E. DigbyStatus and Baltzell and Howard G. Schneiderman, in Soci-the dency ety (Sept.-Oct. 1988), Rutgers Univ., New
Brunswick, N.J. 08903.
What makes a successful president? Historians have examined many presi- dential traits. "Great" presidents (as rated scholars) tend to be tall; Abraham Lincoln stood over 6' 4", and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were over 6' 2". But a chief executive's childhood, choice of college, political experience, and age at time of election...

Henry
Fairlie, in TheNew Republic (July 18-25,1988), 1220 19th St. N.K, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once described the April 19? 1775, Battle of Con- cord, the &st of the Revolutionary War, as "the shot heard round the world." But how did people abroad react to news of the Revolution? Fairlie? a New Republic contributing editor? reports that the Americans gave liberty-minded Europeans "a profound political philosophy" that im-mediately stirred controversy...

Elder Witt, in Governing State Courts (~ug. 1988), 1414 22nd st. N.w., Washington,
D.C. 20037.
In Detroit, Michigan, 400 acres are being cleared the city for a new Chrysler plant. In New Jersey, a new state income tax takes effect to help pay for local schools.
These steps, and others, were not simply initiated by elected officials. They resulted from state court actions. Witt, a Governing staff writer, notes that the supreme courts of the 50 states have moved beyond inter- preting the law and...

police in a manner that may violate a suspect's constitutional rights, contravening a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court decision that such evidence is admissible if acquired in "good faith."
The activism of state supreme courts, Witt predicts, will continue. "Issue issue," he observes, "state judges are proving to be willing partners in the ongoing experiment of government."
and the "Liberal Virtues, Constitutional Community" by Stephen Macedo, in The Review of Politics...

each generation. And in advancing his cause, a liberal should heed the advice of H. L. Mencken and assume that "his opponent is as decent a man as he is, and just as honest-and perhaps, after all, right."

FOREIGN POLICY & DEFENSE
erican Decline? "Understating U.S. Strength" Joseph S. Nye,
Jr., in Foreign Policy (Fall 1988), 11 Dupont
Circle N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
In recent years, many pundits and scholars, most notably Yale's Paul Ken- nedy (in The Rise and Fal...

John Mueller, and "The Political Effect of Nuclear Weapons: A Comment" Robert Jervis, in International Security (Fall 1988). MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., cambridge, ass. 02138.
Long after the Allies' victory over the Axis in 1945, Winston Churchill predicted that fears of nuclear holocaust would prevent another world war. Peace, he declared, was "the sturdy child of [nuclear] terror."
Was Churchill right? Mueller, a political scientist at the University of Rochester, contends...

Japan and
Germany, would resist any urge to do battle with the other.
For his part, Jervis insists that the specter of "near-absolute levels of punishment" inflicted atomic weapons has had a decisive effect on both superpowers; each has avoided both escalation of local conflicts and direct Soviet-American confrontation. As for World War II,most of the citizens of the defeated countries survived, and many later prospered; the losers- and winners-of a nuclear war might well be unable to...

Claude S. Fischer, in Technology and Culture (Jan. 19881, Univ. of
~~s
Chicago Press, PO. Ebx 37005, Chicago, Ill. 60637.
Today, chatting on the telephone is commonplace-and promoted in TV commercials. But, oddly enough, the first telephone companies frowned on the use of the device for social calls rather than business matters. For example, in 1909, a manager of Seattle's system complained that 30 per- cent of all local calls were "purely idle gossip," which should be curbed both time...

Claude S. Fischer, in Technology and Culture (Jan. 19881, Univ. of
~~s
Chicago Press, PO. Ebx 37005, Chicago, Ill. 60637.
Today, chatting on the telephone is commonplace-and promoted in TV commercials. But, oddly enough, the first telephone companies frowned on the use of the device for social calls rather than business matters. For example, in 1909, a manager of Seattle's system complained that 30 per- cent of all local calls were "purely idle gossip," which should be curbed both time...

1981, factories that changed owners between 1974 and 1976 had become more efficient; those that were merged or acquired between 1977 and 1980 had not yet done so. Surprisingly, new owners tended to continue "implicit contracts" with workers and suppliers; a change of owners tended to slow, not increase, employee layoffs.
Why does changing ownership help improve a factory? The authors suggest that corporations tend to sell one of their manufacturing divisions when it loses a "comparative...

boosting domestic manufacturers' costs. Rather, the federal government should completely decontrol domestic oil prices and abolish the "windfall profits tax," which discourages new pro- duction. Such measures, among others, should help maintain "relative price stability."
"The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism 1846-1914" Patrick K. O'Brien, in Past and Present (Aug. 1988), 175 Banbury Rd., Oxford OX2 7AW, United Kingdom.
In 1914, Great Britain, an island kingdom...

dde-ClBS Decline? "The Declining Middle-Class Thesis: A Sensitiv-
ity Analysis" Michael W. Homgan and Ste-
ven E. Haugen, in Monthly Labor Review (May
19881, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20212.
Is the American middle class shrinking?
Although the median U.S. family income rose from $26,276 in 1969 (in
1986 dollars) to $29,458 in 1986, most specialists think the answer is yes.
Yet both the extent of middle-class decline and the fate of those moving...

using two different measuring techniques-the "interval deflator" and the "fixed percentage" method. Both calculations reveal a shrinking middle class. The share of U.S. fam- ilies earning $20,000-$56,000 (in 1986 dollars) fell from 60.2 percent in 1969 to 53 percent in 1986 using the "fixed percentage," or from 58.8 percent to 53 percent using the "interval deflator."
Where did these disappearing middle-class families go?
Many rose into the upper class....

