Spring 1994
The Idiocy of Race
In Essence
March 31,1994.
Something, it seemed, had gone very wrong with this exercise in humanitarian interven- tion-but what was it? Some analysts, such as John R. Bolton, writing in Foreign Affairs (Jan.-Feb. 1994), contend that Clinton erred in expand- ing the original, limited mission. Others, such as David Frornkin, writing in the New York Times Magazine (Feb. 27,1994), argue that Bush failed to face "the question of what would happen when the troops were withdrawn: would not the warlords go back...
William G. Tliiemann, in Presidential Studies Quarterly (Winter 1994), 208 E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.10021.
Herbert Hoover is usually remembered as the hapless victim of the Great Depression and, in the 1932 election, of the ebullient Franklin D. Roosevelt. History is always more complicated than such simple imagery suggests, and now Thie-maim, a graduate student inhistory at Miami Uiu- versity, Ohio, adds an interesting detail to the Hoover-FDR tableau. It seems that the Republi- can president...
William G. Tliiemann, in Presidential Studies Quarterly (Winter 1994), 208 E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.10021.
Herbert Hoover is usually remembered as the hapless victim of the Great Depression and, in the 1932 election, of the ebullient Franklin D. Roosevelt. History is always more complicated than such simple imagery suggests, and now Thie-maim, a graduate student inhistory at Miami Uiu- versity, Ohio, adds an interesting detail to the Hoover-FDR tableau. It seems that the Republi- can president...
political scientists Edward
G.Carmines and James A. Stimson. After a close look at American National Election Studies for 1980 and 1988, Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, sees other causes.
Abramowitz agrees that the 1964 presiden- tial election was a watershed, as Carmines and Stimson argue. President Lyndon B. Johnson, champion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, trounced conservative Republican Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who had opposed it. Democratic leaders and activists then...
a powerful common enemy, is a potential threat. It would be the strongest mili- tary power in Asia, and the second-ranking one in tlie world." Tlie fact tliat Japan is democratic is no guarantee of peace. Indeed, some observ- ers doubt tliat Japan really is or will remain a de- mocracy in Western terms.
Betts (who leans toward the realist perspec-
tive) believes tliat Cliina is "tlie state most
likely over time to disturb equilibrium in the
region-and the world." Even conservative
estimates,...
the Bush administration-"is just plain unaffordable." With 10 active army and three marine divisions, 12 aircraft carriers, and 13 active air force wings, the force looks form- dable. But its size will come at the cost of defer- ring replacement of helicopters, tanks, and other equipment; after 10 to 15 years, "a massive junking of obsolescent gear" would be necessary.
As if all tlus were not enough, Cohen discerns "a deeper malady" in American strategy: It fails to...
.
Nezus & World Report (Oct. 26,1992), in a typical media acco~~nt,
declared that the Bus11 administration "co~ltinued to provide billions of dollars ill loans to Saddam Hussein after [Iraq's] war wit11 Iran ended in 1988. Despite evidence that Iraqi agents were stealing some of the American loan nloney and using it to buy and bdd biologcal, cllemical, a11d nuclear weapons, tlle Bull administration il~creasedthe amount of the loans." Then, in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.
One...
the market. Foreman thinks the new law has got it about right. Why lose "the synergy of a working business" in a liq- uidation? Abuses, he insists, are rare. Thanks to the code, he notes, the Federated chain of department stores, Continental Airlines, and Macy's are all still in business, with employ- ees still on the job.
How CEOs Got Theirs
"CEO Pay: Why Such a Contentious Issue?" Margaret M. Blair, in Brooki~igsReview (Winter 1994), 1775Mass. Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C....
William Greider, in Tlie Washington Monthly (Dec. 1993), 1611 Conn. Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
The Federal Reserve Systen1's "power over the daily lives of ordinary Americans-not to inen- tion the largest enterprises of commerce and fi- nance-is at least as great as the president's or Congress's and, in most instances, more irnrne- diate," writes Greider, national affairs columnist for Rolling Stone and author of a 1987 book, Se-crets of the Temple, about the agency. The Fed's...
Kristin
F. Butcher, in Industrial and Labor Relations Review (Jan.
1994), Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-3901.
