Autumn 1993
The New Spain
In Essence
ethnic or religious conflict. Meanwhile, the UN has intervened, on humanitarian grounds, in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. What is the future of the supposedly sovereign nation-state and of the modern inter- national system that emerged three-and-one-half centuries ago? Are national loyalties giving way to others-allegiances to ethnic groups, to reli- gions, to civilizations?
"The multiplication of different types of ac- tors, loyalties, and conflicts," Pierre Hassner, d...
Richard Reeves, in American Heritage (Sept. 1993), 60 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011.
President Bill Clinton's White House has been likened to a college dorm, complete with bull sessions and all-nighters. His general style of management is informal. Veteran political writer Reeves, author of a new study of John F. Kennedy's presidency, fears that Clinton may be following a very bad examplethe disorderly
JFK,who in 1963shook 17-year-old Bill Clinton's handat the White House, remains an important...
Richard Reeves, in American Heritage (Sept. 1993), 60 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011.
President Bill Clinton's White House has been likened to a college dorm, complete with bull sessions and all-nighters. His general style of management is informal. Veteran political writer Reeves, author of a new study of John F. Kennedy's presidency, fears that Clinton may be following a very bad examplethe disorderly
JFK,who in 1963shook 17-year-old Bill Clinton's handat the White House, remains an important...
suspicion of the ex- ecutive branch during the Johnson and Nixon years, congressional reformers of the 1960s and '70s looked, naively, to "the American people" as a deus ex machina. Strip "the anti-democratic barons" of their powers and make them respon- sible to rank-and-file Democrats, thought re- formers such as Representative Donald Fraser (D.-Minn.), and the "will of the people" would push desirable (liberal) legislation through Con- gress. The House reforms of...
Robert W. Tucker and David
C. Hendrickson, in the National Interest (Fall 1993), 1112 16th St. N.W., Ste. 540, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Does the United States have a stake in the ~alkans?It does, insist Tucker, author of The Nuclear Debate (1985), and Hendrickson, a politi- cal scientist at Colorado College, but it is not based on the abstract principles most advocates of intervention have cited: repelling aggression, preserving recognized borders, and maintaining "world order." The "great...
Robert W. Tucker and David
C. Hendrickson, in the National Interest (Fall 1993), 1112 16th St. N.W., Ste. 540, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Does the United States have a stake in the ~alkans?It does, insist Tucker, author of The Nuclear Debate (1985), and Hendrickson, a politi- cal scientist at Colorado College, but it is not based on the abstract principles most advocates of intervention have cited: repelling aggression, preserving recognized borders, and maintaining "world order." The "great...
Norvell B. DeAtkine. in Parameters (Summer 1993). U.S. Army War College, carlisle ~arracks, Carlisle, pa:' 17013-5050.
As war in the Persian Gulf neared two years ago, many Middle Eastern specialists warned of disas- ter for the United States. Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chi- -cago and Charles Doran of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins, among others, predicted massive up- heavals in every Islamic country, Americans slaughtered in Arab cities, airliners blown...
invoking cultural rela- tivism. Many have a "distinctly anti-Western ideological agenda." They are obsessed with the Arab-Israeli dispute. And "area studies" en- claves in universities very often fail to breed de- tached, critical judgment.
ECONOMICS, LABOR &BUSINESS
A NewBusiness Ethics?
'What's the Matter with Business Ethics?" Andrew Stark, in Harvard Business Review (May-June 1993), Boston, Mass. 02163.
Business ethics is hot in academia: More than 500 courses in...
invoking cultural rela- tivism. Many have a "distinctly anti-Western ideological agenda." They are obsessed with the Arab-Israeli dispute. And "area studies" en- claves in universities very often fail to breed de- tached, critical judgment.
ECONOMICS, LABOR &BUSINESS
A NewBusiness Ethics?
'What's the Matter with Business Ethics?" Andrew Stark, in Harvard Business Review (May-June 1993), Boston, Mass. 02163.
