sign in sign up
<<
Home , Annet Mahendru, A Point of Law, Stan Beeman, Steve Forbes, Thomas Sowell, Thomas Whately

VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 3, SUMMER 2016

A Journal of Political Thought and Statesmanship

Michael Knox Richard Beran: Samuelson: Brexit and Hamilton All at on Broadway Patrick J. Garrity: David P. Henry Goldman: Kissinger Flailing Abroad Linda Bridges: e Comma Mark Queen Bauerlein: Queer eory Cheryl Miller: Jonathan Douglas Franzen Kries: Augustine’s Joseph Confessions Epstein: Isaiah Richard Berlin Talbert & Timothy W. Caspar: SPQR

A Publication of the PRICE: $6.95 IN CANADA: $8.95 , Poverty and Politics is a new approach to understanding age-old issues about economic disparities among nations and within nations. These disparities are examined in the light of , , geography, demography and culture.

Wealth, Poverty and Politics is also a challenge to much that is being said today about income distribution and wealth concentration— a challenge to the underlying assumptions and to the ambiguous words and misleading statistics in which those assumptions are embedded, often even by leading . This includes statistics about the much-discussed “top one percent.”

This revised and enlarged edition should be especially valuable to those who teach, and who want to confront their students with more than one way of looking at issues that are too important to be settled by whatever the prevailing orthodoxy happens to be.

A true gem in terms of exposing the demagoguery and sheer ignorance of politicians and in their claims about wealth and poverty . . . Dr. Sowell’s new book tosses a monkey wrench into most of the things said about income by politicians, intellectuals and assorted hustlers, plus it’s a fun read. (Professor Walter E. Williams, )

At a time when many politicians, academics and media commentators are focusing on income inequality, ’s Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective offers a refreshing and stimulating view. (Professor John B. Taylor, )

Sowell... draws from this well of research to do what he has done so well for so long: question basic assumptions behind and follow the facts where they lead him. (Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal)

It’s a scandal that Thomas Sowell has not been awarded the Nobel Prize. No one alive has turned out so many insightful, richly researched books. His latest is another triumph of crackling observations that underscore the ignorance of our economists and policy- makers. His take on how culture, geography, politics and social factors affect how societies progress— or don’t— will rile those addicted to political correctness but leave everyone else wiser. (Steve , Forbes magazine)

FOR COMPLIMENTARY EXAMINATION COPIES OR DESK COPIES, PLEASE CONTACT perseusacademic.com. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Charles R. Kesler: Change-Makers: page 5

CORRESPONDENCE: page 6

ESSAYS William Voegeli: Trump and His Enemies: page 10 Richard Samuelson: Hamilton versus History: page 64 Sometimes, worthy causes have unworthy champions. What the hit musical gets right—and wrong.

Mark Bauerlein: Queer to Stay: page 37 Joseph Epstein: A Thinker, I Suppose: page 75 A theory’s improbable triumph in the academy. Does Isaiah Berlin still matter?

REVIEWS OF BOOKS Brian Callanan: Justice League International: page 18 Mary Lefkowitz: Ancient Authors: page 48 The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities, Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and by Stephen Breyer. Beyond, by Richard Jenkyns.

Joseph M. Bessette: All Lives Matter: page 22 Douglas Kries: Sinner, Scholar, Saint: page 50 The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America, by Barry Latzer; and Augustine: Conversions to Confessions, by Robin Lane Fox. The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, by Heather Mac Donald. Edward Feser: A Mere—Brilliant—Sophist: page 52 Hume: An Biography, by James A. Harris. David P. Goldman: The Case for Benign Neglect:page 25 Mission Failure: America and the World in the Post-Cold War Era, Eva Brann: Novelist and Calvinist: page 55 by Michael Mandelbaum. The Givenness of Things: Essays, by Marilynne Robinson.

Patrick J. Garrity: Regarding Henry: page 28 Michael Knox Beran: Brexit and All That:page 58 Kissinger, 1923–1968: The Idealist, by Niall Ferguson. The English and Their History, by Robert Tombs.

Joshua Dunn: Cash for Flunkers: page 35 Darren Staloff: Founding Scribblers: page 61 The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?, by Dale Russakoff. The : Writings from the Pamphlet Debate: 1764–1776, edited by Gordon S. Wood. Richard Talbert: Bestriding the World: page 42 SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard. Rafael Major: It Was a Very Good Year: page 70 The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, by James Shapiro. Timothy W. Caspar: The Test:page 45 Rome's Revolution: Death of the Republic and Birth of the Empire, Cheryl Miller: : page 72 by Richard Alston; and The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen; and Purity, Most Famous Assassination, by Barry Strauss. by Jonathan Franzen.

Linda Bridges: Adventures among the Apostrophes: page 82 Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, by Mary Norris.

SHADOW PLAY Martha Bayles: —A Fan’s Notes: page 84 Truth, lies, and TV spies.

PARTHIAN SHOT Mark Helprin: Taking Terrorism Seriously: page 90

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 3 H  C VAN ANDEL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF STATESMANSHIP

M.A. POLITICS

Ph.D. POLITICS

A F  P   A  G E   P   P   A  P  

THE FACULTY Larry P. Arnn · Adam Carrington · Mickey Craig · John W. Grant Matthew Mendham · Ronald J. Pestritto · Kevin Portteus · Paul A. Rahe Kevin Slack · Thomas G. West

B        W  A  T  O ering Competitive Scholarships and Fellowship Stipends For more information or to apply: gradschool.hillsdale.edu | [email protected] | (517) 607-2483

HC_GradSchool_CRB_7-16.indd 1 7/25/16 8:36 AM mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

from the editor’s desk Change-Makers by Charles R. Kesler

ow that the democratic national convention is So he settled for telling us about 45 years with “the best darn over, we can look forward, not necessarily in every sense of change-maker I have ever met in my entire life,” “the best mother in Nthat term, to the campaign. The major Democrats have pre- the whole world,” the woman “who has never been satisfied with the viewed their arguments for the fall, and we can at least steel ourselves status quo in anything.” Despite constantly studying the issues, fil- for the upcoming exchanges. ing government reports, “always making things better,” Hillary, he For President Obama, the stakes are clear. As he told Politico re- admitted, can come off as earnest, “boring,” and, worse, an agent of cently, he wants his legacy to include “a 16-year era of progressive the status quo. Bill took pains to deny the last point, at least. The rule” that would upend the Reagan Revolution and fulfill his prom- Democrats face a tough question: if he can’t sell her, who can? ise in 2008 to transform the country “fundamentally.” Obama’s own achievement, in other words, depends on eight years of a Hillary illary tried, but one thing this change-maker Clinton Administration, its agenda shoved further left by Bernie can’t change is herself. She brought up It Takes a Village, Sanders’s “political revolution.” Whether Obama likes it or not, if Hher 20-year-old book, and tried to explain it again in her ac- Change doesn’t continue, Hope will die, above all his hope of being ceptance speech. Her stumbling block remains the same: Americans the progressive Reagan. don’t live in villages. She has friends in Greenwich Village, no doubt, In Philadelphia, therefore, he did his best to transfer his man- but Americans live in small towns, suburbs, cities, but everywhere, date to Hillary, always understanding that a charisma transfer was until recently at least, in families. Her book confuses government impossible. He hugged her long enough that images of and with civil society in ways that invite the expansion of government Tipper in 2000 came to mind, or was that Michael hugging Fredo into civil society—administering the affairs of families, churches, in The Godfather? Though Michelle and Barack were on their best schools, and every other civil association. behavior, the rivalry between the Obama and Clinton families is not Hillary’s latest formulation of this bad idea is “Stronger Together,” so easily buried, as his icy praise of Hillary showed. “She’s been there the theme of her speech and her campaign. Beyond its obvious value for us [Americans],” he explained, “even if we haven’t always noticed.” as a truism, her slogan raises the question why, for what purposes, do At his warmest, Obama still held something back. He declared, we want to be stronger together? So that we don’t have to “fear the fu- “there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hill- ture and fear each other,” she answered, which makes the Trumpian ary Clinton to serve as President of the ….” The state- alternative sound like a return to the dystopia that Thomas Hobbes ment’s over-the-top absurdity (James Madison, phone home) left one called the state of nature. But she was only getting started. Ameri- waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting to hear “and yet qualifica- cans need to unify, she went on, so that we can achieve the full bene- tions are no guarantee….” fits of modern liberalism, from expanded welfare (including federally was nicer, but his rambling story of Life with Hill paid funded abortions) to new restrictions on “mean and divisive” political tribute both to her and to the minefields in their long marriage. Take and private speech. his charming first sentence, “In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.” A girl?! Yet “my fellow villagers” remains a hard sell. Mrs. Clinton’s best mo- One thing Hillary in full ’70s feminist, Yale Law School mode would ments mocked , which is fine so long as he remains his never have allowed herself to be called was a girl. She was a woman, own worst enemy. In the long, uncertain campaign ahead of us, how- if not Woman, and boy could she roar. But Bill couldn’t say he met a ever, the world may grow more dangerous, and he more formidable. woman, because that was not unusual for him, and it might recall “that Hobbes, who lived in a very dangerous world and loved to play cards, woman” with whom he did not have sexual relations. noted wryly that in the state of nature clubs are always trump. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Claremont Review of Books, Volume XVI, Number 3, Price: $6.95 per copy; $27.80 for a one-year Summer 2016. (Printed in the United States on Editor: Charles R. Kesler subscription; $55.60 for a two-year subscription; August 3, 2016.) $83.40 for a three-year subscription. Add $17 Senior Editors: for all foreign subscriptions, including those Christopher Flannery, William Voegeli Published quarterly by the Claremont Institute for originating in Canada and Latin America. the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philoso- Managing Editor: John B. Kienker To subscribe, call (909) 981-2200, or contact phy, 1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, Upland, CA Production Editor: Patrick Collins [email protected]. 91786. Telephone: (909) 981-2200. Fax: (909) 981- Assistant Editor: Lindsay Eberhardt Visit us online at www.claremont.org/crb. 1616. Postmaster send address changes to Clare- Contributing Editor: Joseph Tartakovsky mont Review of Books Address Change, 1317 W. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not nec- Art Director: Elliott Banfield Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, Upland, CA 91786. Unso- essarily represent the views of the editors, the licited manuscripts must be accompanied by a self-ad- Publisher: Michael Pack Claremont Institute, or its board of directors. dressed, stamped envelope; or may be sent via email Nothing in this journal is an attempt to aid or hin- to: [email protected]. Publisher (2000–2001): Thomas B. Silver der the passage of any bill or influence the election of any candidate. All contents Copyright © 2016 the Send all letters to the editor to the above addresses. Claremont Institute, except where otherwise noted.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 5 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm CORRESPONDENCE