Do the "cultural traditions" of American-born blacks impede their economic progress? Promi- nent economist Thomas Sowell-pointing to the higher earnings of West Indian immigrants in the United States-has argued that they do. Butcher, an economist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, has a different explanation.
Analyzing 1980 census data, she finds that West Indian immigrant...
Kristin
F. Butcher, in Industrial and Labor Relations Review (Jan.
1994), Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-3901.
Do the "cultural traditions" of American-born blacks impede their economic progress? Promi- nent economist Thomas Sowell-pointing to the higher earnings of West Indian immigrants in the United States-has argued that they do. Butcher, an economist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, has a different explanation.
Analyzing 1980 census data, she finds that West Indian immigrant...
the experience of Massacl~usetts today- or even New York in 1975.
Meanwhile, the city government has "stopped trying to do well the kinds of things a city can do." These include "keeping its streets and bridges in repair, building new facilities to accommodate new needs and a shifting popula- tion, picking up the garbage, and policing the public environment." Ultimately, it is individual businesses and people that make a world-class city, and a city that does not tend to such...
Paul Sheehan, in Fortes Mediacritic (No. 2,19941, P.O.Box 762, Bedminster, N.J. 07921.
The University of Notre Dame and its football coach, Lou Holtz, took a severe pounding last year in the best-selling Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Its Ideals for Football Glory.The authors, journalists Don Yaeger and Douglas Looney, portrayed Holtz as a repulsive, hypocritical, mentally unstable bully, and his players as an ugly crew of violent, stupid, drug- abusing jocks. Television news...
Michael Scl~rage, with Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, and Robert D. Shapiro, in Wired (Feb. 1994), 544 Second St., San Francisco, Calif. 94119-9866.
These days, we always seem to be poised on the brink of an utterly new era in which life will be very, very different. The latest new age on the horizon, according to Schrage, a columnist for Adweek magazine, and his fellow seers, is the "Interactive Ageu-and in this brave new realm, advertising and the relationship between adver- tisers and potential...
Michael Scl~rage, with Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, and Robert D. Shapiro, in Wired (Feb. 1994), 544 Second St., San Francisco, Calif. 94119-9866.
These days, we always seem to be poised on the brink of an utterly new era in which life will be very, very different. The latest new age on the horizon, according to Schrage, a columnist for Adweek magazine, and his fellow seers, is the "Interactive Ageu-and in this brave new realm, advertising and the relationship between adver- tisers and potential...
Gallup. That suggests that total church attendance in the nation is only 20- 25 percent. Without allowing for differences be- tween reported and actual attendance in other countries (which appear to be much smaller), that puts Americans on a par, more or less, with Austrahans, Canadians, Belgians, and the Dutch. American "exceptionalism" in this case may come down to an exceptional belief that it isimportant to appear pious even if one is not.
The TWOMr. Mills
"Liberty: 'One Very S...
"The Toxins of Cyanobacteria" Wayne W. Carmichael, in Scientific American (Jan. 1994), 415 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017-1111.
To scientists, the blue-green microorganisms are known as cyanobacteria; non-scientists more often call them by a different name: pond scum. By any name, tlie many forms of cyanobacteria tliat are toxic may be posing an increasing 11az- ard to humans, warns Cannicliael, a professor of aquatic biology and toxicology at Wriglit State University, in Dayton,...
toxic cyanobacteria. Also, Spindi~ia'spopularity has led to the marketing of other types of cyanobacteria, Anabaei~aand Aphanizotneizon, which have highly poisonous strains. Without "sophisticated biochemical tests," he warns, "the safety of these items is questionable."
Trading Organs For Dollars?
"Indecent Proposals?" Margaret Davidson, in Tlie New Physician (Oct. 1993),American Medical Student Assn., 1890 Preston White Dr., Reston, Va. 22091.
Each year, kidneys, he...
JohnCrewdson,in Niemnn Reports (Winter 1993),Nieman Foundation, Harvard Univ., One Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
vends on thisyear's discoveries." When there are no important discoveries,"non-discoveriesand marginal discoveriesand problematic discover-ies are spiffed up and published in iournals like
In 1989 the Philadelphia-based Wistar Institute
Science and Nature, which [distribute]them to the
reported in Science magazine that multiple scle-...
