Robert Nisbet, in Chronicles (June 1988), Rockford Institute, 934 North Main St., Rock-ford, Dl. 61103.
When did the federal government begin to be the center of American life? The answer, says Nisbet, an emeritus professor at Columbia University: World War I. While the economic effects of the war were small in the United States, the resulting intellectual changes were vast.
Before 1917, the United States had the "most decentralized" govem-
ment in the West. But upon America's entry...