VIEWSrnDefending Civilizationrnby Jean RaspailrnAllow me to begin with a personal recollection. I first camernto know the city of Chicago and the region of the GreatrnLakes almost 50 years ago, in 1949, when I was 23 years old.rnNothing then desdned me for a literar career. I am a writerrnwho developed late. Having regrettably neglected my universityrnstudies,...

The French Revolution in Canadarnby Kenneth McDonaldrnIn their British North America (BNA) Act of 1867, the Fathersrnof Canada’s confederation produced a work of genius.rnThe two senior levels of government were awarded separaternand exclusive powers: Ottawa over national matters; provincialrngovernments over property and civil rights and “generally allrnmatters of a merely local or private nature in...

The Multicultural LiernThe European Roots of American Lifernby Scott P. RichertrnRockford, Illinois, the home of The Rockford Institute andrnChronicles, was established in a series of migratory ripples:rnfirst Yankees, then Scots, then Swedes. A later wave of immigrationrnbrought many Italians, both from Sicily and NorthernrnItaly. Today, German-Americans are the largest ethnic grouprnin Rockford, as they are...

VIEWSrnFascism and Anti-Fascismrnby Paul GottfriedrnFor the last several months, a war crimes trial has been nnfoldingrnin Bordeaux in Southwest France. The defendant,rnMaurice Papon, an octogenarian on the verge of cardiac arrest,rnwas the subprefect of the Gironde during the Vichy regime. Atrnthat time Papon and his superior, Maurice Sabatier, oversawrnthe deportation of thousands of Jews destined...

The Gascon of Europernby Derek TurnerrnNow that communism is dead, a new specter is hauntingrnmuch of Europe—the specter of nationaHsm. In severalrncountries, for the first time since World War II, what may bernconveniently termed nationalist, right-wing, populist parties arernon the verge of coming to power, or at least of gaining respectablernnumbers of seats in government....

The Crime of Historyrnby Tomislav SunicrnHe who writes a nation’s histon’ also controls its future—sornw rote George Orwell. During the Soviet reign over EasternrnEurope, every citizen knew who was in charge of wrihngrnhiston.’, especially that dealing with the victims of World WarrnII. Anyone professing to be a Slovak, a Croat, a Ukrainian, or arnRussian nationalist...

The Fascist New Frontierrnby Peter EricksonrnOn December 16, 1962, Ayn Rand delivered a lecture atrnthe Ford Hall Forum in Boston entitled “The FascistrnNew Frontier.” She began by quoting from an unidentified politicalrnplatform which demanded profit-sharing, governmentrncare for the aged, legislation favorable to small businesses, governmentrnscholarships, public health and “the Common Goodrnbefore the Individual Good.” She...

VIEWSrnOne Nation Divisiblernby Donald W. LivingstonrnSomething extraordinary has happened over the last decadernor so—something neither the RepuWican nor Democraticrnleadership seems to understand. A large and growing numberrnof Americans are now openly saying that much of what the centralrngovernment does is not simply wasteful, corrupt, and destructivernbut illegitimate as well. This year the central governmentrnwill spend...

Judicial Tyranny andrnConstitutional ChangernThe Madison Amendment Processrnby William J. Quirk and Robert M. WilcoxrnWhat one man in America can decide that prisoners inrnSouth Carolina need croquet fields and backgammonrntournaments and order the state to provide them? What onernman can decide that Kansas City schools need Olympic-sizernswimming pools, a planetarium, a model United Nations wiredrnfor language...

VIEWSrnCeltic Justicernby Michael Hillrn”For any displeasure, that they apprehend to be done unto them by their neighbours,rnthey take up a plain field against him, and (without respect to God, King, orrncommonweal) bang it out bravely, he and all his kin, against him and all his.”rn—King James VI of Scotland, Basilikon DoronrnI n the summer of...

Ruritanian Revenge and Realityrnby Barry BaldwinrnLand of Albania! Let me bend mine eyesrnOn thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!rn—Byron, Childe Harolde’s PilgrimagernALBANLN ANARCHY! BALKAN BLOODBATH! Typicalrnbanners to newspaper stories of the riots and virtualrncivil war that gripped “Europe’s most bizarre country” duringrn1997, culminating in the forced resignation of Sali Berisha, thernfirst noncommunist president, and...

VIEWSrnIf God Ran the State Departmentrnby D. George LeechrnI n the Name of the most Holy & undivided Trinity.”rnA Thus begins the Treaty of Paris (1783) by which GreatrnBritain formally conceded the existence of the independentrnUnited States of America. This matter-of-fact invocation of thernTriune God of Ghristianity stands in sharp contrast to the stirringrntributes to...

