Eastern Europe in 1990 is not to be confused with Africa in 1960. African decolonization was a relatively peaceful affair. It was sponsored and financed by the former colonial powers, and the new regimes, with one or two exceptions, accepted either some semblance of democracy or a benevolent . . . . Continue Reading »
Poor Time. Twenty-four years ago this month, the magazine brought us its Nietzschean fears with its famous red-on-black cover, “Is God Dead?” More recently, apparently, the agnostic editors of Time experienced a crisis of faith over the secular substitute for God, and thus presented the . . . . Continue Reading »
Twin Powers: Politics and the Sacred by thomas molnar eerdmans, 147 pages, $9.95 One of the most distinctive features of post-Enlightenment Western culture is its desacralization of the cosmos, the flip side of secularism. Not only has daily life been transformed by science—for example, we no . . . . Continue Reading »
In his famous Postscript to The Constitution of Liberty, Friedrich von Hayek identified Thomas Aquinas as “the first Whig,” and has several times since noted how important it is to distinguish the Whig tradition from that of many exponents of the classical liberal tradition. Among Hayek’s . . . . Continue Reading »
It is doubtful that there is any substantial American consensus on what the flag symbolizes, because it is becoming hard to specify in what sense this increasingly heterogeneous country is a “nation.” . . . . Continue Reading »
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s widely noticed essay in the New York Times Book Review last summer, “The Opening of the American Mind,” illustrates among other things the truth of the old adage, les extremes touchent. Schlesinger’s title, of course, announces a categorical rejection of the thesis . . . . Continue Reading »
Beginning with the Supreme Court’s Webster decision of last July, Americans were delighted, distressed, or simply puzzled to discover that abortion was back in the political arena. It had been abruptly “removed from politics” by the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, when it became a question . . . . Continue Reading »
Free Persons and the Common Goodby michael novakmadison books, 244 pages, $17.95 A number of commentators— among them David Hollenbach, John Langan, and myself—have argued that the American Catholic Bishops' pastoral letters, and even the Pope's recent encyclicals, represent in some . . . . Continue Reading »
Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Ageby modris ecksteinshoughton mifflin (a peter davison book), 396 pages, $24.95 Modris Eksteins’ disturbing and fascinating book ranges between the Sergei Diaghilev-managed opening night performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring . . . . Continue Reading »
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Governmentby charles murraysimon and schuster, 341 pages, $19.95 In January of 1964 President Lyndon Johnson's Council of Economic Advisers helped launch the War on Poverty by including in its annual report a chapter on “The Problem of Poverty in America.” . . . . Continue Reading »
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