JohnCrewdson,in Niemnn Reports (Winter 1993),Nieman Foundation, Harvard Univ., One Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
vends on thisyear's discoveries." When there are no important discoveries,"non-discoveriesand marginal discoveriesand problematic discover-ies are spiffed up and published in iournals like
In 1989 the Philadelphia-based Wistar Institute
Science and Nature, which [distribute]them to the
reported in Science magazine that multiple scle-...
1934, writes Clark, who has a doctorate in the history of technology from the University of Delaware, "magnetic recording had become a practical method for sound reproduction, one which had a number of potential commercial applications." A prototype telephone-answering machine built that year, although large and com- plicated, "met all reasonable engineering re- quirements for performance," Clark says. Simi- lar equipment was used successfully in field tests. Yet AT&T did...
"Edith Wliarton's Abuser" Kenneth S. Lynn, in The American Spectator (Dec. 1993),2020 N. 14th St., Ste. 750, Arlington, Va. 22216.
R. W. B. Lewis's Edith Wharton: A Biography (1975) won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize and is the work upon which other com- mentators on the author of Ethan Frame (1911), The Age of Innocence (1920), and other famous novels now rely. Lynn, a literary biographer and erstwhile professor, charges that the Yale Uni- versity professor's work is a scandal-ridden...
page 105 of the 532-page text), Lewis manufactures psychodramas "out of swift manipulations of scanty facts, omissions of lengthier contradictory facts, pumped-up rhetoric, and bluff," Lynn asserts. For example, Lewis strongly implies that what Wharton de- scribed as a "choking agony of terror" she suf- fered in childhood "was rooted in the traumatic scoldings, humiliations, and other abuses visited upon her a Gothic ogress of a mother." He ignores, Lynn points out,...
A Survey of Recent Articles
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in Novem- ber 1989 suddenly made German unifi- cation a live issue, and West German chancellor Helmut Kold embraced it as lus own. With firm and crucial support from the United States, Kohl skillfully brought about the Vereinigung (unification) the next October. But in that election year of 1990, he "did not say that the pat11 to unity would be expensive, arduous, and long," Heinrich August Winkler, a historian at Humboldt-Universitat...
the Bundestag.) To hold conservative voters, Kohl "is taking a strong law-and-order stance and refusing to identify himself with
Revisiting the Korean War
'New Findings on the Korean War" Kathryn Weathersby, in Cold War International History Project Bulletin (Fall 1993), Woodrow Wilson Center, 1000 Jefferson Dr. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20560.
On June 25,1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. While most scholars have said th...
adds, the Soviet docu- ment also shows that the assumption-made President Harry Truman's administration and by many scholars-that the initiative for the at- tack came from Stalin is false. "This was Kim I1 Sling's war; he gained Stalin's reluctant approval only after persistent appeals (48 telegrams!)."
The question of who called for war is crucial, in Weathersby's view. By the spring of 1950, she says, "the Truman administration had con-cluded that South Korea was not of sufficient...
the third grade, children who once were enrolled in. Head Start perform no better 011IQ tests than those who were not. Currie, of the National Bu- reau of Economic Research, and Thomas, of Yale University's Eco- nomic Growth Center, sought to take a broader measure of Head Start's effect-on success in school, on various comprehen- sion tests, and on health. They found, surprisingly, that Head Start does make a difference but that its effects vary race.
Using data from the National Longitudinal...
Book Reviews
BEFORE THE SHOOTING BEGINS: Search-ing for Democracy in America's Culture War
By James Davison Hunter.
Free Press. 320 pp. $22.95
EXIT INTO HISTORY: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe
By Eva Hoffman.
Viking. 410 pp. $23
THE BIRTH OF FREEDOM: Shaping Lives
and Societies in the New Eastern Europe.
By Andrew Nagorski. Simon & Schuster. 319 pp. $23
THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN:
The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
By Gale Stokes. Oxfod Univ. Press. 319pp. $25
By Michael Wreszin.
Basic Books. 590 pp. $30
By Zeev Sternhell with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri.
Trans. by David Maisel.
Princeton. 338 pp. $29.95
Ed. by Frank Witfford.
Overlook. 328vp. $85
By John Carey.
Sf.Martin's Press. 256 pp. $19.95
By R. Laurence Moore.
Oxford. 336 pp. $25
By Caroline Moorehead.
Viking. 596 pp. $30
By Leonard W. Levy.