The Last Respectable Biasrnby William A. DonohiiernIIn this age of multiculturalism and sensitivity, there isrnone bigotry still tolerated: anti-Catholicism. As ArthurrnSchlesinger, Sr., Peter Viereck, and Daniel Patrick Moynihanrnhave all observed, anti-Catholicism remains our nation’s deepestrnbias, and the only one found respectable by intellectuals.rnThe anti-Catholicism that marked our nation’s founding wasrndirected at both individual Catholics and...

How the Market Stamps Out Evilrnby Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.rnIn the ear before the 1994 election, Ralph Reed announcedrnthat the Christian Coalition would broaden its focus. Itrnwould go beyond traditional social issues like abortion andrnschool prayer and include economics. He made the case thatrnthe securit)-‘ of the American family, a central concern of anyrnChristian political...

A Good Reportrnby Harold O. }. BrownrnmrnWriting to Timothy, his younger brother in the faith, thernApostle Paul listed a number of attributes desirable in arnbishop. His final admonition is this: “Moreover, he must haverna good report of them which are without [outside]: lest he fallrninto reproach and the snare of the devil” (I Timothy 3:7)....

A Ghost AwakensrnAmerican Indian Nationalismrnby Gregory McNameernIn the closing years of the 19th century, hidians throughoutrnthe American West began to dance. Dervish-like, theyrndanced for hours and days on end, in the belief that their ecstasyrnwould call forth the gods, bring back the dead, and banishrnthe conquering Europeans from North America. A Paiute elderrnnamed Captain Dick...

Jews Without Judaismrnby Jacob NeusnerrnCertainly no confusion of the ethnic with the religious presentsrnmore anomalies than the mixture of ethnic Jewishnessrnand religious Judaism that American Jews have concoctedrnfor themselves. But the brew is fresh, not vintaged. For nearlyrnthe entire history of the Jews, to be a Jew meant to practice thernreligion set forth in the...

Caesar^s Columnrnby Samuel FrancisrnIf anything could make the modern presidency look good, itrnis the modern Congress, hitended by the Framers, throughrna misinterpretation of the British constitution, to offer a checkrnto the executive branch, the federal legislature has in factrnevolved into merely its partner and more often its lackey. ThernPresident now openly intervenes in congressional elections...

Down With the Presidencyrnbv Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.rnThe presidenc must be destroyed. It is the primar e’il vcrnface, and the eause of nearly all our woes. It squanders thernnational wealth and starts unjust wars against foreign peoplesrnthat hae ncer done us am harm. It wrecks our families, tramplesrnon our rights, invades our communities, and spies...

Franklin Pierce and the Fight for the Old Unionrnby H. Arthur Scott TraskrnI f Franklin Pierce is remembered at all today it is as an inept,rndo-nothing President whose only accomplishment was tornsign the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Historians generally citernthis bill, along with the 1857 Supreme Court decision in thernDred Scott case, as evidence of...

VIEWSrnTo Hell With Collegernby John LukacsrnIask my readers not to be shocked by the title of this essay.rn”To Hell With Culture” was the title of my last essay publishedrnin Chronicles, in September 1994. Readers of it saw thatrnI was not an enemy of culture; and now I am not an enemy ofrnhigher education. I wish...

In Praise of Elitesrnby George WatsonrnBeing a lifelong elitist myself, I have long had a sneakingrnsympathy for a Trollope character, Sir Timothy Beeswax.rnIn The Dune’s Children (1880), Beeswax is a dignified oldrnpolitician who lives not for power but, quite unashamedly, forrnthe trappings of office. Pariiament, he believed, was a club sorneligible that any Englishman would...

The Education of EverymanrnThe Meaning of the Odysseyrnby William F. WyattrnClassical professors looked forward with a mixture of eagernessrnand anxiety to the recent $40 million version of thernOdyssey on NBC. Would the production reveal Homer, orrnwould the Hollywoodification of his poem so distort the plotrnthat we would be spending the remainder of our careers disabusingrnstudents...

Parietals Then and Nowrnby Herb LondonrnAs a Columbia University undergraduate in 1956,1 residedrnin Hartley Hall, a stately building on the Morningsiderncampus. During my orientation week I was introduced to myrnfloor counselor who said in an unambiguous way that hijinksrnwould not be permitted on his watch. He highlighted one rulernwhich could never be disobeyed: women were...

Good Manners, Good Literaturernby Richard WilburrnFor this very welcome and unexpected award, I thank ThernIngersoll Foundation and all concerned. When I was inrnhigh school, there were certain books that I carried around inrnorder to impress people with my literariness. One was the CollectedrnPoems oi Hart Crane, whom I didn’t altogether understand,rnbut whose words made me...