Tom Taylor, in Journal of Social History
(Summer 1988), Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pitts-
burgh, Pa. 15213.
Many young Americans in college or graduate school wonder if they will ever complete their educations and find jobs. But, in the Germany of Kaiser Wilhelm n, would-be professionals faced far higher hurdles. Taylor, a histo- rian at Seattle University, notes that even lawyers did not expect to begin their careers until they were 32 or 33.
In 1900, less than two percent of all young German men...

contrast, d ~ the same era, American youths faced fewer hur-
g dles; many medical schools, for example, accepted high school graduates. Job prospects were also better. As a result, Americans of the era became independent adults much sooner than their German peers. In 1900, US. doctors began to practice at age 24, on average, and 44 percent of all US. teachers were under 25.
"What Is a Working Woman?" Horst H.
Stipp, in American Lkmographics (July 1988),
108 North Cayuga St., Ithaca,...

Everett S. Lee and Xue-lan Rong, in The Elementary School Journal (May 1988), Univ. of Chicago Press, PO.Box 37005, Chicago, Dl. 60637.
The achievements of Asian-Americans, in school and at work, are well publicized. The National Center for Education Statistics, for example, re- ports that Asian-American students tend to earn more A's and B's and fewer D's and F's than any other ethnic group.
But Asians have been crossing the Pacific for a long time. The Chinese began arriving during the 1850s;...

age 32, while only 14 percent of Asian- American women had been divorced age 55. Asian-American house- holds tend to be small; in 1980, 1,358 children, on average, were born to every 1,000 white women aged 15-44, compared to 1,164 for the Asians.
These small, close-knit families produce motivated students: In 1980, only 17 percent of all white American men had graduated from college, compared to 32 percent of Asian-American men. Thus, Asian-Americans are conspicuous in "upper-status occupations,"...

mid-1987.
In 1984, the FCC began to restrict local government control of cable prices and programming. Municipalities were discouraged from impeding cable's new rivals, such as satellite dishes or private systems in apartment complexes. Recently, several California courts have held that cable TV is not a utility, but an "electronic publisher," whose competitors are pro- tected the First Amendment. With great implications for the nation's 5,000-6,000 municipal cable-TV franchises, the...

Ste-phen Toulrnin, in The American Scholar (Sum-mer 1988), 1811 Q St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
One recurring idea in the West is that philosophy is no longer a valid intellectual pursuit. Since echoed others, Albert Einstein once wrote of philosophy's "nakedness and poverty," and suggested that the Mother of Science was not just old, but barren too.
Toulmin, a professor of humanities at Northwestern University, be-
WQ WINTER 1988
28
PERIODICALS

RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
lieves t...

abandoning the "the-
ory-centered" approach ascendant for 300 years.
In Europe, the 17th century was an era of moral and spiritual disorder. Old political and religious allegiances were eroding, and science was cast- ing "radical doubts" on man's central role in the cosmos. "Tis all in peeces, all cohaerance gone," England's John Donne wrote in "An Anat- omy of the World" (1611). "Prince, Subject, Father, Sonne, are things forgotpor every man alone...

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PERIODICALS

RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
According to Gallup, 33 percent of Americans consider themselves "born again." While most such evangelical Christians tend to be Southern or black, 23 percent of all Americans aged 30 to 49 see themselves as "born again," as do 22 percent of college graduates and 23 percent of those in households with incomes of $40,000 or more. According to con- sultant George Barna, 32 percent of born-again Christians are Baptists (mostly Sou...

encouraging individual self-understanding, is "fundamental to any moral character."

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
"Voice in the Wilderness" Philip Liebennan,
The of 'wech in The SC~TZC~S
(July-Aug. 19881, New York Academy of Sciences, 2 East 63rd St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
How did humans learn to talk? Some researchers, most notably MIT's Noam Chomsky, believe that linguistic dexterity emerged spontaneously in humans, as an innate mastery of "deep structures," the rul...

Spencer
Weart, in Physics Today (June 19881, 335 East
45th St., New York, N.Y. 10017.
The "mad scientist," a sinister figure who lives to manipulate, create, or destroy life, is a surprisingly persistent archetype, still appearing in every- thing from children's TV cartoon programs to debates over genetic engi- neering. But where did this archetype originate? Weart, a historian at the American Institute of Physics, traces the origin of the mad scientist phe- nomenon to the 18th century.
Austria's...