Trump and to globalist elites, are three such about whom Bayles is worried? for our working class, as opposed issues. Certainly their number wouldn’t to globalist elites.” My essay does Political Speech Contrary to Bayles’s sugges- include those fake revolutionaries the same. In particular, it credits tion if not explicit statements, who are rallying to Bernie Sand- Trump with having raised “issues Having read Martha Bayles’s Trump has not degraded the dis- ers and who are only interested that both parties have been avoid- tirade against “exhibitionist” course in our presidential races in further empowering public ad- ing,” such as “the heavy-handed Donald J. Trump (“Enemy of the to some unprecedentedly low ministrators to strangle our liber- enforcement of ‘diversity’ in edu- People,” Spring 2016), I found level. That was already happening ties and take away our incomes. cation and the workplace; the lack myself agreeing with part of her under (among others) our recent I’m also not struck by the verbal of control over America’s borders; complaint but exasperated by the Republican presidential candi- license of black and gay tenured the massive shift of jobs overseas; other part. Bayles is correct that dates, who couldn’t help cringing professors and street organizers the willingness to capitulate to Trump has sounded vulgar and in a shameless manner whenever whose verbalizing enjoys the en- America’s enemies; and the gen- inconsistent in some of his state- the subject of minorities came up. thusiastic approval of our govern- eral feeling that the American ments about his opponents and To his credit, Trump doesn’t shy ment and media leaders. In any Dream is fading.” (As it happens, about politics in general; and un- away from the problem of black case, noisy dissenters who march I’m writing this on the day Trump doubtedly his appeal as a reality- crime or from denouncing Black to a non-leftist drummer did not invited to release the data TV host has aided his rise as a Lives Matter for inciting violence abound in my workplace—or in it hacked from the website of the political celebrity. Like Ms. Bay- against police. One of Trump’s our national politics for quite a Democratic National Committee. les, I would prefer the rhetorical most vehement critics, and the while, until Trump, “the creature This forces me to retract the line style of Winston Churchill or GOP standard-bearer four years of reality TV,” brought his game about “willingness to capitulate some other traditionally well- ago, , seemed ter- to the presidential race. to America’s enemies.” In this re- educated political leader to the rified to contradict his enemies If Bayles is shocked by all gard, Trump is more willing than embarrassing gaffes and verbal even when they accused him of the nastiness in Trump’s com- any Democrat. His eagerness to monstrosities that have issued causing the deaths of his employ- ments, I’d urge her to look back do Putin’s bidding would be pa- from Trump’s mouth. But con- ees. Was President George W. at the election of 1800 and read thetic were it not so dangerous.) trary to Bayles’s warnings, I in- Bush behaving in a more digni- what was said and written then. 2) But Gottfried ignores my tend to vote for this onetime star fied manner than Trump when he , , next argument, which is that, of The Apprentice not because I went to Senegal in July 2003 and and their hired hands slung more despite having raised important admire his style but because he apologized before a Third World mud at each other than we’ve seen issues, Trump is not “a true tri- speaks out, however opportunis- dictator for our white American thrown around in the current bune, cutting through the moral tically and crudely, about issues sin of slavery? Recoiling from presidential contest. And while evasiveness and verbal smog that that matter to me. The emphatic what the media don’t want politi- Bayles is at it, she should read passes for campaigning nowa- rejection of political correctness, cians to discuss or bending spine- Harry Truman’s rants against days. Instead, he’s a creature of a more effective control of Amer- lessly to their will disgusts me far Tom Dewey in 1948. Surly politi- reality TV.” Perhaps the ica’s borders than recent Republi- more than anything that Trump cal rhetoric didn’t with Don- why Gottfried has nothing to say can and Democratic administra- has said. Such conduct indicates ald Trump. about this part of my essay (which tions have provided, and concern appalling timidity, which is not includes a brief discussion of ex- for our working class, as opposed Trump’s vice, whatever else we Paul Gottfried hibitionist reality TV in Russia) may choose to charge him with. Elizabethtown College is that, as “a retired academic who Finally, I’m not sure where Elizabethtown, PA has written many books,” he does Please send all Martha Bayles is coming from not waste time watching reality correspondence to: when she scolds our society in Martha Bayles replies: TV. I fear that if he were to start general and Trump in particu- now, it would only deepen his pes- Claremont Review of Books lar for “abandoning voluntary One’s first impulse, upon read- simism. But on the other hand, a Attn.: Letters to the Editor restraint” in speech. As a retired ing a letter like this, is to beg few hours of Celebrity Apprentice 1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, academic who has written many the writer to re-read the article might help him to see my point. Upland, CA 91786. books—and not Bayles’s pre- in question. I suspect that won’t 3) A small quibble: Gottfried sumed or preferred Trump voter, work, because it never does. At says he is “not Bayles’s presumed Or via e-mail: a “low-income white man”—let the same time, it is hard to let or preferred Trump voter, a ‘low- [email protected] me assure her that the academic such a serious misreading stand. income white man’.” Here are my world in which I spent more than So here are some brief responses. exact words: “Of all the demo- We reserve the right to edit 40 years shows all the verbal spon- 1) Professor Gottfried praises graphic groups in America, the for length and clarity. taneity of the Russian presidium Donald Trump for his “emphatic one most frequently tarred with under Joseph Stalin. Where (pray rejection of political correctness, [politically correct] accusations Please include your tell!) in our ideologically man- a more effective control of Amer- is low-income white men without name, address, and aged media, educational system, ica’s borders than recent Republi- a college degree. No wonder they telephone number. and political culture are all those can and Democratic administra- cheer when Trump says, ‘The shockingly insensitive speakers tions have provided, and concern hell with political correctness!’” I

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 6 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm defy Professor Gottfried to find could point to huge expenditures sands of talented public servants either presumption or preference on long-delayed transportation within government who want to in these words. They contain only projects—our version of subways play a part; the schools of pub- fact—and empathy. to nowhere. lic policy and management that 4) The final part of Gottfried’s I can well understand the need haven’t received the attention letter makes me wish I had made for a certain skepticism about they deserve. myself clearer. In a previous arti- government. But the point of Thomas Edison made the cle for the CRB (“Whistleblowers your essay cannot be to belittle point a century ago: “Vision with- and Deaf Ears,” Winter 2014/15), government. We need it, among out execution is hallucination.” I used the term “voluntary re- other things for infrastructure. I We are veering too far in that di- straint” to refer to ordinary stan- could cite stories of great success rection. It’s time to find the com- dards of civility, decency, etc., as and dedication. Arbitrarily deny- mon ground in sensible public opposed to coercive censorship by ing programs funding or cutting management, helping to restore either a state or an institution. To headcount without clear analysis the sense of trust fundamental to illustrate the point, I offered the of needs and excesses leads to am- democratic government. The examples of hate-speech laws in plifying the problems. Claremont France and speech codes on U.S. Yes, far too often, management Paul A. Volcker campuses, because to the extent has fallen short—sometimes for , NY Review of Books that they are coercive, they a) lack of funding, more often from Publication do not prevent hate speech and lack of getting the right people William Voegeli replies: Committee may in fact encourage it; and b) into the right jobs in the right or- have a deadening effect on intel- ganizations. Knowing when and I appreciate Paul Volcker’s lectual and political life. I prefer how to engage and oversee pri- thoughtful attention to “Sub- voluntary restraint to coercive vate contractors to carry out the way to Nowhere,” and agree with censorship, just as I prefer self- work and to promote competition much of what he says. Certainly, government to tyranny. But this is too often neglected. The need no sensible person could oppose William J. Bennett is precisely why I am not going to is apparent in the area of national bringing government manage- vote for Mr. Trump. security as well as in essential ment at every level of our fed- Robert Curry civilian programs. eral system up to the standards None of that seems to rise to we want, and have every right Gary and Carol Furlong Our Crumbling sensible political debate even in to expect, by getting the right this election year. But it’s those people into the right jobs in the Infrastructure repetitive failures that have un- right organizations. I also agree Michael W. Gleba dercut faith in government itself, that faith in our democracy will I want to the concern and that’s a very large problem. crumble unless citizens have Charles W. Kadlec you set out in your editorial “The Liberals and conservatives good reason to believe in govern- Subway to Nowhere” (Spring alike ought to find common ment’s capacity to do the right Kurt A. Keilhacker 2016). For much too long, this ground. Simply calling for newer thing most of the time with rea- country has neglected attention expanded programs in infra- sonable efficiency. Thomas D. Klingenstein to the need for managing govern- structure or elsewhere or cutting I believe, however, that Vol- ment programs effectively, both funding here and there to express cker’s assessment, sensible as far Larry G. Mattson “the big stuff” and “the small frustration won’t succeed—not as it goes, does not fully account stuff.” Professor Paul Light, a without attention to the need for for the politics of this manage- distinguished longstanding ob- competent management up and ment problem. He seeks an Aris- Robert W. Nelson server and critic of the field of down any administration. totelian mean between conserva- public administration, late last What’s at issue in this election tives, who make simple attacks on Bruce C. Sanborn year published a study amplifying year is nothing less than faith in and public service your point. He set out a long list our democracy—a sense that while calling for indiscriminate Dianne J. Sehler of failures in public management government most of the time can spending cuts, and liberals, who since 2000, ranging from the big- do the right things with reason- reflexively make great promises Paul E. Singer gest, like the inability of our na- able efficiency. That faith won’t and call for new spending pro- tional security agencies to coop- be restored by great promises and grams. The sensible centrists who erate and “connect the dots” be- new spending programs or by reject these extremes must under- Patrick M. Sullivan fore 9/11 and the botched launch simple attacks on “bureaucracy” take the years of work necessary of healthcare.gov, to the relatively and public service. to enlist talented public servants Jacob Y. Terner simple—the collapse of an inter- It will take years to bring the and schools of public policy and state highway bridge in Minne- management of our federal gov- administration in the project of sota or the scandalous inability of ernment—our states and locali- making government work again. the Veterans’ Administration to ties, as well—up to the standards The very fact that the changes allocate medical resources where we want. We have the resources Volcker calls for are so clearly needed. Here in I to start the process—the thou- necessary, however, argues that

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 7 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm the earnest public-spiritedness problems and dissatisfactions is and Southern Society Project’s the enslaved. I whole-heartedly he summons is unlikely to make seriously flawed with respect to documentary history of emanci- agree when Guelzo notes that much difference. The need for governmental efficacy. As I -ar pation. I do indeed seek to under- “most white Northerners…were competent public management gued in my book The Pity Party, stand the role of resistance among more interested in attacking is obvious, permanent, indisput- governing on the basis of their people of African descent, and slavery as a medieval and aristo- able, and urgent. And yet, some- compassion inevitably leads lib- place black agency in the center cratic labor system…than they how, it’s conspicuously lacking erals to insist that government of the story, where it belongs. In were in liberating black people from innumerable government must do something about fill-in- Guelzo’s view, one can either ar- from bondage.” agencies and undertakings, with the-blank problem. Their deeply gue for the role of black agency in And yet, ultimately, one caus- severe, palpable consequences. felt and proudly displayed com- the final emancipation or against al fact cannot be evaded. None It’s unthinkable that American passion leaves them, however, it. But to claim that the enslaved of this could have been possible government simply forgot or lost incongruously indifferent as to played a role in their liberation is without slaves who were willing interest in such a basic require- whether activist government ac- hardly to assert that they played to register their resistance to slav- ment. More fundamental causes complishes anything. What we the only role. ery. This may be so obvious that must be involved. have come to call “virtue signal- The question is really about it is often ignored. Yet it should I’ll suggest two. First, since the ing” is the central point, not a how the slaves and their allies not be, for nothing else that was New Deal the Democrats have peripheral consideration. helped effect emancipation. Here, done to end slavery—not argu- been the party of government, Long before Mr. Volcker’s the comparative approach I take ments over tariffs, not efforts to committed to the proposition that blue-ribbon commission on im- lets us explore the different ways deny slavery’s expansion into the bold, persistent public-sector ex- proving government management resistance could influence aboli- territories, not the fight against perimentation can solve problems has issued its preliminary report, tion. My book argues that the ex- gag orders in Congress or the and right wrongs. It has also, how- liberals will have lost interest. perience of final emancipation in censorship of Southern mails— ever, become the party of govern- Fighting the next noble social the United States was singular in would have mattered had not the ment in the sense that a large part justice battle is much more grati- the Atlantic world, for here the enslaved themselves registered a of its electoral and financial sup- fying than the dull, hard work of “slave power” existed cheek-by- steady stream of discontent. This port comes from public employee seeing that the existing govern- jowl next to a thriving free-labor was the ammunition abolitionists unions. Like all labor unions, the ment structures are operating ef- economy, and it possessed more throughout the Atlantic world ones representing public employ- fectively, efficiently, and account- than its fair share of political used to argue that slavery was not ees are zealous about their mem- ably. Even those Democrats who power. What’s more, that power the benign, civilizing influence its bers’ compensation, benefits, and realize that public-sector unions was shared in a highly democrat- defenders proclaimed it to be, but job security, but resist proposals saddle activist government with ic political system that sought to a barbaric affront to developing to hold those members to rigor- severe structural defects also re- bury the slavery issue whenever it notions of human liberty and hu- ous performance standards or alize that the political risk-reward threatened to sunder two-party man equality. outsource their work to non-union calculation almost always calls for politics. (Yes, Jacksonian democ- The abolitionist movement members. capitulating to the unions now, racy actually raised the threshold may have begun with those who Unlike private-sector unions, and confronting them in some for ending slavery in the U.S.) As pled for the basic equality and hu- however, the ones representing very distant, very hazy future. a result, extirpating slavery here manity of the slave, but without public employees do not have to I’d love to be wrong. Volcker’s could be accomplished through an alternative appeal it could nev- curtail their demands for fear case for the importance of run- no simple act of Parliament or er have found the necessary trac- that foreign competitors will win ning the government well is un- regal dictate—and certainly not tion in a highly democratic, and market share at the expense of assailable. If proposals like those the normal operation of two- in our terms highly racist, politi- their employer. In addition, pub- he outlines get traction and really party politics. It required the cal system. That appeal emerged lic-sector workers get to vote and do bring government “up to the fracturing of the political system, most clearly in the form of the campaign for—and against—the standards we want,” no one will and a resort to extra-political “slave power” argument, which public officials who will be sitting be happier than I am. Or more means: war. posited slaveholders as a threat across from them at the bargain- surprised. In the United States, a dense to the civil liberties of free white ing table, giving them negotiating layer of participatory politics Northerners. leverage not even the most power- mediated the gulf between black The pressure that slave behav- ful private-sector union can exer- From Slavery resistance and final emancipa- ior placed on Union policy played cise. In theory, then, the Demo- tion. These politics submerged a clear role in promoting the cratic Party’s mission is to show to Freedom the significance of slavery’s moral emancipation policy that trans- that activist government works. In status and of those who initially formed Union aims from the re- practice, its operation is all too of- In his thoughtful review (“Up argued on behalf of slavery’s de- versal of secession to the abolition ten to make sure it works for con- from Slavery,” Spring 2016), mise, highlighting instead the of slavery. I strenuously disagree nected, powerful insiders. Mere Allen Guelzo worries that my consequences of slavery on free with Guelzo when he asserts that citizens’ and taxpayers’ interests book Eighty-Eight Years is taint- society. As a consequence, and the Emancipation Proclamation are routinely sacrificed to those of ed with the “self-emancipation” as I detail in the book, this alone came first, with “the flight from the public employee unions. thesis—a term I studiously avoid was insufficient to end slavery. slavery following.” Voluminous Second, the liberal ideol- because of its long association That required the participation evidence demonstrates that the ogy that looks to activist govern- with James McPherson’s mis- of institutions, powerful people, runaway slaves presented Union ment to address an endless list of characterization of the Freedmen and those with no sympathy for generals and policymakers with

