As always when a new administration settles in, there is specula- tion in Washington over the Supreme Court-its future direction, possible vacancies, presidential appointees. The nine Justices often surprise Presidents. As the makeup and outlook of the Court change, the Justices do not always decide constitutional cases along predictable ideological lines. The Court's decisions have shaped America's history; in no other nation is the highest court so powerful. Here, political scientist Alpheus...
By the late 1960s, many educated Americans (novelist Updike has observed) had come to focus not on books but on "the art mu-seum, the symphony orchestra, the cinema, the educational TV band, the charming conversation-these were where the essences of culture condensed and could be supped." Today, to an extent not possible before World War 11, "a person who takes pride in being civilized may feel, at heart, that the written word, in its less casual forms, has nothing crucial to offer." M...
the rioting black youths of Soweto outside Johannesburg. The Re- public's future as a locus of Western investment, a friendly mili- tary power, and prosperous citadel of white supremacy is again a matter of scholarly speculation and much debate. Our Back- ground Books cover the entire area of Southern Africa. Our essayists focus on South Africa. Historian Lewis H. Gann ex-amines the peculiar white experience which has so strongly shaped Pretoria's politics. Political scientist Gwendolen Carter reviews...