Robin Winks
Most Canadian intellectuals profess to find their country's history as dull as dishwater. But, in fact, it is a very interesting history, and one of its most intriguing aspects is the obsessive search by Canadians, especially Canadian intellectuals, for a "national identity ."
Apparently, Canadians believe that all other nations have one and, hence, know exactly what they are all about. Canadians sense that they are somehow different. The editors of the Toronto-based news...
bands of outnumbered, outgunned, and outraged Canadian militiamen. ("Ah didn't know you Canadians had that much gumption, but ah sure know it now," a captured American general admits.) As U.S. armored columns race toward the Canadian border, the hotline rings in the Oval Office. Moscow vows nu- clear war if Canada is invaded.
In Richard Rohmer's Exxonera-tion (McClelland, 1974, cloth; Paper- jacks, 1977, paper), the United States loses not only its face but also one of its oil companies....
One of the curious things about creativity is how acciden- tally it can unfold and how its appearance can catch even the creator by surprise. In retrospect, it seems easy to match a per- son's talents to his accomplishments, but that is not always the way people living out their lives perceive it. Hence, the im- portance of a collection of letters. To read 60 years of a person's correspondence is to experience the twists and turns of his fate. Where Frederick Law Olmsted is concerned, we see how...
all odds can not know about the brain.
Richard M.Restak
To Aristotle, the brain was merely a cooling system for the blood as it left the heart. Assyrians favored the liver as the seat of the "soul." The Egyptians who embalmed the pharaohs carefully preserved most major organs in special jars-but not the brain, thinking it inconsequential.
Natural philosophers and physicians in ancient Greece eventually ascertained the true state of affairs-some centuries before the birth of Christ-but enlig...
To Aristotle, the brain was merely a cooling system for the blood as it left the heart. Assyrians favored the liver as the seat of the "soul." The Egyptians who embalmed the pharaohs carefully preserved most major organs in special jars-but not the brain, thinking it inconsequential.
Natural philosophers and physicians in ancient Greece eventually ascertained the true state of affairs-some centuries before the birth of Christ-but enlightenment gave rise to mysteries of a subtler sort....
STECIALTy, IN 1973
RESEARCHREPORTS
tional, write that Soviet education is far more heavily oriented toward sci- entific and technical training.
The Soviet emphasis on science education begins early. Biology in-struction commences in the fifth grade, physics in the sixth grade, and chemistry in the seventh. American students take up such courses later and for shorter periods of time-56 percent of all American students in grades nine through 12 took no science courses at all in 1973. Soviet science...
Last year, despite the new chill between the two superpowers, at least 350 American scholars and students traveled to the Soviet Union to pursue their researches. Their presence is no longer a novelty. But 16 years ago, when Sovietologist Sheila Fitzpatrick, then a graduate student, arrived in Moscow, visiting Western scholars were rare, and the Soviets were unaccustomed to deal- ing with such inquisitive foreigners. Her first sojourn in Moscow produced some enlightening, often comical moments.
Moscow...
Nearly a decade after Lyndon Johnson's death in 1973,the body of literature focusing on his political career and his tumultuous Presidency is surprisingly thin. Compared to work done on his predecessor, there is but a trickle on Johnson -nothing that would compare in influence, sales, or scope with books like Arthur Schlesinger's A Thousand Days or Theodore Sorenson's Kennedy. Many crucial LBJ archives (e.g., those covering delib- erations on Vietnam) have yet to be opened. But some new studies...
iews of articles from periodicals and specialized journals here and abroad
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