Just when we were convinced that Newsweek, like its counterpart Time, is an essentially superficial magazine for hurried people who want information without having to think, the mail brought the Fall/Winter 1991 Columbus Special Issue. Produced in collaboration with the “Seeds of . . . . Continue Reading »
The Urban Underclassedited by christopher jencks and paul e. petersonbrookings institution publications, 490 pages, $34.95 Inner-City Poverty in the United Statesedited by lawrence e. lynn, jr. and michael h. mcgearynational academy press, 280 pages, $29.95 The presence of entrenched poverty and . . . . Continue Reading »
The First Universal Nation: Leading Indicators and Ideas About the Surge of America in the 1990sBy Ben J. WattenbergThe Free Press, 418 pages, $22.95 Ben Wattenberg is America’s most prominent optimist. He is notoriously reassuring about the condition of what has in his mind become “the first . . . . Continue Reading »
As every schoolchild knows, Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, discovered America in 1492. Or perhaps it would be better to say that every schoolchild used to think these were the facts about the European arrival in these lands. For several years now, a chorus of voices (growing larger and . . . . Continue Reading »
Why Catholics Can’t Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste by thomas day crossroad, 177 pages, $19.95 In a moment of exasperation, the novelist Flannery O'Connor wrote to a friend that the motto of the Catholic Church could be: We Guarantee to Corrupt Nothing But Your . . . . Continue Reading »
Encyclopedia of the American Leftedited by mary jo buhle, paul buhle, and dan georgakasgarland, 928 pages, $95Out of all the tragedies and horrors of Communist rule in the last seventy years there emerges a blessing: the fact that Marxists and socialists were actually able to put their ideas into . . . . Continue Reading »
In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Alice has been having quite a run through the Garden of Live Flowers. “I declare it’s marked out just like a large chessboard!” she says. “There ought to be some men moving about somewhere—and so there are!” Alice gets excited by all . . . . Continue Reading »
As a geographer, I learned years ago that my fellow countrymen are not only uninformed about the location of places and things; they are uninterested and, indeed, resentful when someone suggests that it might be helpful for them to know where in the world they are. It took last year’s budget . . . . Continue Reading »
The issue of a constitutional amendment to prohibit desecration of the American flag is currently on political hold, but it remains potentially very much alive. We need, therefore, to continue to think about it, even to think about it in ways we might not have considered before. It would be useful . . . . Continue Reading »
Americans: The View From Abroadby james c. simmonscrown, 239 pages, $19.95 A zealous convert once decided to grade his own spiritual progress and under “humility” wrote: “97 percent.” The moral of the story is that, on matters of religion, you don’t grade yourself; others must do it for . . . . Continue Reading »
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