VIEWSrnDon’t Feed the War Machinernby Bill Kauffmanrn^ *” T T is sympathies were for race—too lofty to descend tornX J.persons,” a wit once said of the aboHtionist SenatorrnSumner. For how else could a man countenance the slaughterrnof his countrymen, not only rebel Southerners but noblernRobert Gould Shaw and Berkshires boys, too?rnThe most dangerous people—the ones...

Honor, Violence, and Civilizationrnby Michael HillrnFor evidence that academics miss the obvious, look no furtherrnthan the 1996 study by two Midwestern psychologistsrnon the proclivity of white Southern males to resort to violencernwhen their honor is challenged. What a surprise!rnPsychologists Richard Nisbett (University of Michigan) andrnDov Cohen (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) conductedrna series of what...

Euthanasia for Excellencernby Allan CarlsonrnOn April 10 of last year, the European Patent Office quietlyrnawarded a patent to Michigan State University (MSU)rnfor “euthanasia solutions which use the anesthetic gammahydroxy-rnbutramide (embutramide) as a basis for formulatingrnthe composition.” On the surface, the event was not out of thernordinary. In the abstract of the public document, the newrncompound...

Crime, Punishment, and Civilityrnby Barry BaldwinrnDOIV’TrnPISTUBBrn^ • • ^ • • ^ • ^ ” • • • ^ • • • ^ • ^ ^ M BrnIn 1777, upon the execution of the preacher Dr. WiUiamrnDodd, Samuel Johnson produced one of his most memorablernaphorisms: “Depend upon it. Sir, when a man knows he isrnto...

VIEWSrnThe Revolt of the French MassesrnThe Smoldering Fires of Immigrationrnby Curtis Gaternmmrn^^H| s?!^P^rnImirn• Wr^rni * ” ^ ^ ‘ ^rn•siiijsiiL.rnE^^sf^LsHL > ^ jJPrnaS^^-^ir?Hii^HiiiBiL«rna ^^.^ff^^ffiHrnKi*’*- sB^IHrnjjbfz ^ .Ufl^^^^Srn•^u*” j^ ntfC^vR^Hlrn^SwV •’ ^ Add to Favorites

The Iron Lady Down Underrnby R.J. StovernShe is the most powerful, the most revered, and the most reviledrnwoman in Australia today. Before February 1996, almostrnno one even in her home state of Queensland had heardrnof her. Before September 1996, she was still largely unknownrnoutside the depressing tribe of psephologists. Now she sendsrnIndonesian and Thai bigwigs,...

The (New) Ugly Americanrnby Joseph SobranrnThe regime we live under—the regime of the United StatesrnConstitution—began with a set of clear understandings.rnOne was that the federal government was to be the servant ofrnthe people. It was to be confined to the specific powers thernpeople “delegated” to it, pursuant to the general welfare andrncommon defense of the...

Slobodan Milosevic, Our S.O.B.rnby Srdja TrifkovicrnOur government is capable of swift and efficient actionrnwfien it decides that the regime in a foreign country hasrnoutlived its usefulness, or has become a “threat” to what passesrnfor national security inside the Beltway. Grenada, Panama, andrnHaiti all come to mind, but the methods deployed in this geographicrnarea tend to...

Benevolent Global Hegemonyrnby James George JatrasrnEvery once in a great while, an article appears in a mainstreamrnpublication that lets the eat out of the bag, byrnspelling out ideas that have long been dominant in public lifernbut are usually seen only in vague or implicit form. One suchrnappeared in the July/August 1996 edition of Foreign Affairs.rnEntitled...

VIEWSrnScience Fiction, R.I.P.rnby Thomas F. BertonneaurnTo register the obituary long after the fact: science fictionrnis dead. Aficionados of the genre who acquired their tasternfor it in the 1950’s and 60’s probably already know this. Whatrnthey might not know is that the death of science fiction has significancernfor the state of American culture in 1997.rnWith the...

Us vs. Themrnby Scott P. RichertrnThey live in the town, but they have no control over it. Forrnthree years, their lives have been at the mercy of shadowyrnaliens who have slowly destroyed the community, forcing its citizensrnto work for their enrichment. Parents fear that their childrenrnwill be taken from them. Some wish to resist, but...

VIEWSrnThe GOP FloprnWhy Dole and Kemp Lostrnby Samuel FrancisrnAs the Republican primaries drew to a finish last spring, thernseveral pundits whom the Grand Old Partv earries in itsrnpockets began to sing the praises of the man who was emergingrnas the winner. Partisans of his rivals—Ste’e Forbes, LamarrnAlexander, Phil Gramm, and others—started lining up to kissrnhands...

The Paleoconservative Imaginationrnby Mark Royden WinchellrnIn January 1996, Norman Podhoretz delivered a self-congratulatoryrneulogy for neoconservatism in a lecture before thernAmerican Enterprise Institute. In addition to giving himselfrnand his cohorts credit for the recent successes of the Americanrnright, Podhoretz boasted that “thanks to the influence of neoconservatismrnon the conservative movement in general, thernphilistine indifference to culture...