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 8 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm innumerable fits from the earli- Years is about slavery, and in any Finally, is there really “volu- Rael objects to my placing the est stages of the war. Even before account of slavery, the slave really minous evidence” which “dem- Emancipation Proclamation as hostilities began, enslaved Afri- is the central figure, since without onstrates that the runaway slaves the real trigger of black flight. But can Americans fled to Union-held the slave, it would be difficult to presented Union generals and that was not how the fugitives Fort Pickens in Florida in hope of have a story about slavery. In fact, policymakers with innumerable themselves saw matters. Captain securing their freedom. As early to keep the slaves’ story central to fits from the earliest stages of Charles B. Wilder, the superin- as May 1861, Union generals were slavery is, it seems to me, essential the war”? True, runaway slaves tendent of the contraband camp declaring runaway Confederate to asserting and defending the sought refuge even before the at Fortress Monroe, noticed run- slave laborers “contraband of war.” humanity of the slave. outbreak of war at Fort Pick- aways from as far as North Caro- It was this pressure—exerted in But emancipation is a differ- ens; what Rael neglects to add lina crowding into the camp who multiple theaters over the course ent story, and a more confusing is that the commandant, Lieu- “knew all about the Proclamation of the first year of the war—that story because of the variableness tenant Adam Slemmer, just as and they started on the belief led Abraham Lincoln to imagine in our use of the word “freedom.” routinely returned them to their in it.” When Richard Hill was that African Americans might A slave may be considered spiritu- owners. One slave even paddled interviewed by a congressional aid the cause militarily rather ally free when there is a refusal out to Fort Sumter; he, too, was committee on Reconstruction in than be colonized elsewhere. His to concede ultimate property. A returned. The same Benjamin 1866, and asked when he became transformation is evident in the slave may also be considered free Butler who created the category free, Hill replied, “When the differences between the prelimi- in a de facto sense if the slave is of “contrabands” to receive run- proclamation was issued,” and it nary Emancipation Proclamation able to be removed from the im- away slaves at Fort Monroe also was then that he decided to run of September 1862 (which advo- mediate locale of oppression. assured slaveowners in occupied away from his master in Rich- cated colonization) and the final Whether in the swamps or on the Baltimore and New Orleans he mond. Nor does Rael, any more Proclamation of January 1863 streets of , the slave is free would certainly aid “in suppress- than I do, possess data sufficient (which provided for freedmen’s when loosed from the constraints ing, most promptly and effec- to tell us how many slaves actu- enlistment in Union forces). that used to bind. tively, any insurrection” by slaves ally took the high road to free- But the slave, even if free in against their masters. The list dom (Secretary of State William Patrick Rael these senses—even if free by self- of Union commanders who or- Seward thought it was no more Bowdoin College initiative—is not thereby emanci- dered the rendition of runaways than 200,000, which would place Brunswick, ME pated. That can only happen if the to their Confederate masters is Southern black fugitives at a low- principal stalk of slavery, namely long and embarrassing—Halleck, er number than Southern white Allen C. Guelzo replies: the possibility of chattel property McClellan, Grant, Sherman—as refugees) or how they would have in human beings, is cut down and is the behavior of ordinary Union been able to exercise “influence” I am no more fond of the dug up by the root. Emancipation soldiers. on the decision-making of white term “self-emancipation” than is is a legal process, enforceable by Although Sergeant Samuel politicians in Washington and Patrick Rael. It is, for one thing, the same law which once defined McIlvaine of the 10th Indiana the Northern state capitals. too vague. For another, it is too the slave as chattel. To say oth- was fighting to deny “the right of Where the slaves probably ex- redolent of Marxist romanticism erwise is to cloud understand- any portion of the people of the ercised their greatest influence about the ’s need to ing with words, to accept for fact United States to sever, or rive in for freedom was, ironically, in emancipate itself without the aid what is actually metaphor. twain, and destroy this govern- the South—first, by providing of other classes or sympathizers. I recite all of this, not hoping ment, which stands out to the the manual labor that the Con- But for good or for ill, the “self- to try Rael’s patience, but because rest of the world as the polestar, federates used to fortify them- emancipation thesis” has become the “self-emancipation thesis” has the beacon light of liberty & selves (and thus convincing white a factor in interpretations of the flourished largely because of a freedom to the human race,” he Northerners that emancipation Civil War and emancipation. confusion over what we are talk- did nothing when “three or four would provide an incentive for And as much as he insists that “to ing about when we use terms like slave hunters” entered his regi- them to desert), and second, as a claim that the enslaved played a freedom and emancipation. So, for ment’s camp after Fort Donelson simple threat-in-being, since no role in their liberation is hardly the simple sake of clarity, can we and dragged away two or more nightmare haunted Southerners to assert that they played the not agree this far: blacks who “had mixed with the more, or kept more able-bodied only role”—a statement I could Negro cooks and waiters and Southern whites from the front not endorse more strongly—Rael • Did slaves achieve freedom by were thus endeavoring to effect lines, than the prospect of an up- undermines that qualification in resisting and running away? their escape to the North.” They rising by slaves on their own plan- the previous sentence when he Yes. “had counted on being protected tations. They also served who says that he seeks to “place black • Was that freedom a perma- in the regiment,” but McIlvaine only stood and waited. agency in the center of the story.” nent and legally defensible sta- and his compatriots, who were Perhaps it will help if we spec- tus? No. so concerned to be a beacon light For more discussion between Patrick ify just what it is we are talking • Did the Emancipation Proc- of liberty and freedom, allowed Rael and Allen Guelzo of slavery about when we speak of slavery lamation confer such a status? them to be disarmed and taken and emancipation, please visit CRB and emancipation. Eighty-Eight Yes. “without molestation on our part.” Digital at www.claremont.org/crb.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 9 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Claremont review of books Volume XVI, Number 3, Summer 2016

Essay by William Voegeli Trump and His Enemies

ometimes, worthy causes have was fully engaged in drinking himself to death, viewer, adding that the senator was “disorder- unworthy champions. Henry David a mission he accomplished three years later at ly, reckless, [and] impulsive.” SThoreau spoke for many abolition- the age of 48. ists in calling John Brown a “crucified hero,” That McCarthy’s tactics were often dubi- Style and Substance but he was better described by a more judi- ous, even deplorable, should have been clear cious contemporary, Abraham Lincoln. Even before the hearings, however. After expos- hambers and buckley’s criticisms though Brown “agreed with us in thinking ing Alger Hiss in 1948 as a Soviet agent of McCarthy track closely with mod- slavery wrong,” Lincoln said, there was no ex- employed at the highest levels of American Cern conservatives’ attacks on Donald cuse for the “violence, bloodshed, and treason” government, became a Trump’s aversion to accuracy, complexity, con- perpetrated at Harpers Ferry. hero to all who considered Communism both sistency, and propriety. The similar political Millions of Americans still living remem- hateful and dreadful. Shortly after the Mc- styles are not coincidental. While still in his ber Joseph McCarthy, Republican senator Carthy book was published, Chambers wrote twenties, Roy Cohn became chief counsel to from Wisconsin and, in the early 1950s, the Buckley, declining to endorse it. “McCarthy the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on In- nation’s most prominent anti-Communist. will one day make some irreparable blunder vestigations and, in that capacity, McCarthy’s William F. Buckley’s second book, after God which will play directly into the hands of our principal strategist. (Cohn “gives bad, bad ad- and Man at Yale (1951) but a year before the common enemy and discredit the whole anti- vice,” says one character in Redhunter.) Two 1955 launch of magazine, was Communist effort for a long while to come,” decades later Cohn—by this time a fixture on McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Chambers warned. “His flair for the sensa- New York’s social scene as well as a power- Meaning, co-authored with L. Brent Bozell, tional, his inaccuracies and distortions, his ful, feared, disreputable attorney—took on Buckley’s brother-in-law. The book’s famous tendency to sacrifice the greater objectivity Donald Trump, then in his twenties, as a cli- conclusion was that, yes, if and when McCar- for the momentary effect, will lead him and ent. Their professional relationship became thyism involves false accusations against peo- us into trouble.” a friendship as Cohn guided Trump’s ascent ple who are neither Communists, nor disloyal, Buckley ultimately came to share that from mere wealth to power and fame. Even 30 nor threats to national security, it deserves to assessment, though he waited decades to say years after Cohn’s death, be criticized and opposed. “But as long as Mc- so publicly. He voiced many second thoughts was struck by his “unmistakable” influence on Carthyism fixes its goals with its present pre- in a lightly fictionalized account of the era’s Trump’s “wrecking ball of a presidential bid— cision, it is a movement around which men of controversies, The Redhunter: A Novel Based the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the em- good will and stern morality can close ranks.” on the Life of Senator Joe McCarthy (1999). bracing of bluster as brand.” Precision, however, was the quality McCar- “But if it was not venal, then a very stupid To see the stylistic similarities between thyism most conspicuously lacked. McCarthy thing for McCarthy to do,” says one character McCarthy and Trump is easy, then, but for- and His Enemies was published just weeks be- of the senator’s conduct in the Army-McCar- mulating substantive comparisons is not. “Mc- fore the live television coverage of the Army- thy hearings. “Incredibly stupid!” his friend Carthyism,” because of McCarthy’s grave, re- McCarthy hearings, the senator’s Waterloo. By insists. Buckley was even more explicit after peated blunders, has come to be understood the end of 1954, McCarthy had been censured Redhunter was published. “I have thought for as his antagonists viewed it: vicious character by his Senate colleagues, was being disdain- a long time that McCarthy did more damage assassination predicated on guilt by associa- fully ignored by journalists and politicians, and to his cause than benefit,” he told one inter- tion. The full measure of the senator’s histori-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 10 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm cal defeat is revealed in the received wisdom political class by elevating a candidate who over, the Trump movement is propelled by the about his fundamental transgression: not meets none of the club’s admissions stan- fear that the idiots aren’t just screwing up the falsely accusing many non-Communists, but dards and flouts all of its rules. usual things, such as solvency, but the people’s presuming to attack Communists at all. Mc- security and the nation’s sovereignty. Carthyism, in other words, has come to be un- The Central Component The test of whether a government merits derstood as much worse than recklessness. It the people’s support, according to the Decla- was, rather, the adamant refusal to accept that here is some measure of truth in ration of Independence, is whether it is “likely Communism was a manageable global prob- all such assessments, but McCarthy- to effect their safety and happiness.” People lem and, at home, harmless, essentially benign, Tism helps explain in anoth- are increasingly skeptical about government’s and perhaps even idealistic and kind of noble. er way, by highlighting its central component. increasingly expansive promises to help make For the senator’s supporters, however, a The interviewer who elicited Buckley’s strong us happier, however, as shown by the consis- very different meaning was equally clear. Mc- criticism of Joseph McCarthy went on to ask: tently low approval ratings for Obamacare. Carthyism’s central precept was that the new, if he behaved so badly, why was he so popu- Nor is there much to show for all the politi- fraught Cold War rendered vigorous, un- lar? (And McCarthy was popular, not solely cians’ talk about bringing back good jobs at apologetic anti-Communism imperative—as among Republicans. Joseph Kennedy, Sr., good wages. Rendering our increasingly di- a matter of geopolitics, yes, but especially for was an early, avid supporter. Anti-McCarthy vided society a gorgeous mosaic hasn’t been a the sake of moral clarity. Patriots must eschew Democrats complained that Jack Kennedy, as raging success, either. the language of moral equivalence and repudi- Massachusetts’s junior senator, showed too But at least, people have a right to feel, ate all remnants of the 1930s Popular Front much profile and too little courage regarding government could do its most basic job and sentiment that Communists were merely “lib- McCarthy. After managing his brother’s 1952 enhance our safety. Surely, in exchange for all erals in a hurry.” In 1952 wrote Senate campaign, Robert Kennedy worked the taxes we pay and forms we fill out, gov- that “there is one thing that the American as an assistant counsel to McCarthy’s Senate ernment can make life decidedly more peace- people know about Senator McCarthy: he, subcommittee. Though his tenure there last- ful than the state of nature. Elections analyst like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. ed less than a year, he remained fond of Mc- Henry Olsen reports that Trump’s support About the spokesmen for American liberal- Carthy, who became godfather to Kennedy’s “skyrocketed” to “a position of dominance” ism, they feel they know no such thing.” oldest child. RFK attended the Wisconsin against his Republican rivals after he respond- By contrast, a year after Trump began his funeral when McCarthy died in disgrace.) ed to last year’s terrorist attacks in France and astoundingly successful presidential cam- According to Buckley, McCarthy’s popu- California by calling for, as his campaign put paign, Trumpism’s meaning remains hazy and larity has to be understood in context: it, “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims contested. As a result, it is difficult to say what entering the United States until our country’s cause, if any, Trump’s personal shortcomings He appeared on the horizon as the representatives can figure out what is going might undermine. What does Trump favor, man in Washington who said: We on.” Olsen writes: oppose, or intend? He doesn’t act as his own are screwing things up and we should theoretician, the way Thomas Jefferson, Lin- get rid of the people who have been Trump voters believe they are threatened coln, and Woodrow Wilson did. Nor does he running things, from the President by Islamic terrorism. If Muslims come depend on one, as John F. Kennedy relied on (Truman) on down. A month before to America, they think, Americans will Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Ted Sorensen, or McCarthy’s [1950] Wheeling speech be more likely to die. Trump’s proposed on and Dan- [denouncing State Department in- ban seems to them to be common sense: iel Patrick Moynihan. It is hard to dispel the ternal security practices and making The first duty of a national government suspicion that any comprehensive exegesis of McCarthy famous], Alger Hiss was is to protect its citizens from foreign his books, speeches, interviews, and tweets convicted as a spy. He had been vocif- threats. One must not underestimate requires taking Trump’s words more seri- erously defended in the academy, in how important the proposed ban is to ously than he ever has. There is, as a result, the press, and by President Truman. Trump’s voters and to his appeal. a seemingly insoluble problem: to interpret Six months before, the Soviet Union Trump—to inquire into his most basic goals exploded an atomic bomb, using meth- It’s not hard to construct a 21st-century and principles—may well be tantamount to ods and tools made available by Ameri- counterpart to Buckley’s recitation of the de- misinterpreting him. can and British agents. Two feats, betrayals, and humiliations that made Viewing Trumpism from the bottom up— months before, free fell to Com- McCarthyism possible. In the 15 years since what do his voters favor, oppose, or intend?— munism, to Mao Tse-tung. Six months 9/11, the United States government has done does not dispose of the problem. Many ex- later, the North Koreans attacked the many things intended to thwart terrorism. Yet planations for the Trump phenomenon have south, precipitating a war in which whether the security enhancements, if any, are emerged. His supporters, it is said, are lash- forty thousand Americans were killed. commensurate with the high price the nation ing out against globalization and deindus- All of that was less than five years since has paid is doubtful. In Afghanistan, America trialization, railing against modern capital- we had fought a world war, at the end embarked on what has proven to be its longest ism’s creative destruction, which has been of which Stalin enslaved the whole of war. No one can state with confidence how or creative for many but destructive for those Eastern Europe. when it will end, or explain the basis on which whose livelihoods and communities depend we could say we have accomplished our ob- on the labor market for highly fungible work. “We are screwing things up.” This is the jectives. The war and subsequent occupation Or they’re giving vent to a barely disguised subtext of the entire Trump campaign. Or, as in Iraq—badly conceived, justified, managed, or denied racial tribalism. Perhaps, instead, the Atlantic’s David Frum describes its core and terminated—poisoned American politics they mean to express contempt for the entire message, “We are governed by idiots.” More- and destabilized rather than democratized

