The Rise and Fall of Civility in America

Autumn 1996

The Rise and Fall of Civility in America

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Table of Contents

From “shock-jocks” on the airwaves to shootings on the highways, the signs that civility in America is crumbling assail us. It is not only individuals who suffer. A democracy, more than any other society, is built on mutual trust and cooperation among strangers, on the street as well as in the meeting hall. Creating and sustaining such trust was an important public commitment of America’s early years, our authors write—one that we seem increasingly unable to make.

Table of Contents

In Essence

The Still-Passionate Debate over Darwinism

One hundred and thirty-seven years after the appearance of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, debate about his theory of evolution through natural selection is heating up again.

Warren, We Hardly Knew Ye

"Reputational Entreprenenrsand the Memory of Incompetence: Melting Supporters, Partisan Warriors, and Images of President Herding" by Gary Alan Fine, in the American Journal of Sociology (Mar. 1996), 5835 S. Kimbark, Chicago, Ill. 60637.

Toward a New Patriotism

"Identity Politics and the Left" by Eric Hobsbawm, in New Left Review (May-June 1996), 6 Meard St., London WIV 3HR.

Was Brown's Way Wrong?

"Coming Clean About Brown" by Richard E. Morgan, in City Joumal (Summer 1996), Manhattan Institute, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.

Let the People Rule

"A Democratic Foreign Policy" by Eric Alterman, in World Policy Journal (Summer 1996), World Policy Institute, New School for Social Research, 65 Fifth Ave., Ste. 413, New York, N.Y. 10003.

Virtual War?

"Morality and High Technology" by A. J. Bacevich, in The National Interest (Fall 1996), 1112 161h St. N.W., Ste. 540, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Cutting the Price of Power

"Electrical Storm" by Tom Arrandale, in Governing (July 1996), 2300 N SL. N.W., Ste. 760, Washington, D.C. 20037; "Electric Utilities: The Argument for Radical Deregulation" by Peter Navarro, in Harvard Business Review (Jan.-Feb. 1996), and Thomas R. Kuhn et al., "Electric Utility Deregulation Sparks Controversy," in Harvard Business Review (May-June 1996), Boston, Mass. 02163.

Molding Good Corporate Citizens

"Reinventing the Corporation" by Jonathan Rowe, in The Washington Monthly (Apr. 1996), 1611 Connecticut Ave. N.W, Washington, D.C. 20009.

First Feminists

"American Women's First Collective Political Action: Boston 1649-1650" by Mary Beth Norton, in Arts & Sciences Newsletter (Spring 1996), Cornell University, Binenkorb Center, Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-3201.

Psychoanalysis off the Couch

"Freud and the Culture Wars" by Yale Kramer, in The Public Interest (Summer 1996), 1112 16th SI. N.W., Ste. 530, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Rome Lives!

"The Vanishing Paradigm of the Fall of Rome" by Clen W. Bowersock, in The Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (May 1996), Norton's Woods, 136 Irving St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.

Nattering Nabobs?

"Bad News, Bad Governance" by Thomas E. Patterson, in The Annals (July 1996), The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 3937 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.

A Blind Eye on China

"In the Chinese Gulag" by Harry Wu, in Index on Censorship (July-Aug. 1996), Writers & Scholars International Ltd., Lancaster House, 33 Islington High St., London N1 9LH.

Journalism's Little Dragons

"The Strength of Weeklies" by Judith Sheppard, in American Journalism Review, (July-Aug. 1996), 8701 Adelphi Rd., Adelphi, Md. 20783-1716.

Justice in the Laboratory

"An Injustice to a Scientist Is Reversed and We Learn Some Lessons" by Daniel J. Kevles, in The Chronicle of Higher Education (July 5, 1996), 1255 23rd St. N.W., Washington D.C. 20037.

The Sacred Language of Genes

"Genetics, God, and Sacred DNA" by Dorothy Nelkin, in Society (May-June 1996), Rutgers--The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.j. 08903.

Einstein's Curious Mistake

"The Reluctant Father of Black Holes" by Jeremy Bernstein, in Scientific American (June 1996), 415 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017-1111.