Conservatives and the Free Marketrnby George WatsonrnWhen everyone “hastens through by-paths to privaternprofit,” Samuel Johnson remarked confidently in 1756,rn”no great change can suddenly be made.” So the market can bernconservative in its effects. The notion is startling, especiallyrnfrom the pen of an 18th-century Tory, and it hardly matters forrnthe moment whether the market Johnson had...

The Future of the Christian Rightrnby Martin MawyerrnLike a cold front, you could feci the defeat coming; and yourndid not need Dan Rather or George Gallup to prepare you.rn^bu kwQw it in vour bones as you listened to the sound bites onrnthe exening news: Clinton saying nothing and saying it well;rnDole sa ing nothing and...

Martin Luther King, Jr.,rnas Conservative Herornby Paul GottfriedrnIn Campus, a ncwslLlU-i ‘A ihe conservative IntercollegiaternStudies Institute, a letter last spring from a student subscriberrncjucstioned comments about Martin Luther King foundrnin the preceding issue’s feature essay, “A Rage for Merit.” Thisrnarticle portrayed King as a passionate critic of affirmative action,rnand this, according to the student, does...

VIEWSrnWorld Citizens on Main Streetrnby Bill Kauffmanrn^*’ I t’s a small, small world,” or so chirp the marionettes ofrnX Michael Eisner’s Disney, the outfit that brought vournNHL hockey in Orange County and a free Pocahontas glassrnwith the purchase of a Happy Meal at the McDonald’s in Ouagadougou,rnBurkina Faso.rnIn fact it is not a small world,...

Telling Stories in the New Agernby David Hackett FischerrnThank you for this honor, and for this very handsome prize.rnIt means all the more because I am privileged to share itrnwith Richard Wilbur. [Editor’s note: Richard Wilbur was thern1996 recipient of The Ingersoll Foundation’s T.S. Eliot Awardrnfor Creative Writing.] I have long admired the art and...

The Muswell Hillbillyrnby Jesse Walkerrn”There was a time when it was hip to write about Route 66; I was writingrnabout a suburban street in London. I didn ‘t envisage my music ever beingrnheard anywhere else.”rn—Ray DaviesrnIt begins, as most rock songs do, with a riff. There is an organrnin the background, and a rapidly strumming...

The South and the New Reconstructionrnby Michael HillrnAtlanta, the self-styled “capital of the New South” and thernhost of the annual debauchery known as “Freaknik,” was arnnatural to host the 1996 Olympics. The quadrennial event hasrnbecome a giant block party to celebrate the smiley-face aspectsrnof the New World Order: universal brotherhood, multiculturalism,rndiversity, and tolerance. But amidst...

VIEWSrnSomething Like WacornThe New Federal Police Staternby Samuel Francisrni^^m&^s^Mg^’ssmm^mmm’ssi^fsTmi&^^simmim^mi^s^’mmMrnAbout a year after the raid on the Branch Davidian compoundrnin Waco, Texas, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,rnand Firearms, I was invited to take part in a discussion of thernWaco incident on a program on the National Educational Televisionrnnetwork. The program was a call-in show, and...

Black Helicopters and the Morning Militiarnby Sarah J. McCarthyrnPeople in other cities, said an Army spokesman, don’t getrntheir feathers ruffled during midnight helicopter invasions.rnWhat is it about Pittsburghers that caused them to pour intornthe streets in their underwear during recent treetop antiterroristrnmaneuvers? Nine Army helicopters swooped into Pittsburghrnone midnight in June, complete with the sounds...

The Most Dangerous Man in the Mid-Southrnby Franklin SandersrnThis is the first of a series of first-person reports from Americanrncitizens who have run afoul of the bureaucracy. While we havernmade reasonable efforts to verify the accounts, the stories arernpersonal statements of the authors.rnAlmost 30 years ago, just a few weeks before I got married, Irnfound...

VIEWSrnPolonophobiarnby Paul GottfriedrnSince the fall of the Soviet Empire, no former Soviet captivernnation has fared as badly as Poland in the American press.rnIn the last year alone, unqualified denunciations of alleged Polishrnatrocities against Jews, most open to question, have beenrnput into the New York Times, Washington Post, InternationalrnHerald Tribune, Toronto Star, Toronto Globe and Mail,...

Nazifying the Germansrnby Ralph RaicornNot long ago a German friend remarked to me, jokingly,rnthat he imagined the only things American college studentsrnwere apt to associate with Germany nowadays were beer,rnLederhosen, and the Nazis. I replied that, basically, there wasrnonly one thing that Americans, whether college students or not,rnassociated with Germany. Whenever Germans are mentioned,rnit is...