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 11 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm the Middle East. The Arab Spring, likewise, ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” ing political life throughout the extended re- raised hopes for a turn to liberal democracy, He went on, in his Second Inaugural Address, public, not just inside the halls of government. but resulted only in compounding the region’s to concede that supporting democratic move- This republican remedy for the diseases tragic dilemma: only through authoritarian- ments in “every” culture is likely to result in incident to republican government is, how- ism can it stave off fanaticism. Al-Qaeda gave institutions that “reflect customs and tradi- ever, wholly inapplicable to a polity where one rise to ISIS, a group even more lunatic and tions very different from our own.” Ameri- division, such as between Sunni and Shiite lethal, which has engaged in pornographic cans called to plant the seeds of democracy ev- Muslims, dwarfs the importance of all other brutality in the Middle East while directing erywhere should expect some exotic hybrids groupings. In such circumstances, majorities or inspiring mass murder in Paris, Brussels, as we “help others find their own voice, attain have no need to fear ever finding themselves San Bernardino, Orlando, and Nice. their own freedom, and make their own way.” in the minority. They’ll be even less reluctant By January 2005, however, the hope that to abuse those minorities they regard as vile America First liberal democracy could adapt to, and then blasphemers and infidels. flourish in, any cultural environment had al- Trump voters, apparently, believed a for- oseph mccarthy campaigned as a ready been rendered doubtful by our experi- eign policy devoted to protecting America’s Republican against Democratic failures, ence in Iraq. A democracy that completely citizens and advancing America’s interests Jthough he eventually took the position repudiated the separation of church and state, was clearly superior to George W. Bush’s 21st- that the Eisenhower Administration was also for example, would reflect customs and tradi- century Wilsonianism. One of Trump’s most dangerously complacent about Communism. tions so different from our own as to call into strenuous conservative critics, Peter Wehner, Donald Trump, by contrast, has campaigned question whether the resulting institutions faults him for rejecting what Wehner offers from the outset against the job both parties were in any meaningful sense democratic. It as a central conservative tenet, the “belief that have done in protecting Americans from ter- requires heroic optimism to believe that the America, confidently and carefully engaged in rorists. He secured the Republican nomina- Middle East as we know it is amenable to the international affairs, can be a force for good in tion against a field of 16 candidates described separation of mosque and state. Iran’s steps in the world.” But the Bush Administration, in last summer by George F. Will as “the most this direction, under the shah, were violently which Wehner served, was much more confi- impressive since 1980, and perhaps the most dent and much less careful than it should have talent-rich since the party first had a presiden- been about going into Iraq and then staying tial nominee, in 1856.” to democratize it. Trump appeals to people How did Trump achieve this? One crucial Putting America first who believe that policy ill-judged, who want difference from all those competitors is that strikes many people as our government to be a force protecting and he could deplore the Middle East policies of advancing what’s good for Americans, as op- both Presidents Bush and Obama as “a tre- an entirely sensible posed to conducting an open-ended mission mendous disservice” and a “disaster.” No oth- of global social reform. er GOP candidate possessed so much leeway commitment to expect to denounce the war in Iraq, the most recent from an American president. The P.C. Shuffle Republican president’s “signature idea,” as the New York Times’s Ross Douthat termed hese voters’ post-iraq skepticism it. At the other end of the spectrum of 17 can- did not, however, render the com- didates, ’s campaign never recovered overthrown in 1979, and Turkey’s commit- Tparatively dovish Democratic Party of from making a terrible first impression: the 12 ment to secular governance, less than a centu- Barack Obama, , and Ber- years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Free- ry old, is being steadily undermined by those nie Sanders attractive. (One Democrat who, dom had, apparently, been too little time for who believe it betrays Islam. It is less that the based on his foreign and domestic policies, him to form an opinion as to whether, know- separation of mosque and state is a principle might have drawn their votes was Jim Webb, ing what we do now, his brother’s decision to that has been considered and rejected in Mus- previously senator from Virginia and Secre- invade that country had been a good idea. lim countries, than that the concept is so at tary of the Navy under President Reagan. He Trump has described his axial foreign variance with “customs and traditions very exited the 2016 Democratic presidential con- policy precept as “America First.” Detractors different from our own” as to be too incom- test before most voters realized he was in it, fastened on the formulation as either obtuse prehensible to receive a hearing. then stated that he would not vote for Clinton about the term’s provenance, or a signal that Furthermore, democracy requires grasping in November, but might vote for Trump.) he, like Charles Lindbergh 80 years ago, would and embracing the idea of a loyal opposition, Several writers, including this journal’s edi- fuse isolationism with nonchalance towards for which the Middle East offers little prec- tor, have explained Trump’s ascent as a reac- dictators who abused populations other than edent or prospect. In ’s extended tion to political correctness. The idea is that ours. But take away its historical echoes, which republic, a multiplicity of interests operates to Trump’s apparent incapacity to say anything are probably inaudible to both Trump and his prevent democracy from becoming illiberal. other than what’s on his mind at any given mo- voters, and putting America first strikes many Majorities composed of constantly changing ment appeals to voters fed up with proliferat- people as an entirely sensible commitment to coalitions of small interests would be reluc- ing rules about how to avoid giving offense. expect from an American president. tant to tyrannize minorities: the self-interest of But it is important to consider the question It’s a principle far easier to comprehend and each, apprehensive about the high likelihood of in relation to the dangers posed by terrorism. endorse than George W. Bush’s contention being in the minority at other times concern- The salient feature of political correctness is that America’s “vital interests” now required ing other questions, would make restraint and hostility to free speech and, more generally, “supporting democratic movements and insti- comity a matter of prudent self-interest. In this the idea of inalienable rights. Its most promi- tutions in every nation and culture, with the way, ambition counteracts ambition, moderat- nent manifestations include campus speech

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 12 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

codes, hypersensitive reactions to “microag- Note that Islamophobia is contrived re- gressions,” and the vindictive denial of due gardless of whether the Muslim threat is real process to faculty and students accused of or merely perceived, which mean that a vigor- sexual harassment or assault. ous response to any such threat is, by defini- This zeal to restrict civil liberties is not tion, prejudiced and irrational. “This is why,” free-floating, however, but serves the political the late Christopher Hitchens wrote, “the goal of repudiating appalling injustices of the fake term Islamophobia is so dangerous: It past by securing a very different future, one insinuates that any reservations about Islam immeasurably more equitable and admirable. must ipso facto be ‘phobic.’” The reality, he This project is, in the main, defined by identity insisted, is that in the purported “gorgeous politics, the belief that groups that have been mosaic of religious pluralism, it’s easy enough Jefferson, abused and humiliated must assert themselves to find mosque Web sites and DVDs that Lincoln, and and be accorded abundant compensatory peddle the most disgusting attacks on Jews, the Unfinished respect. The companion belief is that those , Christians, unbelievers, and other Work of the sharing the demographic profile of the perpe- Muslims—to say nothing of insane diatribes Nation trators of abuse and humiliation—above all, about women and homosexuals.” (Hitchens by Ronald L. straight white males—must atone and defer. did not, it turns out, coin the zinger often Hatzenbuehler Merely refraining from abusing and humiliat- attributed to him, that “Islamophobia” is a ing members of groups previously victimized term invented by fascists, to be used by cow- isn’t enough: they still enjoy privileges derived ards, for the manipulation of morons. He did, from “the system of murder and exploitation however, write something just as good in the that benefits some of us at the expense of oth- weeks after 9/11: leftists whose primary con- ers,” in the words of one penitent, Emily Po- cern was that we avoid overreacting to terror- An Indispensable thast, a Seattle-based writer and musician. ist attacks were “of the sort who, discovering Liberty: The Fight “The current politically correct response a viper in the bed of their child, would place for Free Speech cripples our ability to talk and to think and the first call to People for the Ethical Treat- in Nineteenth- act clearly,” Trump said after the Pulse night- ment of Animals.”) Century club massacre in Orlando. “If we don’t get America tough, and if we don’t get smart and fast, we’re Taking Sides Edited by not going to have our country anymore. There Mary M. Cronin will be nothing, absolutely nothing, left.” hen trump says political cor- Legions of commentators and political op- rectness cripples our ability to think, ponents dismissed that speech as still more Wtalk, and act against terrorism, he’s hyperbole from The Donald. But Trump’s signaling that our response to terrorism is se- startling success in the GOP race has much verely compromised by Islamophobia-phobia— to do with the feeling that identity politics has the closed-minded, contrived, overwrought, Citizen indeed left Americans less safe from terrorism unwarranted, misdirected, counterproductive of a Wider than we need and deserve to be. Consider the fear that accurate threat assessments and ad- Commonwealth: term “Islamophobia,” defined by the Council equate self-defense might hurt a Muslim’s feel- Ulysses S. on American-Islamic Relations as the “closed- ings. “Public sentiment is everything,” said Lin- Grant's minded prejudice against or hatred of Islam coln of a republic’s political life, which means Postpresidential and Muslims.” The Center for Race and Gen- that those who mold public sentiment are Diplomacy der at the University of California, Berkeley, more powerful than legislators and judges, be- by Edwina S. gives this account, more expansive, tenden- cause they make “statutes and decisions possi- Campbell tious, and explicitly P.C.: ble or impossible to be executed.” Our molders of public sentiment have made citizens more Islamophobia is a contrived fear or worried about accusations of bigotry than they prejudice fomented by the existing Eu- are determined to report possible terrorism. A rocentric and Orientalist global power man working near the San Bernardino shoot- structure. It is directed at a perceived or er’s home, according to one news account, “said Use promotion real Muslim threat through the mainte- he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men code CRB25 for a nance and extension of existing dispari- in the area” before the attack, “but decided not 25% discount on ties in economic, political, social and cul- to report anything since he did not wish to ra- online orders. tural relations, while rationalizing the cially profile those people.” necessity to deploy violence as a tool to By word and example, a diffident govern- achieve “civilizational rehab” of the tar- ment encourages a diffident citizenry. Days Phone orders: 800-621-2736 Online orders: www.siupress.com get communities (Muslim or otherwise). after the San Bernardino killings, U.S. Attor- Islamophobia reintroduces and reaf- ney General Loretta Lynch told a meeting of firms a global racial structure through the group Muslim Advocates that her “greatest which resource distribution disparities fear as a prosecutor” is that terrorist attacks are maintained and extended. will inflame anti-Muslim sentiment, leading to

