been forgotten.” If that is so—iind I don’trndoubt that it is —then Hfe is too short notrnonly for viewing that movie, but also forrnreading about it.rnNevertheless, Death on the Cheap isrngood to have for its exposition regardingrnB movies and the eitations of some goodrnnoirs that man people toda are inrnsearch of. Lyons has succeeded in hisrnway, but the perplexities of (lofr theorvrnand the questions he raises about thernquality of the films are hardly resolved.rn/.O. Tate is a professor of Enghsh atrnDoM’7ing College on l/jug Island.rnThe Janus Facesrnof Warrnby Paul GottfriedrnA Muse of Fire:rnLiterature, Art, and Warrnby A.D. HarveyrniMudon: The Hamhledon Press;rn326 pp., $45.00rnCaptivity, Flight, and Survival inrnWorld War IIrnby Alan /. LevinernWestport, CT; Praeger Press;rn2SH pp., $67.50rnA D. Harvey’s stud- of art and war,rn.while noHng the suffering caused b’rnthe European wars of the 19th and 20thrneenhiries, highlights the artistic and spiritualrncreativit} released b- these struggles.rnHe regards the Great War, rmlike WorldrnWar II (which produced for the most partrn”tired accents”), as an exhilarating contest,rnwhich poets and artists ran to join.rnHarvey piles up tiie names and literaryrnworks associated with that war and showsrndiat it spurred not onl’ wartime creati’ih’rnbut a postwar culture shaped bv militarrnparticipation. The memorable literaturernthat distilled the wartime experience didrnnot simply rehash the propaganda of thernbelligerents; instead, it treated the strugglernas a purifving or enirobling eentrnwithout demonizing the enem-. Hareyrnmakes his point bv adducing the workrnof, among manv others, Ernst Jinigcr,rnSiegfried Sassoon, and Wilfrid Owen, allrnof whom experienced the agony ofrntrench warfare on the Western front.rnWhat Harvey, who had family on bothrnsides of World War I, does not fulK- recognizernis that some writers had understoodrnwhat might happen in 1914 andrnhad desperatelv argued against the Europeanrncollision. Among the Cassandras ofrnthe time were the Habsburg loyalist andrndramatist Hugo on Hoffmansthal andrnItalian novelist and pla}vright LuigirnPirandello. Both admired the pre-1914rnEuropean civilization, had social andrncultural affinities with the Latin andrnGermanic worlds, and perceived WorldrnWar I as an internal European strugglernthat had to be avoided at all costs. Pirandello’srnnovelette, Berecche e la Guerra,rnthough published in 1934, describes hisrnhorrified reactions to World War I. As anrnItalian educated in Germany with famih’rnmembers drafted into (and dying in) bothrnthe Italian and Austrian armies, Pirandellornne’er recovered from what he saw asrn”/’/ salto nella caliguie della preistorica”—rnl^’.urope’s leap backward into the darknessrnof prehistoric times.rnys the newh’ appointed editor of thernSalisbury Review, Harvey may now be arncertified right-winger. Alan ). Leine remainsrna self-described FDR and TrumanrnDemocrat, albeit one whose lovaltiesrnshifted to the Eisenhower-Dulles administrationrnafter 1952. Although Le’inernwrites niostK’ militan-diplomatic and militan-rntechnological histories, his predilectionsrnand dislikes do come through.rnAcheson, Trmnan, Churchill, FDR,rnEisenhower, and MacArthur fare well inrnhis work, while the America Firsters arerntreated as insular and sillv, though notrnmalevolent. I might describe Levine as arnconventional Cold War liberal, exceptrnfor two distinguishing marks: First, he expressesrnno strong dislike for World War IIrnisolationists, though he thinks the’ werernVNTong in their assessment of the Nazirndanger. (Levine wrote a scathing reviewrnin ‘Phe World and I of Pat Buchanan’srncommentarv on American interventionismrnduring World War Two, vet his remarksrndo not suggest any scorn for the author.rnRather, he has expressed regret tornme drat an honorable public figure, whornspeaks courageouslv about immigration,rnvould venture into scholark nratters exceedingrnhis competence.) Howeer, herndespises those who were soft on the Soviets.rnAs Levine points out, pro-Soietrn”appcasers” were not simpK’ misgiidedrnpatriots who, like Charles Lindbergh, ralliedrnto their countr’ once it was at war.rnWestern apologists for the Soviets, as portrarned by Levine, were predominanth’rns)nipatheHc to a genoeidal, totalitarianrnenemv. While he has nothing but eondescendingrncontempt for Joe McCartln,rnLevine treats some anti-anti-MeCarth-rnites, particrdarlv James Burnham, withrnenormous respect.rnSecond, while Levine approves ofrnsome New Deal innovations, he cannotrnfind much good to say about the subsequentrnchanges in American polities andrnculture. Never in the narrative doesrnLevine show die slightest deference tornthe Zeitgeist. He frequently identifiesrnconcentration-camp commandants andrntorturers as homosexuals and lesbians,rnand praises non-leftist Christians whornhelped persecuted Jews. His characterizations,rnbased on the testimony of concentration-rncamp inmates, are correct.rnBut they do offend against the prevailingrnestablishment ideolog^•, together with itsrnpeculiar form of holocaust revisionism.rnLevine examines the escapes from inhumanrnwartime prisons in Europe andrnAsia; he stresses the difficidtv of thesernfeats for those who carried them out. Inrndoing so, he avoids two equallv erroneousrnmisrepresentations that have been fashionablernat different times: that camp inmatesrnwere totally passive in the face ofrntheir destro’ers; and drat they repeatedhengagedrnin dramatic and heroic revolts.rnAlthough Levine shows that breakoutsrnfrom Ireblinka and Sobibor did occurrnlate in 1943, and occasional escapesrnwere made from Auschwitz and Theresianstadt,rnhe emphasizes that these werernexceptional occurrences involving, atrnmost, a few hundred inmates, the majorih’rnof whom subsequently perished. ForrnLevine, wars are alvays grim. The virtuesrnhe associates with war are persistence inrnpursuing a reasonable strategy and thernsteadv management of fortune; his warriorrnheroes — Eisenhower, Nimitz, andrnRommel—were careful planners who alwarns provided for contingencies.rnThough some of the differences betweenrnHarvey’s celebration of martialrnirtue and Levine’s restrained admirationrnof efficienev ma’ lie in the periods thenrselves,rnothers might reflect the differencernbetween a rooted conservative’s love ofrncountrv and the rootlessnes of a NewrnDeal liberal.rnPaul Gottfried is a professor of humanitiesrnat Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvaniarnand the author, most recently,rnof ARcr Liberalism: Ma.ss f^emocracyrnin the Managerial State (Princeton).rn30/CHRONICLESrnrnrn