IODICALS

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Genetic Safepards "The High Fidelity of DNA Duplication" by
Miroslav Radrnan and Robert Wagner, in Scien-tific American (Aug. 1988), 415 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.
Diseases resulting from genetic mutations are of rising concern. A small mistake can have major consequences; a single error in the three billion bits of information that constitute the human genetic material can result in sickle-cell anemia or certain types of cancer.
Recently d...

E. coli bacteria. Such errors, if not caught DNA polymerase or exonuclease, are "beyond recall"; they thus become permanent genetic mistakes that could result in crippling disease.

RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT
ocontrols "A New Crop of Pest Controls" by Omar Sat-taw, in New Scientist (July 14, 1988), 1-19 New Oxford St., London WC1A ING, United Kingdom.
The Caiiete Valley is Peru's chief cotton-producing area. After World War II, the valley's fanners began spraying with ins...

Cynthia
Pollock Shea,in World Watch (May-June 19881,
1776 Massachusetts Ave. -
N.W.,Washington,
D.C. 20036.
In 1983 the state of New York passed a law mandating deposits on bever- age containers. But while the state could find buyers for the millions of aluminum cans and glass bottles returned consumers, industry could not find new uses for old plastic. The result: Plastic bottles continued to be buried in landfills.
However, as time went on, the secondhand plastic market-in New York and elsewhere-steadily...

artificially reducing pulpwood prices, has also dis- couraged the use of recycled paper. Until Congress and the White House end such contradictory policies, Shea warns, "the federal government pro- motes the continuation of a throwaway society."
's "Becoming Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Gather" Sharon O'Brien, in American Quarterly (Mar. 1988), Johns Hopldns Univ. Press, 701 West 40th St., Baltimore, Md.
During the 1920s, Willa Gather (1873-1947) was one of the major...

all classes of folk. The wealthy paid two dollars for a box seat, or one dollar for the pit; craftsmen and servants could buy gallery seats for a quarter. However, Garcia's succes- sors courted the rich. the time the Astor Place Opera House opened in 1847, the well-to-do were favored with reserved seating, and a dress code that required men to wear fresh waistcoats and kid gloves. The view from the inexpensive seats was obstructed by a chandelier. "The fashionable world is now completely organized,"...

opera audiences, such as withholding applause until after an aria was completed, added to the general sense of self-esteem. Salting a conversation with such "high-sounding" Italian phrases as can-tina or parlando allowed operagoers to feel superior-a verbal "distanc- ing" technique also used for centuries lawyers who cited tidbits of Latin. Old New York patricians, McConachie suggests, came to believe that only those "who could get through an Italian opera without a social...

Phyllis Birnbaum, and "Japan's Working Wounded: In Limbo the Window" by Daniel Master, in Across the Board (June 1988), The Conference Board, 845 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.
Americans, who work an average of 1,800 hours per year, are among the West's most industrious employees. The Japanese do better: 2,100 hours per year. A mere 27 percent of all Japanese workers enjoy a two-day weekend, and a move to reduce the 48-hour workweek was opposed not only by executives but also by wage...

John M. Kramer, in Problems of Communism (Mar.-and Drugs Apr. 1988), U.S. Information Agency, 301 4th
St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547.
For decades, the Soviet Union refused to admit that any of its citizens consumed illegal drugs. As late as May 1984, the Moscow journal New Times claimed that "not a single case" of addiction to amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, or LSD had ever been recorded in the country.
Kramer, a political scientist at Mary Washington College, writes that Soviet attitudes...

various means. Some illicit drugs are homegrown; collective farmers can double their incomes selling poppies on the black market. As in the West, some drugs are stolen from hospitals and pharmacies. Five hundred people were indicted early this year for such thefts from Ministry of Public Health facilities. Despite strict Soviet frontier controls, smugglers provide another source of supply, particularly in Turkmenistan, which borders on Afghani- stan and Iran.
Belatedly, the Soviets have begun to...

Merril Stevenson, in The Economist (May 28, 1988), 25 St. James
St., London SW1A lHG, United Kingdom.
On April 25, 1974, Portuguese strongman Marcelo Caetano was ousted in a military coup, restoring democracy after 42 years of dictatorship Caetano and his predecessor, Antonio Salazar. Within two years, most Portuguese colonies, including Angola and Mozambique, had gained inde- pendence; at home, dozens of private companies were nationalized, work- ers' wages increased dramatically, and six provisional...

Shai Feldman at a colloquium sponsored the Wilson Center.

Recent Arab uprisings in the occupied ter- ritories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip may stir Israelis to look beyond national security "to the essence of the state's pur- poses and its grand strategy."

Feldman, a Wilson Center Fellow and senior research associate at the Jaffee Cen- ter for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv Uni- versity, suggests that his fellow citizens might do well to reconsider the principles formulated by th...

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