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 14 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm rhetoric that “will be accompanied by acts of the demands of the less privileged are always violence.” Strange that a law-enforcement offi- presumptively valid, and any actions taken by cial’s greatest fear would correspond to some- the less privileged in connection with their thing other than the greatest threat. Fifteen grievances always deserve respectful, non- years after 9/11, the violent anti-Muslim back- judgmental consideration. lash is an outrage permanently on the verge of There are good to reject this all- CLARITY. taking place, while bombings and shootings by purpose dispute-assessment tool. Outrageous Islamic zealots remain mere realities. crimes are outrageous crimes, so our moral HOPE. Equally strange is the Department of energies should be concentrated on deploring, Homeland Security’s policy that prohibited preventing, and punishing them. Those who, PROMINENT SOCIAL CRITIC OS GUINNESS OFFERS GUIDANCE immigration officials from reviewing visa -ap instead, dissipate such energies by calibrating IN TROUBLED TIMES plicants’ social media postings. The possibil- how much the perpetrators’ victimhood miti- ity of finding information that indicates ter- gates their responsibility are blowing out the rorist intentions was, apparently, outweighed moral lights around us. by fear of “a civil liberties backlash and ‘bad And even if one does accept the simple public relations’ for the Obama administra- identity-politics framework, it quickly proves tion,” according to ABC News. In the absence to be incoherent and unusable. “There are of such reviews, the government took three many dogs in any fight,” says Frum, “and the weeks to approve a fiancée visa application task of identifying which one is the underdog for Tashfeen Malik, who became one of the is not so easy.” Privilege is hard to measure, San Bernardino shooters, “despite what the cannot be reduced to a single common quality, FBI said were extensive social media messages and does not flow in just one direction. “The about jihad and martyrdom.” terrorist’s veto on portrayals of Islam is itself The molders of public sentiment weaken a very real form of power,” Ross Douthat ob- our resolve against the next terrorist attack by serves, “and as long as journalists who chal- aggressively misinterpreting the most recent lenge it end up dead, the idea that they are ‘up’ one. In the assessment of “Doonesbury” com- and their targets are ‘down’ reflects a denial of ic strip creator Garry Trudeau, the Charlie life-and-death reality.” Hebdo cartoonists did not deserve to be mur- The situation gets messier still when some dered in their Paris editorial office. Exactly. of the less privileged turn on others, instead But they did cross a “red line” by entering of following the script and directing their “into the realm of hate speech” with “crude, animus at the more privileged. A New York vulgar drawings” that were guilty of “punch- Times editorial deconstructed Omar Mateen’s ing downward, by attacking a powerless, dis- murder of 49 people in a gay nightclub, in the enfranchised minority.” course of which he called the police to declare Powerless, disenfranchised French Mus- his devotion to ISIS: lims were wrong to slaughter the Charlie Heb- “Os Guinness has a clear eye, a quick do staff. Sort of. But Muslimswere “allowed While the precise motivation for the mind, a profound grasp of political to feel pain,” Trudeau said, and retained the rampage remains unclear, it is evident philosophy, and an eloquent pen.” “right to be outraged” by cartoons that offend- that Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred JAMES W. SIRE ed them. The magazine’s “free speech absolut- toward gays and lesbians. Hate crimes author of The Universe Next Door ists” had “succeeded in provoking many Mus- don’t happen in a vacuum. They oc- lims throughout France to make common cur where bigotry is allowed to fester, “With passion and urgency Os Guinness cause with its most violent outliers.” Trudeau where minorities are vilified and where gives a sweeping historical account of Amer- applauded the Obama Administration for de- people are scapegoated for political gain. ica’s past and her prospects for the future.” clining to send a high-level representative to Tragically, this is the state of American MICHAEL CROMARTIE the march held after the Paris murders. politics, driven too often by Republican Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC Interpreting these comments, David Frum politicians who see prejudice as some- argued that Trudeau had made clear that thing to exploit, not extinguish. “Os Guinness enlightens, cheers, identity-politics liberalism has, by its own chastises, and informs.” lights, solved the political and ethical dilem- Evidently, an Eighth Avenue blamestorm- JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN, mas that have confronted humans for mil- ing session was convened to alleviate liberal author of Sovereignty: God, State and Self lennia. When considering any conflict, the cognitive dissonance. The result was this morally hygienic liberal can always determine postulate: if a) Islamophobia is evil, and b) easily which side to favor. First, identify which homophobia is evil, but c) Islam is homopho- antagonist is more privileged. Second, hold bic, then d) it’s all the Republicans’ fault. The the more privileged responsible for any and news must be made to do its duty. When a all discord between themselves and the less story undermines, complicates, or merely privileged. As a consequence, the objections fails to support the master narrative about IVPRESS.COM of the more privileged to any scheme of rec- the more and less privileged, facts in evidence tification are always presumptively meritless, are ignored, and ones not in evidence are as-

Claremont Review of Books, Os Guinness Books Ad #12365.indd 1 7/5/16 10:46 AM Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 15 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

sumed. The epistemological humility that led More subtly but as insistently, President lete and irrelevant. “America should be a des- the Times to express uncertainty about Ma- Obama brandishes one of his two favorite tination for hard-working immigrants from teen’s precise motivations waxes and wanes at phrases—“that’s not who we are”—at any all over the world,” according to a 2015 press the paper. Columnist Paul Krugman, for ex- aspect of American life that displeases him. release from “top national Republican do- ample, needed mere hours after a lunatic shot (The “right side of history” is his other favor- nors.” Libertarian economist an Arizona congresswoman to conclude that ite.) The November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris contends that we discard cant in favor of wis- the crime was no “isolated event,” but the re- that killed 130 people intensified opposition dom when we come to understand that our sult of a “national climate” rendered “toxic” by to Obama’s plan to bring 10,000 Syrian war “so-called ‘fellow Americans’ are mere strang- conservatives’ “eliminationist rhetoric.” refugees to the U.S. “Slamming the door in the ers with no special claim on [our] time or af- face of refugees would betray our deepest val- fection.” On the left, —tolerance, Good Americans? ues,” the president declared five days after the empathy, diversity, inclusion, renouncing and Paris massacre. “That’s not who we are.” (The dismantling the Eurocentric structures of he america described in mccarthy president’s accompanying promise that the ref- power and privilege—will promote comity, and His Enemies resembles the divided ugees would be admitted only “after they pass respect, and fairness among the earth’s 7 bil- Tpolitics of 2016, which helps explain the highest security checks” was delivered two lion inhabitants, erasing tensions and distinc- the ascent of a political figure whose appeal weeks before the barely vetted Tashfeen Malik tions among people of different colors, creeds, and defects resemble the Redhunter’s. Then, helped murder 14 people in San Bernardino.) regions, and lifestyles. as now, many liberals were more exercised The “who we are” verbal tic, though annoy- The older sensibility about Us and Them, about the hypothetical dangers of defending ing, reminds us that when republics defend however, refuses to admit its own obsoles- the nation excessively than the real dangers themselves, they define themselves. In the cence. America is a nation dedicated to the of defending it insufficiently. The imagined middle of the 20th century, liberals took the proposition that all men are created equal. 1950s Reign of Terror, Buckley and Bozell position that it was un-American to accuse We must honor the proposition, since the re- argued, was replete with books, articles, edi- leftists of being un-American…but also very, public rests on the conviction that no one is torials, speeches, rallies, and radio and tele- very American to accuse red-baiting witch- good enough to govern another without that vision programs denouncing McCarthy…for other’s consent. But it is equally important to making people too frightened to speak their defend and cherish the nation, the vessel that minds. (“You American intellectuals,” Tom bears and sustains the experiment in self-gov- Wolfe wrote 40 years ago, “you want so des- If a) Islamophobia is evil, ernment. The Declaration of Independence perately to feel besieged and persecuted!”) and b) homophobia is evil, begins with the assertion that it has become Similarly, Loretta Lynch’s greatest fear, a necessary for one people to dissolve the politi- backlash against Muslims, is always immi- but c) Islam is homophobic, cal bands that have connected them with an- nent, but never occurring. other. Americans are a people, not just people, Then as now, liberals were outraged at then d) it’s all the and not just any or all people who embrace those who questioned whether they were Republicans’ fault. the idea of human equality and its political good Americans—but not outraged in a implications. The preamble of the Constitu- way that required forswearing such attacks tion offers six reasons for establishing the on others. Six years before Joseph McCar- new frame of government, the concluding thy began throwing around wild accusations hunters and malefactors of great wealth of be- one being “to secure the blessings of liberty of disloyalty, Franklin Roosevelt said in his ing un-American. At the beginning of the 21st for ourselves and our posterity.” This aspira- 1944 State of the Union address that the re- century, liberals take the position that the de- tion does not require indifference or antipa- fusal to enact the government guarantees of fining quality of who we are is that we’re open- thy to any or all others, nor to their poster- economic security spelled out in his Second rather than closed-minded about who we are. ity. But it does make clear, again, that We are Bill of Rights would mean that “even though The highest virtue is to be non-judgmental not Them, and we may justifiably prefer our we shall have conquered our enemies on the and inclusive, which means the greatest vice safety and happiness to theirs when conflicts battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to is to be among the mean-spirited bigots who between the two arise. the spirit of Fascism here at home.” A “small censure, shame, punch down, and exclude. Consigning patriotic attachment to the group of rich manufacturers, bankers, and Where political correctness is most power- dustbin of history ignores stubborn moral landowners…decided that Germany had to ful, such as at Berkeley’s Center for Race and and anthropological realities, as recently de- have a tough, ruthless dictator who would Gender, Islamic radicals are regarded as allies scribed by columnist Megan McArdle: play their game and crush the strong German in the great struggle against privilege—multi- labor unions,” Harry Truman explained dur- culturalists in a hurry. Somehow, over the last half-century, ing the 1948 presidential campaign. That’s Western elites managed to convince how the Nazis prevailed. And things were Us and Them themselves that nationalism was not real. just as precarious in America, where, Tru- Perhaps it had been real in the past, like man continued, there’s “a growing—and dan- he oldest, most fundamental po- cholera and telegraph machines, but now gerous—concentration of immense economic litical question is Us and Them. Many that we were smarter and more modern, power in the hands of just a few men,” who Tpeople want to write a new chapter it would be forgotten in the due course constitute “the powerful reactionary forces in human history, where nationality figures of time as better ideas supplanted it. which are silently undermining our demo- trivially in that distinction. On the right, eco- That now seems hopelessly naïve. cratic institutions” by “working through the nomics—trade, specialization, growth, pros- People do care more about people who Republican Party.” perity—should render Us and Them obso- are like them—who speak their lan-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 16 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

guage, eat their food, share their cus- TheAmerican Interest’s Walter Russell Mead Given his manifest, widely discussed de- toms and values. And when elites try has described our century’s counterpart to fects as a prospective president and as a hu- to ignore those sentiments—or ban- the containment doctrine. Given “the real- man, the rise of Donald Trump cannot be ish them by declaring that they are ity that jihadi ideology is alive and well,” he read as anything other than a vote of no con- simply racist—this doesn’t make the wrote, to “survive and to thrive, the West fidence in the political class that has guided sentiments go away. It makes the non- will have to become more like : guard- our anti-terrorism policies over the past 15 elites suspect the elites of disloyalty. ing ourselves constantly against a threat that years. Those who believe that problem to be For though elites may find something can’t be eliminated.” Our “peace and secu- America’s most pressing are right to fear that vaguely horrifying about saying that rity” will “all depend on the vigilance of our Trump’s flair for the sensational, his inac- you care more about people who are security forces and the competence of their curacies and distortions, will do more harm like you than you do about people who leaders.” than good to the cause of anti-terrorism, just are culturally or geographically further Our political leaders’ vigilance and com- as Joseph McCarthy did to the cause of anti- away, the rest of the population is out- petence must encompass not just their orga- Communism. This danger makes it all the raged by the never-stated corollary: that nizational skills, but their capacity to grasp more important to satisfy the people’s ur- the elites running things feel no greater the malevolence of those who want to kill our gent demand: leaders and policies that don’t moral obligation to their fellow coun- citizens and shatter our way of life. Officials squander, for the sake of secondary consider- trymen than they do to some random who, instead, traffic in sentimental blather ations, the moral and practical resources we stranger in another country. about how we’re all brothers under the skin, need to thwart terrorists. In opposing Islamic awaiting the call of freedom that comes to terrorism, as in any other critical endeavor, If we don’t get tough and smart about Is- every human mind and soul, are busy reject- the main thing is to make sure the main thing lamic terrorism, Donald Trump says, we’re ing the understanding it is most important for is always the main thing. Trump’s voters feel not going to have our country anymore. them to possess. Our dangers will increase that he, like them, is unequivocally commit- There will be nothing left. Reasonable peo- by an order of magnitude if Islamic terrorists ted to this imperative. About his political op- ple may disagree about whether this terror- succeed in their long quest to acquire weap- ponents, they feel no such confidence. ism amounts to what we have come to call ons of mass destruction. The murder of tens an existential threat. Perhaps it is a tough of thousands of civilians in a single attack will William Voegeli is a senior editor of the Clare- and often tragic but decidedly manageable make admonitions like Loretta Lynch’s after mont Review of Books, and the author, most challenge, the position taken 60 years ago by the Paris massacres—“we cannot be ruled by recently, of The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited pre-Vietnam Cold War liberals, who prided fear”—seem even more blithe, obtuse, and Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion (Broad- themselves on their unsentimental realism. stupid. side Books). “No one does reference works better than ABC-CLIO.”* ABC-CLIO titles consistently set the standard for contemplative coverage in American History.