Knopf. 688 pp. $35
By Stanley Fish.
Oxford Univ. Press. 332 pp. $25
By Alan Kraut.
HarperCollins. 352 pp. $25
By Alan Cromer.
Oxford. 240 pp. $23
By Francis Crick.
Scribner's. 336 pp. $25
Essays
The Greelcs referred to those who lived
outside the realm of public life and politics as
idiots-~6i(O~ai. In our unthinking acceptance
of the idea of race, whose birth and development
Ivan Hannaford here chronicles, we in the
modern aye inay be guilty of a kind of collective idiocy. Genuine public life-not to mention a genuine solution to racial problems-becomes
impossible when a society allozus race or ethnicity to displace citizenship as one's badge of identify.
510 B.c.)shows the...
George Caleb Biizgham.
'Close to 3,000 books and articles have been published on the subject of leadership, mostly within the past three decades," notes business writer Richard Luecke-in a new book that adds to his statistic. Perhaps no coincidence, these same three decades 1mve given rise to a consensus that great leaders no longer move among us. Our authors here propose that the usual ways of addressing the leadership question might themselves be a problem.
46 WQ SPRING 1994
What's Wron...
visible occasionally among tlie numbing political advertisements of tlie 1993 election season was a commercial promoting tlie New York City ballot initiative proposing term lim-its for elected officials. The spoken text was reasonably predictable, but the visual image was striking: several enormously fat men sit- ting together, chomping on large cigars, and chortling-as if expressing tlieir contempt for tlie law, or the people, or both. Wlietlier tlie commercial had anything to do with tlie over-...
Political argument is so obsessed with leadership that it might seem per- verse to claim that it is a local pas- sion, not a universal one, and that even in the United States it has been intermit- tent and not constant. It is certainly a claim that would be hard to make in a gathering of orthodox social scientists. It would be equally hard to persuade the public. American politi- cians and voters are much concerned with as- sorted "crises of leadership" as described in the contemporary...
In 1879 the brilliant young New England conservative Henry Cabot Lodge accepted for publication in the International Review a rousing essay calling for revived presidential leadership.
The enduring fascination with
Frank Lloyd Wright~evinced most
recently by this year's retrospective at the
Museum of Modern Art-is a
tribute to an architectural
genius whose distinctive style
'spoke, and still speaks,
to most Americans."
Last summer, hav-
ing accepted a position at the University of
Pennsylvania, I came to Philadelphia to look
for a house. Going through the pages of a real
estate agent's directory, I chanced upon a post-
age stamp-size photograph of a...
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BY NELSON W. ALDRICH,JR.
Egon Scliiele's 1914 Man and Woman (Liebespar)
Wmt strikes some as an absurd tempest in a teapot is to others a crucial battle in the gender wars. Neither side gets the larger point of the date-rape controversy, says Nelson Aldrich.
ate rape, whirlpooling, lcziltw-rape in Bosnia, the Spur Posse in South-ern California, the Manassas penis cutter-sexual horror stories
shuddered through the media last year, each paroxysm more horrible than the last.
The eroti...
Thirty years after his death, C. S. Lewis remains a Celebrity Author: the complacent professor who churned out zui~zsome childrens fiction and quotable religious apologetics. That image, confirmed by the recent celluloid treatment, Shadowlands, trivializes the weight and worth of Lewis's achievement, as zuell as the struggle behind it.
t was the practice of Clive Staples Lewis, everything he read. Of course, this declaration wlule at Magdalen College, Oxford, dur- would be met with incredulityand...
o these many years later, the question has lost none of its power to stun: If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? We never expected Barbara Walters to give Socrates a run for his money, but this? In retrospect, the question probably signaled a defining moment in the devolution of the TV interview. And yet its empty-head- edness is rather appealing today, when we routinely expect our interviewers to follow the baton right to the knee, the knife to its target flesh. The cocktail of c...
Any conventional list of the great modernist poets would begin with Eliot and Pound, Rilke, Valery, and Rirnbaud. These were not the only important poets of their era, possibly not even the greatest. One thinks of such others as Stevens, Frost, Montale, and Yeats. But the ones designated as modernist are credited with changing our whole mode of feeling, the voice and vocation of poetry itself. It is therefore sur- prising to recall that in 1926 two by no means negligible poets and com- mentators...
