Pundits bemoan the decline of loyalty in America, but the real problem is that Americans feel the tug of too many loyalties. That excess of allegiances makes it harder to forge a unum out of the nation's often bewildering pluribus.
When he journeyed to the northernmost permanent settlement in North America, the last thing our author expected was a mystical experience.
In that eternal city of the imagination, novelist R. K. Narayan’s Malgudi, things began to happen after August 15, 1947:
Would Abe Lincoln have raised an eyebrow over Bill Clinton's guest list for the Lincoln bedroom? Probably not. Long ago, "Honest Abe" had his men generously sprinkle "material aid" among voters in New York.
Politics and daily life in Romania since 1989 have been as strange, andat times as sinister, as they were during the 24-year rule of Nicolae Ceausescu. Three recent events—two weddings and a funeral—drew the author into the absurdist drama of postcommunist Romania.
Art history may be mired in theoretical trendiness or academic stodginess, but Leo Steinberg's fiercely original readings of past and present works restore life to the meaning of tradition.
Before his death last year, J. B. Jackson stood virtually unchallenged as the pre-eminent scholar of the American landscape. Here, in one of his final essays, Jackson turned his thoughts to leisure, and found that where we play our games often says as much about us as what we choose to play.
"Revolutionary Men of Letters and the Pursuit of Radical Change: The Views of Burke, Tocqueville, Adams, Madison, and Jefferson" by Susan Dunn, in The William and Mary Quarterly (Oct. 1996), Box 8781, Williamsburg, Va. 23187–8781.