July 2016, 179pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 June 2016, 180pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 June 2016, 186pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 August 2016, 185pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 Print: 978-1-4408-5282-4 Print: 978-1-4408-4097-5 Print: 978-1-4408-4216-0 Print: 978-1-4408-3207-9 $37.00, £25.00, €34.00 $37.00, £25.00, €34.00 $37.00, £25.00, €34.00 $60.00, £40.00, €55.00 eBook: 978-1-4408-5283-1 eBook: 978-1-4408-4098-2 eBook: 978-1-4408-4217-7 eBook: 978-1-4408-3208-6

Learn more at abc-clio.com

* ARBAonline

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 17 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Brian Callanan Justice League International The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities, by Stephen Breyer. Alfred A. Knopf, 400 pages, $27.95 (cloth), $17 (paper)

riting the court’s lone dissent the opinions of foreign judges should be ir- Noting that global commerce increasingly in the 1999 case of Knight v. Flori- relevant to originalists and non-originalists generates cases that involve foreign law and Wda, Justice Stephen Breyer relied on alike: modern foreign sources have no bear- facts, he lauds “the Court’s practice of taking no less an authority than the Supreme Court ing on the Constitution’s original meaning, into account the relevant international effects of Zimbabwe to support an inmate’s claim that and even those who wish to see the Consti- of its decisions.” But that practice is based on his long wait on death row—prolonged by his tution evolve through judicial decree surely the well-established presumption that, as a own appeals—made his punishment uncon- want it to reflect the views of theAmerican matter of international comity, Congress does stitutional. Justice pounced: people. Breyer never quite mustered a clear not enact laws that clash with foreign legal re- were there a shred of support for the right to response. Rather than advance a theory of gimes without clearly saying so. The point is a speedy execution “in our own jurisprudence,” interpretation legitimizing the use of foreign to honor, not alter, legislative purpose. he wrote, “it would be unnecessary” to rely on law, Breyer treats this practice, in the words Some federal statutes and constitutional foreign sources. Breyer later confessed that in- of NYU School of Law’s Jeremy Waldron, as provisions expressly contemplate the use of in- voking Zimbabwean precedent was “what one a “matter of getting a little bit of help here ternational law. The Alien Tort Statute (1789), might call a tactical error.” Maybe so. But the and a little bit of help there.” for example, opens federal courts to lawsuit by practice caught on, and a working majority of foreign nationals alleging a tort “committed in the Court now periodically uses foreign legal reyer’s new book, the court and violation of the law of nations or a treaty of sources in U.S. constitutional cases. the World: American Law and the New the United States.” Human rights advocates To his credit, Breyer is the only Justice BGlobal Realities, does not much improve have long sought an expansive interpretation who has seriously attempted to explain the on that formulation. The Court’s most inter- of the statute, though the Court has adopt- practice. Some years ago, he joined with the nationalist member seeks not to win but to ed a more limiting construction over the last late Justice to debate this transcend the debate over foreign law by plac- dozen years. But all sides agree that we cannot and other legal flashpoints. Since judges in ing it in fuller “context”: the many areas of law make sense of the Alien Tort Statute without constitutional democracies around the world that require the Court “to analyze foreign or consulting the customary international law often face “problems” similar to those con- international legal rules, statutes, or practices (up to and including that of the founding era) fronting American judges, Breyer argued, to arrive at a reasoned decision.” Breyer takes that forms the “law of nations.” why not consider how they solved those his readers on a tour of uncontroversial uses of Breyer concludes that worries over the use problems? “It will not bind me,” he said, “but foreign law to show that objections to the con- of foreign law in constitutional interpretation I may learn something.” Scalia answered that troversial uses are “beside the point.” “cannot but recede [when] set against” his ex-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 18 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm amples. But that is more wish than argument. colleagues “who have faced comparable prob- nevertheless, and our voice in the effort The author’s unobjectionable examples concern lems.” “The wheel needn’t be reinvented every and its outcomes will be diminished. cases in which foreign laws, institutions, or time,” he observes. But the real question is not practices were clearly implicated by the contro- whether judges should reinvent the wheel; it is Reviewing the scant case law on this issue, Brey- versy before the court. Those cases do not blunt whether the people’s representatives, through er urges the need to find a pragmatic constitu- the charge that the Court too often uses foreign statutory law or constitutional text, have al- tional accommodation for such delegations. legal authority to reshape constitutional provi- ready prescribed its dimensions. For those who sions that have nothing to do with foreign prac- believe that fidelity to original meaning is “the 2006 case before the federal ap- tices. In Roper v. Simmons (2005), for example, only approach that explains why judges have peals court in Washington, D.C., illus- the Court struck down the death penalty for the final word” (as Judge Atrates the controversy. A major environ- juveniles. That decision delegitimized the laws put it), the judicial task is not invention but mentalist group sued the Environmental Pro- of 25 states based, in part, on foreign and inter- interpretation. The judge is engaged less in tection Agency for failing to comply with deci- national law, including a treaty that the Unit- “problem solving” than discerning the solution sions made under the auspices of the “Ozone ed States never ratified. “The overwhelming crafted by lawmakers. Secretariat.” That is its real name; it exists to weight of international opinion [is] against the It is not enough, then, for Breyer to an- police an international environmental pact juvenile death penalty,” Justice Anthony Ken- nounce that “the nature of the world itself de- known as the Montreal Protocol. The United nedy wrote for the Court; “the opinion of the mands” the use of foreign law because foreign States signed the protocol and amended the world community, while not controlling our law is everywhere in use. Breyer’s analysis re- Clean Air Act to conform to it. Years later, outcome, does provide respected and signifi- quires a more candid recognition that there is environmentalists challenged the EPA on the cant confirmation for our own conclusions.” a line between the many commonsense uses of grounds that its regulation of ozone-depleting foreign law and the few much-disputed uses— chemicals had not kept pace with decisions reyer suggests that the court’s a line that traces to a debate over first principles. made by signatory parties convened by the Sec- critics suffer from “some version of the retariat. The EPA was bound to follow those Bpsychological phenomenon of displace- t is not only judges who are going decisions, the challengers argued, because they ment,” blaming foreign law usage when their global. In his most provocative chapter, were issued by an organization created by a real grievance is with a case’s outcome. Projec- IBreyer marvels at the proliferation of in- U.S. treaty and recognized by federal statute tion by the author may be a more apt diagnosis. ternational regulatory bodies charged with for the purpose of setting binding international It is striking that Breyer’s use of foreign law in oversight of matters ranging from the mun- standards. The court of appeals rejected that constitutional cases so reliably yields progres- dane (limits on bluefin tuna fishing) to the interpretation. If the Ozone Secretariat’s “‘de- sive results. In cases in which world opinion major (ozone emission restrictions). These de- cisions’ are ‘law,’” Judge A. Raymond Randolph is more retrograde the international dialogue velopments, he argues, are both salutary and wrote for the unanimous panel, “then Congress falls silent. In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), for inevitable in an increasingly “interdependent either has delegated lawmaking authority to an example, the Court recognized a constitutional world.” But he suggests that the United States international body or authorized amendments right to same-sex marriage—with no mention is too often a loner: that hidebound adher- to a treaty without presidential signature or of the European Court of Human Rights’ con- ence to the U.S. Constitution risks hindering Senate ratification, in violation of Article II of trary judgment one year earlier. Indeed, foreign America’s full participation in global regula- the Constitution.” That would “raise serious law does not make it into the footnotes in cases tory regimes. constitutional questions in light of the non- addressing issues ranging from abortion to Take the problem of delegation. The old delegation doctrine, numerous constitutional punitive damages to criminal procedure, mat- understanding of our Constitution was that procedural requirements for making law, and ters on which European sensibilities generally legislative authority can be exercised, in John the separation of powers.” Instead, the court point to more conservative policies. Locke’s formulation, only “by such men, and interpreted the applicable statute and treaty as But the core objection to the Court’s inno- in such forms” as the people have authorized. creating a “political commitment rather than a vative use of foreign law is not that it is foreign The modern administrative state made quick delegation of lawmaking authority.” or even that it is cherry-picked. It is that for- work of that. Since the New Deal, Congress But Breyer thinks this holding presents a eign sources are rarely probative of the Consti- has assigned vast lawmaking power to fed- “dilemma.” On the one hand, if rules issued by tution’s original meaning. As Scalia quipped: eral regulatory agencies, and the Supreme international regulators cannot bind the na- “I use foreign law more than anybody on the Court has blessed all but the most unbound- tion, then “how is the United States to remain Court. But it’s all old English law”—that is, ed delegations. an active participant in worldwide efforts” to founding-era authorities that elucidate how But what about legislative delegations by combat environmental pollution and other those who wrote and ratified the Constitution treaty to international regulatory bodies? “To concerns? On the other hand, international understood its language and legal concepts. the extent that the Constitution inhibits such rulemaking may lack “guarantees of fairness The same cannot be said about the latest rul- delegation,” Breyer explains, that American administrative (or perhaps con- ing of the Cour de Cassation. stitutional) law demands”—guarantees such Justice Breyer would do better to acknowl- it increases the difficulty of the United as public notice and judicial review. The chal- edge that the foreign law controversy is an off- States in arriving at cooperative solu- lenge is to “reconcile the expansion of interna- shoot of a larger and deeper jurisprudential tions with other countries to shared tional regulation with the procedural and sub- debate—a debate that handwaving about “glo- problems, such as environmental deg- stantive safeguards that domestic law typically balization” cannot moot. For the pragmatist radation, public health, threats to na- provides,” as most European nations have done. who, like Breyer, approaches judicial decision- tional security, and the like. If we can- This is a remarkable soft-pedaling of the making as “a kind of problem solving,” it might not contribute to these bodies and par- constitutional difficulties. Insufficient “safe- make sense to consult the opinions of foreign ticipate in their work, others will do so guards” are the least of the concerns raised

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 19 Changing the Conversations that Change the World

Money Changes Everything ISIS How Finance Made A History Civilization Possible Fawaz A. Gerges William N. Goetzmann “ In the flood of recent publications “ It is a fascinating thesis, brilliantly about ISIS, Gerges provides a welcome illuminated by scores of vivid examples, island of thoroughly researched analysis generously illustrated with a wealth of by a major authority on extremist pictures, comprehensive in its geographical Muslim movements. Both general and temporal scope, and in my view readers and specialists will benefit from almost entirely convincing.” Gerges’s balanced and well-informed — Felix Martin, understanding of this important and New York Times Book Review dangerous movement.” — John Voll, professor emeritus, Georgetown University Cloth $35.00 Cloth $27.95

How to Choose a Leader How to Grow Old Machiavelli’s Advice to Citizens Ancient Wisdom for Maurizio Viroli the Second Half of Life Marcus Tullius Cicero “ Niccolò Machiavelli was not only an Translated and with an introduction by Philip adviser to princes; he was also, and Freeman more importantly, an adviser to citizens. Maurizio Viroli has collected, explained, Worried that old age will inevitably and elucidated some of the best examples mean losing your libido, your health, and of Machiavellian advice. Be sure to read possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero this book before you go to the polls.” has some good news for you. In How to — Michael Walzer, Institute for Grow Old, the great Roman orator and Advanced Study statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all. Cloth $16.95 Cloth $16.95