Business ethics is hot in academia: More than 500 courses in...
loosening the credit reins), interest rates would drop. During the 1970s, however, after the Ford and Carter administrations greatly expanded credit to cushion the oil-price shocks, inflation soared. Investors decided that loose credit caused infla- tion. Interest rates rose. "Almost overnight," Morris writes, "the financial headlines executed an about-face: if the Federal Reserve loosened credit, itwas thenceforth taken for granted that interest rates would rise, not fall."
The...
' 'Better Citizens without the Ballot': American Anti- Suffrage Women and Their Rationale During the Progressive Era" Manuela Thurner, in Journalof Women's History (Spring1993), History Dept., Ballantine Hall 742, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind. 47405.
Writing under the spell of late-20th century feminism, most recent scholars have depicted
Some women who fought against female suffrage did suggest that a woman's place was in the home.
120 WQ AUTUMN 1993
the Progressive-era women who f...
S. Philip Morgan, Antonio McDaniel, Andrew T. Miller, and Samuel H. Preston, in American Journal of Sociology (Jan. 1993), 5835
S. Kimbark, Chicago, 111.60637.
More than half of all black children today live in female-headed families, while nearly four in five white children live in two-parent families. In recent years, many conservatives and some liberals have concluded, as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) presciently put it in his then-controversial 1965 report, The Ne- gro Family,...
S. Philip Morgan, Antonio McDaniel, Andrew T. Miller, and Samuel H. Preston, in American Journal of Sociology (Jan. 1993), 5835
S. Kimbark, Chicago, 111.60637.
More than half of all black children today live in female-headed families, while nearly four in five white children live in two-parent families. In recent years, many conservatives and some liberals have concluded, as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) presciently put it in his then-controversial 1965 report, The Ne- gro Family,...
A Survey of Recent Articles
During its heyday in the 1930s and '40s, radio was a national entertainment me- dium. Local stations belonged to net- works-the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System-that offered comedy programs, action dramas, soap operas, and variety shows, and America lis- tened, notes Boston College professor Marilyn J. Matelski in a special issue of Freedom Forum's Media Studies Journal (Summer 1993) devoted to the "forgotten" medium. But...
Walter Olson, in National Review (June 21,1993), 150 E. 35th St., New York, N.Y. 10016.
When NBC News admitted earlier this year that the dramatic crash test shown on a "Dateline NBC" broadcast last November had been rigged, the fiasco was widely portrayed as, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, "an unprec- edented disaster in the annals of networknews." The use of hidden toy-rocket engines to ensure that the GM truck burst into flames was "not something anybody at '60...
Dennis Prager, in The PublicInterest (Summer 1993), 1112 16th St. N.W., Ste. 530, Washing- ton, D.C. 20036.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with wom- ankind; it is an abomination" declares the Bible (Leviticus 18.22). The language is so clear and direct, in the view of Prager, the author and pub- lisher of his own quarterly journal, Ultimate Is-sues, that one need only be a serious Jew or Chris- tian to be influenced it. Nevertheless, he says, in the larger scheme of things, biblical...
Dennis Prager, in The PublicInterest (Summer 1993), 1112 16th St. N.W., Ste. 530, Washing- ton, D.C. 20036.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with wom- ankind; it is an abomination" declares the Bible (Leviticus 18.22). The language is so clear and direct, in the view of Prager, the author and pub- lisher of his own quarterly journal, Ultimate Is-sues, that one need only be a serious Jew or Chris- tian to be influenced it. Nevertheless, he says, in the larger scheme of things, biblical...
Robin Dunbar, in New Scientist (Feb. 20,1993), Stamford Street, London SE19LS.
The intellect and greatness of Aristotle (384- 322 B.c.) spanned many fields; but he seldom is regarded as the father of modern science. That honor usually goes to Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who denounced Aristotle's meta- physics and influence. Yet the credit for estab- lishing genuine empirical science should go to Aristotle, contends Dunbar, a biological an- thropologist at University College, London. In the philosopher's...
Robin Dunbar, in New Scientist (Feb. 20,1993), Stamford Street, London SE19LS.
