba: The AmericannRetreat:...

for mobilizing industry to build upnU.S. conventional war-fighting capabilities,nhowever desirable, seem wellnbeyond the realm of political possibility.nCongress has already brought to anhalt the Reagan rearmament program.nThe President will be lucky if he cannkeep the Strategic Defense Initiativenmoving, a program which fitsnChurba’s desire for an active defensenagainst nuclear attack. Churba is correctnwhen he observes that the...

OPINIONSnA Voice From Down Southn”Had he been even a Yankee, this genius would havenbeen rendered immediately manifest to his country-nmen.nM.E. Bradford: Remembering WhonWe Are: Observations of a SouthernnConservative; University of GeorgianPress; Athens, GA; $15.95.n^ ^ A 11 a rhetorician’s rules,” weni. learn from Hudibras, “teachnhim but to name his tools.” ProfessornBradford, who knows much about...

The Atonement of Poetryn”Aye, those fair living forms swam heavenly/ To tunesnforgotten. …”n—John KeatsnGeoffrey Hill: The Mystery of thenCharity of Charles Peguy; OxfordnUniversity Press; New York.nGeoffrey Hill: The Lords of Limit:nEssays on Literature and Ideas;nOxford University Press; New York.nOne of life’s great joys is to comenacross a new work of literaturenthat is likely to last...

as the Dreyfus Affair, and the poem inngeneral is Hill’s homage to the triumphnof Peguy’s life of defeat, as hencalls it, and which recognizes him asnone of the great souls and propheticnintelligences of our century.nA critic writing in the British periodicalnEncounter has rated Hill’s collectionnof literary essays, The Lords ofnLimit, as the most important first...

often frenzied Utopians, who seek notnto preserve but to exploit resentmentnfor revolutionary ends. The opposite ofnnationalism is not internationalismnbut, as John Lukacs reminds us, patriotismnrooted in the sense of a livingnpast. Unfortunately, Steiner’s criticalnremarks about nationalism and its currentnalternatives are not well considered.nAlthough he rails against ancientnHebraic nationalism, he supportsnmodern Jewish nationalism as a counterweightnto...

OPINIONSnLife, Interpreted Lueely by Allan C. Carlsonnwhere the pictures for the page atone. “n—Alexander PopenLife: The Second Decaden1946-1955; Photographs selected bynDoris C. O’Neil; Little, Brown;nBoston.nNo contemporary could write promotionncopy quite like HenrynLuce. His 1936 prospectus for a newnmagazine featuring photographs, tentativelyncalled The Show-Book of thenWorld, still has few equals:nTo see life; to see the world;...

The American ”Collective” (Day)Dream by Jay Mechlingn”Some races inerease, others are reduced, and in anshort while the generations ofUving creatures arenchanged and Uke runners relay the torch ofhfe. “n—LucretiusnKevin Starr: Inventing the Dream:nCalifornia Through the ProgressivenEra; Oxford University Press; NewnYork; $19.95.nReading student applications fornscholarships, as I have done onnand off now for a dozen years...

the “new immigration” as their dramaticnsubject matter are often creatednby immigrants — films like WaynenWang’s Dim Sum (1985) and LouisnMalle’s Alamo Bay (1985), or bynnative-born directors only a generationnor so separated firom the immigrantnexperience, such as Paul Mazursky’snMoscow on the Hudson (1984) andnBrian De Palma’s Scarface (1983).nThere is a certain irony in all this,nan irony...

Gatsby Without Clothesn”O money, money!. . . Thou art the test of beauty,nthe judge of ornament, the guide of fancy, the indexnof temper, and the pole star of the affections.”n—Daniel DefoenPeter DeVries: The Prick of Noon;nLittle, Brown; Boston; $14.95.nIt is an odd thing for someone whonhas written an approving book onnPeter DeVries and who also...

bet she was one-dimensional.nAt the trial in which I participated,nthe defense was more polished andnmuch better paid than the prosecution,nand it was a challenge matchingnwits with him. I did it, incidentally, innpart to match wits, to have that experi­nence, and because no one from SocialnSciences would do it, though it was tonthem that the County...

requests to see Xosenko throughnBanon again, and-Nosenko refused. Innthe August 26 issue of The New Republic.nEpstein offers further assertionsnand arguments in response to attacksnon his original review. His defense ofnthe driver’s license/traffic ticket chargenis an exercise in the absurd. Epsteinndoes seem to have uncovered an apparentnerror in Mr. Shevchenko’snchronology, but this error, admitted tonby Shevchenko...

Marxism & Motorcycle Maintenancen”The revolutionary loves a man nho does not yetnexist.”n—Albert CamusnIrving Louis Horowitz: C. WrightnMills: An American Utopian; ThenFree Press; New York.nIn recent years, critics of culturenhave given the imagination a onewaynticket to the left. The LiberalnImagination by Lionel Trilling is followednby The Radical Imagination bynIrving Howe, which is followed in turnnby The...

coauthor with David Riesman of ThenLoneh Crowd, remarked in reviewingnMills’s White Collar. “Not all salesmennare Willv Lomans.” Mills’s worknsuffered as he put more of his ownnangst into it. As Richard Hofstadternremarked to him: “You have somehownmanaged to get into White Collar angreat deal of your own personal nightmare.”nIn The Power Elite, Mills continuednto project his...

American Idol by Fred ChappellnOPINIONSn”Eldorado banal de tous les vieux gargons.”n—Charles BaudelairenRussell Banks: Continental Drift;nHarper & Row; New York.nThe last sentence in Russell Banks’snmagnificent novel is surprising innits inevitability: “Go, my book, andnhelp destroy the world as it is.” Here isna sentence to conclude a politicallynradical novel, a story of socially revolutionarynpurpose. But there is...

Grand Designs by John Lukacsn”Liberty, the daughter of oppression, after havingnbrought forth several fair children, as Riches, Arts,nLearning, Trade, and many others, was at last deliverednof her youngest daughter, called FACTION. “n—Jonathan SwiftnRichard H. Pells: The Liberal Mindnin a Conservative Age: AmericannIntellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s;nHarper & Row; New York; $18.95.nThere are many things...

Boredom, Sex, and Murdern”… knew every quirk within lust’s labyrinthnand were professed critic in lechery. “n—Ben JonsonnE. L. Doctorow: Lives of the Poets:nA Novella and Six Stories; RandomnHouse; New York.nNorman Mailer: Tough Guys Don’tnDance; Random House; New York.nCracks are appearing in the idol ofnhigh culture fabricated by thenVictorians. Matthew Arnold eloquentlynexpressed the vision of the...

Economist in the Pulpitn”Dosn ‘t thou ‘ear my ‘erses legs,nas they canters awaaynProputty, pioputty, proputty—nthat’s what I ‘ears ’em saay.nGeorge Stigler: The Intellectual andnthe Marketplace; Harvard UniversitynPress; Cambridge, MA.nGeorge Stigler: The Economist asnPreacher and Other Essays;nUniversity of Chicago Press;nChicago.nGeorge Stigler won the NobelnPrize for Economics in 1982,nthe second member of the ChicagonSchool to win that...