Rough Country Blue Skies over Beijing How Texas Became America’s Economic Growth and Most Powerful -Belt State the Environment in China Robert Wuthnow Matthew E. Kahn & Siqi Zheng

“ Anyone seeking to examine the “ Blue Skies over Beijing comes at an relationship between modern American important time for China, when the religious conservatism and politics needs exploding incomes of urban dwellers are to look no further than Wuthnow’s colliding with rising pollution in the cities authoritative, encyclopedic survey of where they live. With a strong economic Texas’s influence on national trends.” backbone and a unique and timely focus —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on the rise of China’s middle class, this inspiring book will change the way we think about the links between changing urban

Paper $29.95 landscapes and environmental quality.” Cloth $32.95 — Maximilian Auffhammer, University of California, Berkeley

See our E-Books at press.princeton.edu

DO NOT PRINT THIS INFORMATION CLAREMONT REVIEW OF BOOKS SUMMER 2016 17-046 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm by authorizing international bodies to issue tion over fidelity to the Constitution’s institu- are the lawmaking powers of Congress “as rules that have binding force under U.S. law. tional design. Think of it as the internation- interpreted since the 1930s,” Breyer reassures International regulators are not organs of our alist phase of Progressivism’s impatience with us.) There is a strong current against that ex- government. The Constitution vests in them constitutional forms. pansive reading; Justices Thomas, Scalia, and neither legislative nor executive authority. But the analogy to the bargain underlying have all argued that the treaty Their officers are selected entirely outside the the American administrative state understates power is best understood as limited to mat- Appointments Clause process. Delegation of the problem. The Court has sustained broad ters that concern intercourse among nations. significant lawmaking authority to an inter- legislative delegations to executive branch But until that understanding commands a national regulatory apparatus would seem to agencies because it is often difficult to draw a majority, there is no reason to assume that create a new branch of government and further line between statutes that leave room for valid federalism or other structural constraints estrange the American people from those who executive discretion and those that impermis- would limit treaty-authorized regulation. make their laws. sibly delegate legislative power. But it is easy Ceding significant lawmaking authority to draw a line between the of to international regulators would effect a sea ut rather than address these Washington and the directorates of Brussels. change in our constitutional order. More than fundamental problems, Breyer frames The Court has also taken some comfort in the a legal reordering, it would advance the Unit- Bdelegation difficulties as a puzzle to fact that federal agencies are headed by ap- ed States further on the path of depoliticiza- be solved through legal ingenuity. The trick pointees chosen (and in most cases, removable) tion all too familiar in Europe by channeling is to “experiment with different approaches” by a democratically elected president. Interna- power away from the nation’s political branch- and “work out what bodies, national or inter- tional regulatory bodies, by contrast, have only es toward a smiling phalanx of supranational national, should review the fairness, transpar- the most attenuated line of accountability to technocrats. In that sense, it logically follows ency, and legality of findings of international the America people. from the rise of the administrative state and regulators.” He notes that the architects of Nor can we be confident that legislative the judicial license to reinvent constitutional the New Deal achieved a similar feat by per- delegations authorized by treaty would be norms: both represent a flight from politics mitting broad delegations to the federal bu- confined to recognizably “international” is- and republican self-government. It is unfortu- reaucracy, while adopting rules of procedure sues. The Court has not opined on the scope nate that Justice Breyer didn’t see fit to explain to “ensure agency fairness” and provide for of the Treaty Clause of the Constitution since how this move could possibly be squared with judicial review. A comparable workaround Missouri v. Holland (1920), which suggests our Constitution. should be possible for international regula- that no subject is beyond its reach. On this tion, for Americans “cannot, in our own inter- view, U.S. treaties, and the statutes that im- Brian Callanan is staff director and general est, stand on the sidelines.” It is a well-worn plement them, are not limited to the powers counsel of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcom- appeal to necessity and effective administra- enumerated in Article I. (But neither, really, mittee on Investigations. PROVOCATIVE SUMMER READING

WWW.PROMETHEUSBOOKS.COM Available wherever books are sold. Browse our catalog online at http://edel.bz/browse/prometheusbooks

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 21 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Joseph M. Bessette All Lives Matter The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America, by Barry Latzer. , 424 pages, $27.99

The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, by Heather Mac Donald. Encounter Books, 240 pages, $23.99

mong the many objects to which demeanor) assaults (not reported by the FBI) the mid-1990s through 2014. The book grew a wise and free people find it neces- and counting crimes whether or not reported out of his essay “The Great Black Hope,” which “A sary to direct their attention,” John Jay to the police, the National Crime Victimiza- first appeared in the Winter 2008/09CRB . wrote in The Federalist, “that of providing for tion Survey estimated a total of 5.4 million vi- Although Latzer acknowledges that “sophis- their SAFETY seems to be the first.” Although olent crimes and nearly 3 million burglaries in ticated statistical techniques, such as multiple public concern with the crime problem ebbs 2014. Put another way, each day in the United regression analysis,” have made significant con- and flows (largely tracking the crime rate), no States more than 14,000 persons become vic- tributions to criminological research, he insists function of government is more indispensable tims of a violent crime and more than 8,000 that quantitative criminology cannot “replace a to securing the “Blessings of Liberty” prom- homes or businesses are burglarized. That deep knowledge of a society, its particular his- ised by the architects of the American consti- there were many more crimes not long ago tory, and the workings of its criminal justice tutional order. Fortunately, the crime rate in should not blind us to just how large the crime system.” That deep knowledge is on display in the United States is much lower today than problem remains, and just how many innocent this impressive volume. it was a few decades ago, when crime domi- Americans continue to fall prey to the depre- What, then, accounts for the rather dra- nated the news. Even so, in 2014 (the most re- dations of the lawless. matic changes in crime rates throughout the cent year with complete published data), the 20th century? Crime theorists, writes Latzer, FBI reported 14,249 murders; 116,645 rapes; n the rise and fall of violent crime “tend to fall into two camps.” One group attrib- 325,802 robberies; 741,291 aggravated (felony) in America, Barry Latzer, emeritus profes- utes crime to “economic and social adversities,” assaults; and more than 1.7 million burglar- Isor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, while the other sees the key in culture. Latzer ies. And we know from victimization surveys presents a sweeping “synthesis of history and places himself firmly in the latter camp: “Be- (which ask about crimes whether or not the criminology” to document and explain the great cause there is no consistent correlation be- victim contacted the police) that these figures changes in the rate of violent crime in modern tween the extent of a group’s disadvantage and from official police reports understate the America: the drop in violent crime after World its violent behaviors, it is reasonable to con- number of crimes by about 40% for robbery, War II into the “golden years” of the 1950s, the clude that culture (or subculture for groups in aggravated assault, and burglary, and by about “great crime rise” that began in the mid-1960s, a large collective) is the ultimate causal factor.” two-thirds for rape. Thus, adding simple (mis- and the “great downturn” that characterized Along the way, he assesses a variety of specific

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 22 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm variables that affect crime rates. Lower alco- cation in criminal justice in the 1980s in the eather mac donald’s scintil- hol consumption in the 1950s helped reduce Cook County, Illinois, State’s Attorney’s Office lating collection of essays, The War crime, while the crack cocaine epidemic of the and the U.S. Department of Justice’s statistical Hon Cops, essentially picks up where late 1980s and early ’90s drove it up, especially agency, the dominant view among academics Latzer’s book leaves off. A fellow at the Man- violent crime. When the nation’s proportion and criminal justice researchers was that crime hattan Institute and prolific social commen- of teenagers and young men grew in the 1960s was largely a function of demography, and that tator, Mac Donald focuses on the renewed and ’70s, so did crime; yet this demographic to explain the crime explosion of the late 1960s national debate on crime, justice, and race change accounted for relatively little of the and ’70s all you really had to know was that generated by aggressive policing tactics (such overall crime increase. Though crime went up the baby boomer generation was then reach- as “stop and frisk”), police shootings of blacks in the 1960s as poverty went down, seemingly ing the crime-prone age of 15-25. How police, (much in the news lately), and state and fed- disproving the simple connection between prosecutors, and courts went about their tasks, eral incarceration policies and practices. The poverty and crime, the growth of the Ameri- the experts said, had little effect on crime rates. book begins with her forceful explanation of can middle class throughout the 20th century The criminal justice system itself neither effec- the “Ferguson effect” (a term coined by the St. helped reduce violent crime, because serious tively deterred crime, nor suppressed it by in- Louis chief of police), which holds that violent violence is largely the domain of impoverished capacitating repeat offenders, nor (giving up an crime is up in big cities because the firestorm neighborhoods. in itself did not earlier hope) rehabilitated criminals while they that erupted over the fatal police shooting of increase crime overall—American cities used were behind bars. 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mis- to be safer than the countryside (especially souri, on August 9, 2014, led police to pull the rural South)—but urbanization appar- atzer’s own account has noth- back from the kinds of proactive tactics that ently increased robberies by putting offenders ing to say about the impact of criminal had proven successful since the 1990s in re- in close proximity to numerous strangers car- Ljustice policies and practices on crime ducing crime and restoring public order. As rying cash and valuables. trends prior to the 1960s. In that fateful a New York City emergency-services officer decade, however, the crime explosion over- told Mac Donald, “I’m deliberately not getting entral to latzer’s account is the whelmed the resources of the criminal jus- involved in things I would have in the 1990s huge disparity in violent-crime rates tice system. Because police, prosecutors, and and 2000s…. I won’t get out of my car for a Cbetween the nation’s white and black courts could not keep up, “the chances of ap- reasonable-suspicion stop; I will if there’s a vio- populations. Despite large-scale economic, prehension and incapacitation declined.” This lent felony committed in my presence.” “Slan- social, and demographic changes, homicide “created incentives for even more crime,” and, dered in the media and targeted on the streets,” rates “over the entire twentieth century and as a result, “crime soared.” Thus, even a largely Mac Donald writes, “officers [have] reverted to into the twenty-first” were at least seven times cultural theory of crime must take account a model of purely reactive policing,” resulting higher among blacks (both as offenders and as of the rational incentives that explain some in a “[v]iolent crime surge…in city after city, as victims) than among whites. When crime was amount of predatory behavior. The public it- criminals began reasserting themselves.” dropping, members of both groups enjoyed self responded rationally to the crime explo- Although, as she notes, some academics have the benefits; when crime was increasing, both sion by demanding a tougher criminal justice challenged the reality of a “Ferguson effect,” no groups suffered. Yet throughout, black crimi- system: “Starting in the 1970s, more offend- less a figure than FBI Director James Comey nals’ greater propensity to murder and com- ers were incarcerated, prison sentences grew told students at the Law mit other violent crimes endured. It would ap- longer, parole policies were tightened, and the School in October 2015 that “a chill wind [has pear that culture is indeed “the ultimate causal death penalty was reinstated.” (In Cook Coun- been] blowing through American law enforce- factor.” Drawing on earlier insights of politi- ty, the number of felony courts more than qua- ment over the last year. And that wind is surely cal scientist James Q. Wilson and homicide drupled in the decade before I arrived there in changing [police] behavior.” It took only a few historian Randolph Roth, Latzer attributes 1981.) Not surprisingly, crime rates leveled off days for the president’s spokesperson to chal- this cultural difference to “the distinctive his- and then began dropping around 1980. The lenge the FBI director’s conclusion. Comey re- tory of blacks in the United States,” including decline was interrupted by the crack epidemic iterated his point in May 2016 (well after Mac the resentment and alienation fostered by Jim at the end of the decade, which pushed violent Donald’s book was completed) upon reviewing Crow, the exposure of blacks to the “accept- crime to new heights. In the 1990s Congress FBI crime data for 2015. As reported by the ability of interpersonal violence in the South,” and President Bill Clinton responded with New York Times, Comey told reporters that the movement of former slaves to Southern tough new anti-drug laws and federal funding “he believed after speaking with a number of cities where they occupied the bottom of to expand local police forces. A “great down- police officials that a ‘viral video effect’—with the economic order, the availability of cheap turn” in crime began in the mid-1990s and officers wary of confronting suspects for fear handguns, and “the social and economic tur- lasted for two decades. Latzer attributes the of ending up on a video—‘could well be at the moil of the post-Reconstruction years.” “All of drop primarily to three factors: the “boomers” heart’ of a spike in violent crime in some cities.” these conditions,” he concludes, “created the began to age out of crime and were replaced “There’s a perception,” he said, “that police are criminal culture associated with lower-class by a less violent generation; the crack epidemic less likely to do the marginal additional polic- African Americans for more than a century.” ran its course; and a “retrenched criminal jus- ing that suppresses crime—the getting out of Social or cultural of crime like tice system responded aggressively instead of your car at 2 in the morning and saying to a Latzer’s can be hampered by their failure to ac- caving in as it had in the late 1960s and early group of guys, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’” count for the impact of criminal justice policies ’70s.” Minority Americans disproportionately As Mac Donald ably shows, the original and practices. It is as if the deeper forces that benefited from the “great downturn”: “the charge that officer Darren Wilson had shot move crime rates up or down are impervious to crime drop unquestionably saved countless Michael Brown in cold blood as he stood with how police, prosecutors, and courts respond to black lives and spared thousands of African his hands up trying to surrender was a com- crime. For example, when I received my edu- Americans from nonlethal victimizations.” plete lie from the very beginning. The U.S.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 23 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Department of Justice report on the shooting, found that 61% of blacks (compared to 59% of based on extensive interviews and physical whites) wanted the police “to actively enforce evidence, entirely corroborated the officer’s quality-of-life laws in their neighborhood.” At self-defense claim. Yet Attorney General Eric police-community meetings, local residents Holder and major media outlets “massively frequently complain that the police are not misrepresent[ed]” the department’s findings doing enough to control disruptive behav- by affirming only that the investigation “did ior of teenagers and young men, to regulate not support” the charges and that the depart- blaring car stereos, to dislodge encampments ment decided “not to file charges.” Rather, of vagrants, and to shut down open-air drug says Mac Donald, the evidence “eviscerate[d] markets. “The targets of these complaints virtually every aspect of the pro-Brown, anti- may have been black and Hispanic,” she notes, Wilson narrative.” This example is part of a “but the people making the complaints, them- recurring theme in the book: the Obama Ad- selves black and Hispanic, didn’t care. They ministration’s willful encouragement of the just want orderly streets.” Criminologists and myth of a racist criminal justice system. “street-level agitators” alike ignore the evident truth that the law-abiding poor yearn “to enjoy he principal offender is obama the same civility and order in their neighbor- himself. In November 2014, after a hoods as the residents of Park Avenue take for Tgrand jury refused to indict Officer granted in their own.” As one elderly minor- Wilson, the president “betrayed the nation” in ity woman exclaimed at a police-community a national television address that failed to de- meeting in the South Bronx after a huge spike fend the criminal justice system and the rule in shootings, “Oh, how lovely when we see the of law. After the Baltimore riots in April 2015 police! …They are my friends.” that followed the death of Freddie Gray after his arrest and transportation in a police van, lthough mac donald is best known the president told college students that black lately for her writings on police, she men are “treated differently by law enforce- Adevotes the final quarter ofThe War ment—in stops and in arrests, and in charges on Cops to the incarceration debate. Here she and incarcerations. The statistics are clear, up effectively refutes the charge that racism ex- and down the criminal justice system. There’s plains the overrepresentation of minorities in no dispute.” (Hillary Clinton had made the prison, and she provides a detailed account of same charge a few days earlier.) As Mac Don- California’s current “prison litigation night- ald rightly notes, “[t]his claim of disparate mare.” The activists have one goal: “to make treatment is simply untrue.” And then in July incarceration so expensive that law-enforce- 2015, the president told reporters during a ment authorities will have to abandon it for visit to a federal prison in Oklahoma that pris- all but the most heinous crimes.” “America,” oners he had met with there “made mistakes she counters, “does not have an incarceration that aren’t that different than the mistakes I problem; it has a crime problem. And the only made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys answer to that crime problem is to rebuild the made,” implying that federal prisons were family—above all, the black family…. The filled with casual users of marijuana or cocaine. demonization of the police and the criminal “This conceit was preposterous,” responds Mac justice system must end.” Donald. “It takes a lot more than marijuana or Debates in criminal justice are especially cocaine use to end up in federal prison.” But susceptible to the distorting effects of widely ac- the facts seemed not to matter to the president, cepted, if factually unsupported, myths. When who was contributing to “the biggest delegiti- the president himself is one of the chief myth- mation of law enforcement in recent memory.” makers, the job of refuting the myths and re- Like Latzer, Mac Donald frequently re- storing facts and reason to a central place in the minds the reader that the greatest beneficia- deliberative process will be all the more daunt- ries of an effective criminal justice system are ing. Barry Latzer and Heather Mac Donald the poor and minority Americans who live in are very much up to the task. If policymakers high-crime neighborhoods. “[T]housands of pay heed to the information, arguments, and black men are alive today,” she writes, because insights of these two excellent new books, our of data-driven proactive policing tactics intro- neighborhoods and communities will become duced in the 1990s. Indeed, during the crack safer places to live and work, and more Ameri- epidemic of the late 1980s, it was elected black cans will enjoy the “Blessings of Liberty” that officials who pushed hardest for toughening our governments were created to secure. the drug laws. If few such politicians today defend the police against charges of racism or Joseph M. Bessette is the Alice Tweed Tuohy indifference, the law-abiding poor know bet- Professor of Government and Ethics at Clare- ter. A 2015 survey of New York City voters mont McKenna College.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 24 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by David P. Goldman The Case for Benign Neglect Mission Failure: America and the World in the Post-Cold War Era, by Michael Mandelbaum. Oxford University Press, 504 pages, $29.95