The intellect and greatness of Aristotle (384- 322 B.c.) spanned many fields; but he seldom is regarded as the father of modern science. That honor usually goes to Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who denounced Aristotle's meta- physics and influence. Yet the credit for estab- lishing genuine empirical science should go to Aristotle, contends Dunbar, a biological an- thropologist at University College, London. In the philosopher's...
the needs of the day, not simply the implacable advance of technical knowledge. The man who took up the challenge to American pride was George Washington Gale Ferris, a Pittsburgh engineer. Inspiration, he later said, struck him at a dinner in a Chicago chophouse: "I would build a wheel, a monster."
Ferris's wheel was not entirely original. An English traveler wrote of seeing a "pleasure wheel" in 17th-century Bulgaria, and there were pleasure wheels some 50 feet in diameter...
modem biographical standards, for verifying their authenticity." Often, Boswell sought to "im-prove" Johnson's remarks. One of Johnson's best-known "sayings," as reported Boswell in the Life, is, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is everything in London that life can afford." But according to BoswelTs own journal, all that Johnson actually said was, "You find no man wishes to leave it."
Boswell did not trouble himself to...
Robert Alter, in Commentary (July1993),American Jewish Committee, 165 East 56th St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
The Merchant of Venice may not be Shakespeare's best comedy, but historically it has been his most popular. Not only has it been produced thou- sands of times on both sides of the Atlantic, it was the first of Shakespeare's plays to be per- formed in Armenian, the first entirely in Chinese, and the first a Japanese Kabuki troupe. Why all this should be is a bit of a puzzle. There are livelier...
January 1,1993, anda common monetary policy, a single European currency, and an independent central bank were to be es- tablished the end of the decade. Today, how- ever, it isdear that that schedule willnot be kept. Europe's borders are now largely open, but the rest of the ambitious project is shrouded in doubt.
Monnet's heirs reached the depths of de- spond in early August when EC finance rninis- ters took a giant step away from monetary union. Seeking to stop frenzied selling of the French...
and for lawyers and bureau- crats." Few Europeans really grasp how the EC works, Hoffmann points out, and there is a wide- spread complaint about a "democratic deficit." The Council of Ministers is th'e Community's chief lawmaker, while the popularly elected Eu- ropean Parliament has very limited powers. Regulations are drafted the European Com- mission, which is not accountable to the parlia- ment. The EC Commission's president, currently Jacques Delors of France, is chosen by the...
the Kaiser Foundation's Comrnis- sion on the Future of Medicaid indicates otherwise.
Between 1988 and '91, Medic- aid enrollment increased from
"Cuba After the Cold War."
22.2 million to 27 million. But only half of the new beneficiaries were pregnant women or chil- dren, and the costs of covering them accounted for only about 11 percent of the total increase. The other new enrollees, such as families on welfare and the aged and disabled poor, accounted for nearly one-fourth of the t...
Book Reviews
LET THE SEA MAKE A NOISE: A History of
the North Pacific from Magellan to MacArthur.
By WalferA . McDougall. Basic. 793 pp. $30
THE MORAL SENSE. By James Q. Wilson.
Free Press. 313 pp. $22.95
LISTENING TO PROZAC: A Psychiatrist
Explores Antidepressant Drugs and the
Remaking of the Self. By Peter D. Kramer.
Viking. 409 pp. $23
Ed. by Robert Blake
and Wm. Roger Louis. Norton. 581 pp. $35
By David Levering Lewis. Holt. 700
pp. $35
By Liah Greenfeld. Haward. 581 pp. $49.95
By Edmund Wilson. Ed. by Lewis M. Dabney.
Farrar Straus. 968 pp. $35
By Nicholas Till. Norton. 371 pp. $29.95
By Allan Bloom.
Simon &Â Schuster. 590 pp. $25
By David Remnick. Random House. 576
pp. $25
By Ronald Dworkin. Knopf. 273 pp. $23
By Jane Jacobs. Random House. 236 pp. $22
By David Lindley. Basic. 275 pp. $25
Essays
JOHN HOOPER
in Madrid is likely to see these days is a pair of immense office towers standing on either side of the northern entrance to the city. They dominate the skyline from countless angles and can be glimpsed from miles away across Spain's arid central tableland, the rneseta. What makes them remarkable is not so much that they reach 27 stories into the sky but that they tilt precariously toward each other-at angles nearlythreetimesasprecipitousasthe one at which the Tower of Pisa famously...
in Madrid is likely to see these days is a pair of immense office towers standing on either side of the northern entrance to the city. They dominate the skyline from countless angles and can be glimpsed from miles away across Spain's arid central tableland, the rneseta. What makes them remarkable is not so much that they reach 27 stories into the sky but that they tilt precariously toward each other-at angles nearlythreetimesasprecipitousasthe one at which the Tower of Pisa famously leans.
