Louis S. Richman, in Fortune (June 6, 1988), Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York,
N.Y. 10020.
For most of the 20th century, asbestos was known as a "wonder fiber." It could insulate and fireproof buildings and ships' hulls at low cost. But then, during the early 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found asbestos to be carcinogenic.
Faced with some 90,000 lawsuits from workers exposed to the mate- rial, nearly a half-dozen asbestos manufacturers,...
leaving behind dangerous dust, make buildings less safe than they were before the "cleanup" began.
Richman believes that laws making building owners liable for "dubious health risks they had no part in creating" ensure one thing only: that the economic damage caused asbestos will vastly outweigh any health prob- lems it may cause.
ARTS & LETTERS
The of "'News, and New Things': Contemporaneity
and the Early English Novel" by J. Paul Hunter,
the in Critical Inq...
producing scores of journalistic pamphlets. Later writers, such as Sam- uel Richardson (1689-1761), presented their works of fiction, following the old pamphleteering tradition, as if they were "real." Thus Richardson's novel Pamela (1740) is presented as a collection of long-lost letters. Nov- elists also continued, in various ways, to practice journalism. Defoe and Henry Fielding (1707-1754) edited their own journals; Richardson headed the Stationers' Company, a London guild of newspaper,...
Wayne C. Booth, in Ethics (Jan. 1988), Univ. of Chicago Press, PO. Box 37005, Chicago, 111. 60637.
A popular notion among academics is that it is not possible to determine the true worth of anything. In literary criticism, this dogma leads to the contention that any statement-e.g., "Dickens and Dostoyevsky were great writersv'-is simply an expression of personal preference.
"Nowadays almost no one believes in the possibility of objective or
'correct' literary judgments," Oxford's...
Wayne C. Booth, in Ethics (Jan. 1988), Univ. of Chicago Press, PO. Box 37005, Chicago, 111. 60637.
A popular notion among academics is that it is not possible to determine the true worth of anything. In literary criticism, this dogma leads to the contention that any statement-e.g., "Dickens and Dostoyevsky were great writersv'-is simply an expression of personal preference.
"Nowadays almost no one believes in the possibility of objective or
'correct' literary judgments," Oxford's...
Peter
Stein, in Journal of Economic Growth (Vol. 2,
#4), 1615 H St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20062.
During the 1930s, Sweden's social democracy-offering a broad range of benefits financed the income of export-oriented rnanufacturers-be- came a model of the welfare state. But during the past 15 years, argues Stein, an economist at the Swedish Free Enterprise Foundation, the nation of eight million may have become a model for decline.
Sweden did not become industrialized until the 1870s. But the w...
Selig S. Hamson, in Foreign Affairs (Spring 1988),
Council on Foreign Relations, 58 East 68th St.,
New York, N.Y. 10021.
The death of Taiwan's President Chiang Ching-kuo last January at age 77 could mark a turning point for that prospering island.
Chiang's chosen successor, former vice president Lee Teng-hui, 64, a Cornell-trained economist, inherits a healthy regime from Chiang: An an-nual growth rate of 13 percent, foreign exchange reserve...
Martha Abele Maclver, in Political Studies (Sept. 19871, Butterworths, 80 Montvale Ave., Stoneham, Mass. 02180.
For two decades, Northern Ireland's Rev. Ian Paisley, renowned head of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), has led the Protestant foes of in- creased local political power for minority Catholics. Whence does Paisley derive his opinions? MacIver, a political scientist at Occidental College, argues that Paisley's fierce ideology has its roots in the 16th century.
Paisley identifies closely...
Wad Georgescu,in Eastern Eure pean Politicsand societies (Winter 1988),Univ. of Calif. Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, Calif. 94720.
Four years ago, Vice President George Bush praised Romania's President Nicolae Ceaugescu as one of Eastern Europe's "good communists" striving for independence in foreign policy and economic reform. Today most out- siders consider his regime a black comedy: Romania produces cars but limits driving, restricts television programming to two hours per day,...
Reviews of new research at public agencies and private institutions
"Perspectives on the Reagan Years."
Urban Institute Press, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706. 215 pp. $24.95.
Editor: John L. Palmer
What will be the lasting effects of the Rea-
gan administration's domestic initiatives?
The authors of this collection of essays cri-
tique the policies that have characterized
the "Reagan Revolution."
Few of the efforts Ronald Reagan has made to abolish or establish f...