"Black Demographics" Karl Zinsmeister, in
Even Divided Public Ooiniott (Jan.-Feb. 1988), American En-
terprise Institute, 1150 17th St. N.W., Washmg-
ton, D.C. 20036.
Twenty years ago, a presidential commission chaired by Illinois governor Otto Kerner warned that, among other things, the U.S. black population was dividing into a "small but steadily increasing Negro middle class" and a larger number of riot-prone "have-nots" who were "stagnating econorni-...
Allan M. Brandt, in Science (Jan. 22, 1988), 1333 H St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which has so far afflicted about one in 4,200 Americans, is not the first sexually transmitted disease to become a major national worry. During the late 1800s, about one in 10 citizens had syphilis. Its story, says Brandt, associate professor of social medicine at Harvard, offers an "important analog" to the AIDS drama.
Syphilis was feared both as a disease (often...
300 A.D. the camel caravan's superi- ority in long-haul work was established. A new "north Arabian saddle" raised the camel's peak load to 500 Ibs., making the typical string of 12 animals, tended one or two men, more efficient than any wagon. Fig- ures in the Emperor Diocletian's Edict on Prices (301 A.D.) suggest that camels cost 20 percent less to maintain than horse- or donkey-drawn carts.
Whatever the terrain, the long-limbed animals could move 20 miles in a six-hour traveling day...
others was considered theft, it was made an act of religious merit for people to subsidize "caravanserais" where camel drivers could tarry up to three days and get free shelter, food, and fodder. Asia Minor alone had 1,100 such "truck stops." One merchant's notes for a 79-day trip in 1581-82 showed his transport costs to be no more than three percent of the sale price of his goods; his ex- penses for customs and "protection" were higher.
Still vital even after 1300,...
their students' "miraculous" ability to listen-and to learn.
PRESS & TELEVISION
"Securing the Middle Ground: Reporter Formu-
las in 60 Minutes1' Richard Campbell, in
Critical Studies in Mass Communication
(Dec. 1987), Speech Communication Associa- tion, 5105 Backlick Rd., handale, Va. 22003.
Now 20 years old, 60 Minutes is the longest-running and most popular prime-time news program in U.S. television history. Why? Creator Don Hewitt's prophecy that a documentary series tha...
Betty Houchin Winfield, in Journalism Quarterly (Winter 1987), School of Journalism, Univ. of S.C., 1621 College St., Columbia, S.C. 29208.
Sixty years ago, most U.S. journalists preferred to report the "facts" with- out explanation. They focused on what, where, and when.
But that changed during the 1930s. Those years of swift change, pro- pelled the Depression and the New Deal, brought "interpretative" jour- nalism-dealing with why and how-into fashion. Time (est. 1923) and...
Ferry Boat Over The Broad Waters Of San Francisco Bay." After Dewey lost, a reader asked
Life '5 editor, "How does it feel out on that limb?" The reply: "Crowded."
WQ SPRING 1988
48
Chartered jetliners, 30-second TV "spots," exit polls, and image con- sultants-all these characterize the contemporary U.S. presidential election campaign. America has come a long way since the last "old- style" contest four decades ago. The year 1948 saw Harry Truman's sur...
"He looked to me like a very little man as he sat. . . in the huge leather chair." Thus, Jonathan Daniels remembered Harry S. Truman waiting to be sworn in as the 33rd president of the United States on the evening of April 12, 1945. Daniels' general impression was shared by other Americans then and long afterward.
Hairy Truman was not, in fact, an unusually small man. When he took the oath of office, he stood about 5' 9" and weighed 170 pounds. Yet, somehow, to contemporary critics,...
Gloom hwg like a great invisible fog over the Democratic delegates who gathered in Philadelphia during the dog days of July for the party's 1948 national convention. They saw nothing ahead but certain defeat in November. They behaved, reported the Associated Press, "as though they [had] accepted an invitation to a funeral."
Three weeks earlier, during an exuberant session in the same city, the Republicans had triumphantly nominated "the next president of the United States,"...
his victory, the au-thors said, Truman had broken through his "outer shell of submissiveness and ti- midity." Yet, they insisted, the "new" Truman was still a mediocrity-an inept politician and an uninspiring leader.
As surprising as it may seem to Arner- icans who now remember Truman as the jaunty, straight-talking man from Mis- souri, this harsh post-1948 assessment was widely shared at the time. Truman's "approval" rating in the polls never ex- ceeded 32 percent...