Unlike...
which we usually chart Western Euro- pean history-Renaissance and Reformation, Enlightenment and Industrialization-seem largely inapplicable to Spain. Its tradition has been one of isolationism driven some form of authoritarian rule and stiffened by a powerful Catholic Church. This has earned Spain a repu- tation for stagnation and backwardness, one that for much of its history it has deserved.
But Spain has not always lagged behind its neighbors to the northeast. It was, after all, the first n...
DOUGLAS GOMERY
It was a defining moment in American history, albeit one run over and over, like an episode of "Star Trek." Into the tidy living room of a young family's subur- ban home, usually just days before Christmas, came the electronic marvel. The old ma- hogany radio set, already seeming a bit an- tique, was shoved into a corner, and two hefty deliverymen struggled to position the bulky new console across from the couch, between the easy chairs. Everyone gathered around as the...
It was a defining moment in American history, albeit one run over and over, like an episode of "Star Trek." Into the tidy living room of a young family's subur- ban home, usually just days before Christmas, came the electronic marvel. The old ma- hogany radio set, already seeming a bit an- tique, was shoved into a corner, and two hefty deliverymen struggled to position the bulky new console across from the couch, between the easy chairs. Everyone gathered around as the first test pattern...
Today, there is no getting away from the electronic hearthland. Commen- tators may routinely misinterpret one of the more widely circulated statistics about television-that the average household has a set on more than seven hours per day-to mean that the average person watches that amount. (It is no mere pedantic detail to note that a set being on does not mean that it is being watched.) But even the correct figure of four hours a day is nothing to trifle with. Television watching is second only...
Ibegin with a true story. In 1974 I was having coffee in the English department lounge at Northwestern University when two of my colleagues-a younger, untenured man and an older, tenured woman-entered in mid-conversation.
"Oh, no," the woman was saying, "I just won't have a television in my apartment. I know there are some good things on it, espe- cially on public broadcasting. But so much of it is just garbage!"
My younger friend laughed. "Joke's on you, then,"...
Across the centuries that have elapsed since he lived in northern China and lectured to a small group of followers on ethics and ritual, the ideas of Confucius have had a pow- erful resonance. Soon after hisdeath in 476 B.c., a small number of these followers dedicated themselves to recording what they codd re- member of his teachings and to preserving the texts of history and poetry that he was alleged to have edited. In the fourth and third centu- ries B.c., several distinguished philosophers...
90 WQ AUTUMN 1993
everal worldwide interfaith organiza-
tions, including the World Confer-
ence on Religion and Peace, have
named 1993 the "Year of Interreli- gious Understanding and Cooperation." The occasion is the centennial of the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions, a landmark event that took place in Chicago in connection with the World's Columbian Exhibition. There, for the first time in modem history, some would say for the first time ever, Hindus, Buddhist, Jains, Jews, Pr...
During the early
18th centu y, the
heyday of Anglo-
American piracy, two
women, Anne Bonny
and May Read,
joined the crew of
Calico Jack Rackam,
a notorious
Caribbean pirate.
As historian
Marcus Rediker
relates, their choice
was not unique.
It placed them
in the company of
others of their
gender~sailors,
soldiers, adventurers-
who "seized liberty"
from society
by disguising
themselves as men.
Mary Read
102 WQ AUTUMN 1993
Sailed the Seen
In late 1720 Jamaica's most...
phone from his cell! thanks to an arrangement with the author- ities). The moderator uses her microphone to conduct a chamber symphony of woe, before an audience which has long since learned to listen for the familiar notes and which is prepared, when called upon, to work its own
tell the bastards anything." He was on the right track. We seem determined that the whole na- tion should have the privacy of a military bar- racks. Supreme Court decisions turn precari- ously on invocation of a constitutional...
