States. Any presidential candidate ignoresnthem to his political peril.n—by Steven W. Mosher, director ofnthe Asian Studies Center at thenClaremont Institute in Montclair andnauthor of Broken Earth: The RuralnChinese and Journey to thenForbidden China.nJames Bmnham, R.I.P. He was ancontroversialist. As a literary critic henargued with T.S. Eliot, and as a Trotskyistnhe quarreled with Trotsky himself.nAlmost alone among the ex-nCommunists, he made the fullnjourney to a conservative world view,nand before his death he returned to thenCatholic faith.nHe wrote many books, some ofnwhich will not be soon forgotten: Congressnand the American Tradition, ThenSuicide of the West, and The ManagerialnRevolution. This last, written justnafter his defection from Communism,nremains the most powerful theoreticalnanalysis of the coups d’etat that overtooknthe governments of Germany,nItaly, Russia, and the United States.nModerate defenders of the welfare statenshudder — and rightly so — whennBurnham’s name is mentioned. Henknew a revolution when he saw onenand recognized the New Deal for whatnit was, the American version of nationalnsocialism.nIn his later years, as senior editor atnNational Review, Burnham becamenthe most trenchant of cold warriors.nFor him containment could never be ansolution. The free West had to commitnitself to driving the Soviet Union backnwithin its borders.nThere was no cant in him, and if henhad little patience for political philosophy,nit was because political theoriesnwere so often little better than slogansndesigned to cover the libido dominandi.nHe frankly called himself a Machiavellian,nand his name would be worthncommemorating if his only accomplishmentnhad been to introduce theninsights of Machiavelli, Pareto, andnMosca into contemporary political discourse.nBurnham has few followers today.nThe halfhearted anti-Communistsnwho twitter about democratic globalismnwould have affected him withnequal measures of disgust, amuse­nment, and despair. Of those who presumento follow his footsteps, SamuelnFrancis may be the only really faithfulndisciple, and Francis’ Power and Historynremains the best introduction tonBurnham’s thought.nI met James Burnham only once forna brief moment at the IngersoU Prizesnbanquet in 1983, when he was beingnhonored as the first recipient of thenRichard M. Weaver Award for ScholarlynLetters. The Eliot winner thatnyear was Jorge Borges. There they werenin an extravagant Chicago hotel,nstanding together, two grand old mennwith visions of the world so powerful,nso lucid, and so terrifying that few ofnus in this enfeebled age dare dart anglance at them. (TF)nVideo stores may be socialism’s mostnrecent victim. In a recent HeartlandnPerspective, William Irvine notes thatnpublic libraries are now taking a bitenout of the $3.4 billion video tapenrental business and cites the obviousnparallel of public and private libraries.nIn the last century, there was a host ofnprivate libraries offering a wide varietynof reading for relatively low fees.nWhile some specialty libraries did enduren(I have belonged to three simultaneously),nmost were driven out of businessnby the government libraries thatndepend on tax dollars. The results ofnsocialized reading are no better thannwe could have expected. Primarilynthey serve as powerful agents for thendegradation of reading tastes. Walkninto a local library some time, as Inhave done all over the country, andnattempt to check out some obscure factnin a standard reference book or to looknup a quotation from Polybius. Sorry,nno Cerman encyclopedias and nonGreek. You will find multiple copies ofnlast year’s best-sellers, teenage sexnThe 1988 Ethnic Cultures of America CalendarnDepicting how tlie 106 Ethnic Groups continue to celebratentheir “Ethnicity” in Today’s AmericanTlie Calendar Contains:n• Dates of Cultural Holidays of America’s Ethnic Groupsn• Dates of Religious Holidays of American Ethnic Groups (Christian, Buddhist, Judaism,nMuslim, Hindu)n• An Indexing explaining the meaning of the major ReUgious HoUdaysn• Pictures (each month) of how different Ethnic Groups continue to celebrate their culturen• Three color format in a 11″ x 14″ sizen• Special introductory information and Definitions of Ethnicityn• The regions of the world that sent specific Ethnic Groups to the U.S.A.n• The latest U.S. Census Figures for each Ethnic Group in the U.S.A.n• A population chart of where Today’s new Americans are coming fromn• A presentation of the “Common Culture” of AmericanOrder one or more for your classroom and/or library/home.nAlso an inexpensive teaching aid designed for the classroom.nOnly $8.95 plus postagenEthnic Cultures Calendar – CCnc/o Educational Extension Systems, P.O. Box 11048, Cleveland Park Station, Washington, D.C. 20008nn Please send (1) one calendar at $8.95 + Namen$2.00 postage ($10.95)nD For two or more calendars, please sendncalendars at $8.95 + $1.30 postage ea. ($10.25 ea.)nAddressnD Check or Purchase Order enclosednCitynn Charge my credit card D VISA D MasterCardnCard No. Exp. Date StatennnZipnOCTOBER 1987 I 7n