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The origins of the first Russian state remain a mystery. Scholars differ over whether the early Rus' people were descended from Nordic in- vaders or tribal Slavs from southern Russia, as Nicholas Riasanovsky notes in A History of Russia (Oxford, 1984). What is clear is that the Rus' were first united by the warrior-princes of Kiev during the ninth century. One of these princes, Vladimir (980- 101 5), converted the Kievan Rus' to Orthodox Christianity in 988, "thus opening the gates for...
Jean-Paul Sartre was a professional phi- losopher who also sought to preach to a mass audience. For a time at least it looked as though he had succeeded. Certainly no philosopher this century has had so direct an impact on the minds and attitudes of so many human beings, especially young peo- ple, all over the world. Existentialism was the popular philosophy of the late 1940s and 1950s. His plays were hits. His books sold in enormous quantities, some of them over two million copies in France alone....
Carolyn Webber
The art of taxation, wrote Jean-warfare and standing armies-far the Baptiste Colbert, an adviser to greatest expense of government until re-France's Louis XIV, "consists in so cent times. During this century, especially plucking the goose as to obtain the largest since World War 11, tax burdens have possible amount of feathers with the small- grown dramatically, and taxation has ac-est possible amount of hissing." quired two new uses: "stabilizing" domes-
Over...
The art of taxation, wrote Jean-warfare and standing armies-by far the Baptiste Colbert, an adviser to greatest expense of government until re-France's Louis XIV, "consists in so cent times. During this century, especially plucking the goose as to obtain the largest since World War 11, tax burdens have possible amount of feathers with the small- grown dramatically, and taxation has ac-est possible amount of hissing." quired two new uses: "stabilizing" domes-
Over the centuries,...
? We were the gen-
taking, which turned out to be a bad eration of hope; the generation that was
idea. Maybe drugs make you a better going to change the world; the biggest,
person, but only if you believe in heaven richest, best-educated generation in the
and think John Belushi could get past the history of America-the biggest, rich-
WQ AUTUMN 1988
162
FROM THE '60s TO THE '80s
It seems like only yesterday
est, best-educated spot in this or any other galaxy. Nothing was too good for us....
; he focuses on the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and its Sparrows Point plant, near Baltimore, which was, for a time, the largest steel mill in the world.
L MISTER SCHWAB
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am here for a very brief and simple duty, a very delightful duty, that of welcoming Mr. Schwab to Baltimore."
In the audience before James H. Preston, mayor of Baltimore, were scores of politicians, businessmen, and other notables who had gathered at the Belvedere Hotel for a "Dinner of...
During the summer of 1870, two young British barrister-intellectuals, James Bryce and Albert V. Dicey, embarked on a voyage of discovery to the United States. Out of this trip (and two later visits) came one of the most widely read books ever written about America, Bryce's The American Commonwealth.
Bryce and Dicey were following in famous footsteps. Forty years earlier, another pair of young lawyers, Alexis de Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont, also undertook a journey to America....
an engaging sight: a troupe of dancers displaying pictures of the guests and their hosts on their dresses. These women bear likenesses of Senegal's Leopold Sedar Senghor (wearing glasses), Ivorian president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, and their wives.
Of all of Black Africa's 40-odd nations, none is more out of step than the Ivory Coast. All five of its West African neighbors, for example, are poor, and four are military-ruled; the Ivorians can claim post- colonial Africa's chief economic "miracle"...
eign leaders who visit the Ivory Coast may be greeted in Abidjan by an engaging sight: a troupe of dancers displaying pictures of the guests and their hosts on their dresses. These women bear likenesses of Senegal's Leopold Sedar Senghor (wearing glasses), Ivorian president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, and their wives.
Of all of Black Africa's 40-odd nations, none is more out of step than the Ivory Coast. All five of its West African neighbors, for example, are poor, and four are military-ruled; the...
IFFERENT PATH
The Ivory Coast and its neighbor, Guinea, share many things, among them a common border, a tropical climate, and a colonial history that left a French veneer over an African peasant culture. The two nations won independence, without bloodshed, at roughly the me time: Guinea in 1958, the Ivory Coast two years later. Each was then run by a one-man, one-party regime. Each sought economic growth, mode&- tion, and self-esteem.
Yet Guinea failed. The Ivory Coast was the "African...