comparison. Paintings Jan Verrneer (1632-1675) "virtually disappeared from sight for several centuries" be- fore they were resurrected; today they are considered priceless. El Greco (1541-1614) was another modem rediscovery. Works by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), the great Romantic painter, became "an embarrassment to [London's] Tate gallery" earlier this century. Yet today Turner's paintings are "among the most valued items in the museum's collection."
Not that Baumol...
. "Is Welfare Really the Problem?'David T. Ellwood and Lawrence H. Summers, in The Public Interest (Spring 1986), 10 East 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
Of late, Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty has become a target for conser- vative reformers. The notion that federal efforts to help the poor have undermined their desire to earn a living rapidly gained currency in Wash-ington through Charles Murray's widely quoted Losing Ground (1984) [see WQ, Autumn ,841.
Ellwood and Summers, who teach...
Neil Spitzer, in The Atlantic (June 1986), 8 Arlington St., Bos-ton, Mass. 02116.
In October 1981, Senator Paula Hawkins (R.-Fla.) convened the first con- gressional hearing on missing children. "We simply do not know how many children disappear from their families each year," she said. "The estimates are as high as 1.8 million children per year."
Then the media blitz began: made-for-TV movies, fingerprinting carn- paigns, posters. Staring out from grocery bags and milk cartons,...
a parent (usually in a postdivorce quarrel over custody) account for 626,000 abductions-each year.
Only a small number of children are kidnapped each year strangers. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) annually investigates fewer than 100 such cases. Although some specialists believe the FBI figure is too low, the discrepancy of tens of thousands between the FBI estimate and popular "guesstimates," says Spitzer, deserves more scrutiny.
Spitzer lauds such organizations as the...
two decades a concerted effort to grapple with the problem which Moymhan identified in 1965," Loury concludes. "Surely the nation as a whole will suffer grievously if we refrain from any effort to shape our citizens' values on these matters today."
'Luce, Life, and 'The American Way'" Allan
C. Carlson, in This World (Winter 1986), 1112 16th St. N.W., Ste. 1500, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Most Americans today remember the weekly Life magazine (1936-72) as the 20th century's great...
Time before it went to press.
CBS (Jan. 23, 1982) broadcast a 90-minute Vietnam documentary, widely hailed the U.S. press. CBS purported to reveal a 1967 Saigon "conspiracy," ordered by Westmoreland, to "suppress" intelligence data on enemy manpower, thereby deceiving President Lyndon B. Johnson and easing the way for the Communists' surprise 1968 Tet offensive.
In reality, Adler notes, CBSs conspiracy story was totally wrong, as former LBJ aides told CBS before and after the...
PERIODICALS
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
thought, Louis Bourguet (1678-1742), a geologist, classified fossils and crystals along a "scale," starting the Great Chain of Being in the "mineral kingdom." The biologist Charles Bonnet (1720-1793) sought to rank members of the animal kingdom in terms of their deviation from "perfec- tion." Bonnet's universe, Rigotti notes, is "systematic: everything con- tained in it is arranged, related, linked, chained together." G...
Christo-oher Faille. in This World (Smine 1986). 1112 16th St. N.w., Ste. 1500; Washington; D.C. 20036.
In his time, France's Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a phenomenon: a mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and humble recluse who worked through the church to help the poor.
As a scientist, Pascal was responsible for first postulating the existence of vacuums in nature, developing theories of probability, and formulating the physical laws governing pressure.
Yet Faille, an intellectual historian,...
Stephen J.
..
Cheetahs O'Brien. David E. Wildt. and Mitchell Bush. in
scientific American (M& 1986), 415 adi is on
Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.
The fastest animal on earth, the cheetah, is now in a race against extinc- tion. Centuries ago, the feline predator-light, long-limbed, and able to overtake fleeing prey at 70 miles per hour-roamed Africa, the Middle East, and India in great numbers. Today, barely 20,000 remain, scattered among a few remote regions of Africa.
In 1981, O'Brien, Wildt,...
Janet Raloff, in Sci-Saving Teeth ence News (Apr. 19, 1986), 1719 N St. N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 10036.
Long known for their readiness to use the drill, dentists have discovered a less painful way to fight tooth decay and strengthen weak teeth: mouth- washes that "remineralize" decayed tooth enamel.
Normally, mineral-rich saliva from glands in the mouth protects teeth from acids secreted plaque-forming bacteria. But when the bacteria's acids dissolve tooth minerals faster than the body...