A Grinch's Guide to Garbage

"Recycling Is Garbage" by John Tierney, in The New York Times Magazine (June 30, 1996), 229 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036.

The Great American Novel?

"U.S.A." by Daniel Aaron, in American Heritage (July-Aug. 1996), Forbes Bldg., 60 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011, and " 'U.S.A.' Today" by Joseph Epstein, in The New Yorker (Aug. 5, 1996), 20 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036.

When Bebop Was Born

"Bebop: Modern New York Jazz" by Peter Rutkoff and William Scott, in The Kenyon Review (Spring 1996), Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio 43022.

Policing the Art Trade

"Arresting the Flow of Stolen Art," by Amy Schwartz, in Asian Art and Culture (Winter 1996), Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.G. 20560

The Ulster Obstacle

". .. And Ulster Will Be Right," by Peregrine Worsthorne, in The National Interest (Summer 1996), 1112 16th St. N.W, Ste. 540, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Tears for Liberia

"Madness in Monrovia" by James F. Joyce, in Commonweal (June I, 1996), 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y. 10038.

The End of the Iranian Dream?

"Dateline Tehran: A Revolution Implodes" by Robin Wright, in Foreign Policy (Summer 1996), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2400 N St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-1153.

RESEARCH REPORTS

Reviews of new research at public agencies and private institutions

Book Reviews

Resisting Temptation

FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: From Prometheus to Pornography. By Roger Shattuck. St. Martin's. 384 pp. $26.95.

Are Jobs the Solution?

WHEN WORK DISAPPEARS: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson. 322 pp. Knopf. $26

Essays

The Genteel Republic

The decline of civility was a relatively new concern when we published this historical perspective on the phenomenon in the Autumn 1996 issue. The introduction we wrote then is perhaps even more apt today: “A democracy, more than any other society, is built on mutual trust and cooperation among strangers, on the street as well as in the meeting hall. Creating and sustaining such trust was an important public commitment of America’s early years—one that we seem increasingly unable to make.”

Richard L. Bushman
Democracy Beguiled

The United States was not born civil. Its citizens learned how to behave themselves, in public and in private, over the course of a century and more.

James Morris
Descartes the Dreamer

No single thinker has had a more decisive influence on the course of modern philosophy--and general intellectual inquiry--than Rene Descartes (1596--1650). On the 400th anniversary of Descartes's birth, Anthony Grafton considers the forces that shaped the man and his thought.

Anthony Grafton
THE END OF INDONESIA'S NEW ORDER

Indonesia, a newsmagazine recently reminded its readers, is no obscure backwater. It was a strange thing to say about the world's fourth most populous country and its largest Islamic one. Yet for 30 years this vast, ethnically varied archipelago state has, by trading political freedoms for stability and material progress, avoided many of the woes that draw attention to developing countries. Now, however, the long reign of 75-year-old President Suharto is nearing its end and with it, perhaps, the commitments and compromises that made Indonesia's New Order possible.

James Clad
George Washington's Farewell Address

Two hundred years ago, on September 19, 1796, George Washington announced his decision to step down from the presidency. As venerated as Washington remains today, few Americans appreciate the wisdom contained in his carefully crafted Farewell Address--wisdom that earlier generations of Americans considered an indispensable part of their nation's political thought.

Matthew Spalding
Six Days to Reinvent Japan

Fifty years ago, in postwar Tokyo, General Douglas MacArthur gave a group of young Americans the assignment of drafting a new constitution for Japan. The resulting democratic charter has ordered Japanese political life ever since. Our author tells the story of this unusual "constitutional convention."

Alex Gibney
Huck's Black Voice

The author of Was Huck Black? tells how she came upon an insight, long recognized by African-American writers, that led to her pathbreaking book.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Hail to the Critic

The thoughtful Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne last summer chided presidential candidate Robert Dole for his favorable review of the box-office hit Independence Day and his more mixed assessment of the recent output of Hollywood in general. Dionne's swipe was only half serious, and the columnist ultimately conceded that presidents and presidential aspirants should be encouraged to take matters of culture seriously, even to comment upon them from time to time. They should indeed.

Jay Tolson
Miklos Radnoti

Poems selected and introduced by Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch

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