ichael mandelbaum sat down This is quite a turnaround in the Ameri- and state-building, and the continuing price a year ago to write what one dust- can consensus, and also a big change for we pay for our mistakes. Mflap blurb calls “a startlingly origi- Mandelbaum, director of the American nal, creative new book.” Like Rip van Win- Foreign Policy program at Johns Hopkins hough it seems hastily written kle, he awoke in a new era, and now finds University. In The Case for Goliath—at the and lightly proofread, Mission Failure himself in the center of the new conventional height of the Bush Administration’s democ- Tmakes a point of critical importance. wisdom. racy promotion efforts in late 2005—Man- Mandelbaum gained prominence during the In Mission Failure: America and the World delbaum noted approvingly that the United ’90s as a critic of the Clinton Administration’s in the Post-Cold War Era, Mandelbaum argues States was acting like a world government, human-rights activism, which he thought that America pursued the wrong goals after providing public goods around the globe in pursued goals peripheral to American inter- 1991 and, inevitably, failed. That this is no the form of security, economic stability, and ests and failed to achieve those goals—in So- longer controversial was emphatically demon- financial markets, without which the world malia, Haiti, and above all in the former Yu- strated in the voting booth. None of the Re- order would cease to function. He thought goslavia. He notes that “most of the members publican presidential candidates who took up this would last until the cost of entitlements of the Clinton administration, including the George W. Bush’s foreign policy agenda sur- crowded out funding for foreign policy—at president, would have preferred to have had vived the first few presidential primaries. The some far distant date. nothing to do with the conflict in Kosovo.” eventual nominee, Donald Trump, told the This exuberantly Americanocentric vi- Least of all did they want to back dodgy Al- New York Times in March that “[i]f our presi- sion vanished much sooner than anticipated. banian separatists with ties to narcotics and dents would have just gone to the beach and Just five years later, inThe Frugal Superpower: human trafficking. enjoyed the ocean and the sun, we would’ve America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped The Kosovo Liberation Army nonetheless been much better off in the Middle East.” Ex- Era, Mandelbaum argued that, following the lured America into the conflict: cept for some former officials eager to defend 2008 financial crash, America no longer could their records, the old activist foreign policy afford to govern the world. His latest book The KLA had no hope of evicting the has few advocates. outlines the reasons for our failures in nation- Serbs and winning independence on its

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 25 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

own. It aimed, rather, to provoke a Serb ian impulses. Once blackmailed, Europe has This is a contentious generalization, stated reaction sufficiently visible and brutal to opened itself to future blackmail. According as if it were an unobjectionable platitude. It trigger intervention by the West, which to the leaked minutes of an October meet- surely is not the case that Americans always did have the military means to force the ing between Turkish President Recep Tayyip have believed that all peoples wanted what Serbs out of the province. That is exact- Erdogan and European officials, Erdogan they wanted. The Pilgrims confessed a Calvin- ly what happened. warned that he could send Syrian refugees to ism that foresaw the salvation only of a small Greece and Bulgaria and allow thousands to Elect. Having fled the Thirty Years War, they Muslim radicals learned the lesson well. drown on Turkish shores. It seems odd for saw themselves as survivors of a dying and That is the purpose of Palestinian attacks on the head of a Muslim country to threaten Eu- self-destructive civilization. The founders lis- Israelis: to provoke a response like Serbia’s ropeans with the deaths of thousands of Mus- tened in fear and trembling to the sermons of and a solution like Kosovo. As the Palestinian lims, but that is what the West taught Mus- Jonathan Edwards and staked their lives and journalist Mohammed Daraghmeh wrote last lims to do in Kosovo. fortunes on the most improbable gamble that October, What would it take to unlearn the lesson prosperous and unpersecuted men had ever of Kosovo, and dissuade Turks, Palestinians, ventured. Calvinist exceptionalism prevailed Palestine is an international issue. [The and others from using humanitarian disasters through the administrations of John Quincy issue] won’t be decided in a flurry of for diplomatic leverage? Mandelbaum does Adams and Abraham Lincoln. knives or acts of martyrdom [suicide not say, but the answer seems clear from his As Joseph Bottum argues in An Anxious attacks], or in protests or demonstra- reading of the Kosovo debacle: the West must Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of tions. It will end only when the world exercise benign neglect towards humanitar- America (2014), America today remains under understands it has a duty to intervene ian calamities. If we submit to moral black- the spell of the Social Gospel, which, emerg- and to draw borders and lines, as it did mail, we risk building humanitarian disas- ing in the post-Civil War era, changed the in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Kosovo. ters towards an unmanageable critical mass. object of Christianity from personal salvation Some prominent voices in the West—such to world betterment. Walter Russell Mead In this grisly farce, Palestinians emplace as French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy— notes that the Social Gospel was the source of rockets behind human shields to maximize argue that interventions like the Libyan fiasco “the Baby Boom generation’s ethos of service.” their own civilian death toll—something no are necessary to show moderate Muslims that This mainline Protestant cultural consensus previous combatant in history has attempted we care about them. Sadly, the outcome has was bolstered by classical political rationalism to do—while the Israeli army embeds human- been to show radical Muslims that they can and neo-Thomist theory. These rights lawyers in combat units. manipulate us. three currents fused into the consensus view Mandelbaum describes. To question that con- andelbaum scorns the “peace merica’s misplaced humanitari- sensus was tantamount to anti-social behav- processors” obsessed with a solu- anism has had baleful consequences ior—until the consensus imploded during the Mtion to the Israeli-Arab conflict Afrom Libya to Iraq to Afghanistan. But present election cycle. which will never come so long as the Palestin- questioning the premises of American policy ian side believes it can eliminate the Jewish at the time brought with it pariah status: “It e are all essentialists now. national presence in the region. That belief [was not] acceptable to venture the opinion It has been borne in upon us that arises in large measure, he might have added, that the inhabitants of Haiti, or the Balkans, Wculture is central. The trouble is from the Muslims’ canny estimation of the or Afghanistan, or Iraq were incapable, under that we have few conceptual tools to apply to West’s squeamishness and moralizing nar- existing conditions, of building and sustain- the problem. America confronts adversaries cissism. Like the Kosovo Albanians, the Pal- ing Western-style institutions and practices, gripped by existential anguish so great that it estinians threaten to create a humanitarian even though that proved to be true. Such sen- moves tens and potentially hundreds of thou- catastrophe of such terrible dimensions that timents would have been treated as ethnocen- sands of them to kill themselves in order to the West will feel compelled to intervene. It tric bordering on racist,” writes Mandelbaum. harm enemy civilians. Nothing quite like this recalls the old illustration of chutzpah: the son “America’s own political culture and the cir- has happened before. who murdered his father asking for mercy be- cumstances of the post-Cold War world com- The main cultural obstacle to democracy cause he is an orphan. bined to make the missions the country un- mentioned by Mandelbaum is kinship, which This same squeamishness impelled West- dertook seem initially plausible in the eyes of is certainly a salient feature of Middle Eastern ern Europe to accept over a million Muslim those responsible for them.” societies. He writes that “the social structure migrants during 2015, with more arriving in Foreign policy, Mandelbaum avers, cannot of the region worked against democracy by 2016. Whether the Turks deliberately en- ignore the fact that “in all human endeavors giving rise to loyalties too narrow to support couraged the migration that swamped Euro- culture matters”—an assertion we first en- institutions based on impersonal norms, a re- pean border controls is hard to determine, but counter in his discussion of the war in Af- quirement for democratic government. Arab they certainly turned the migrants into politi- ghanistan. The trouble is that societies had as their basic unit the tribe.” cal leverage, extorting €3 billion in return for Ethnic and religious groups in the Middle discouraging further migration. [t]he Bush administration believed what East “did not regard it as natural or desirable Having managed to earn the ire of both Americans had believed since before the to live in a country in which each group had the United States and Russia by giving covert founding of the republic…[they] were equal political rights, which is the necessary assistance to the Islamic State, Turkey now confident that what those people want- condition for democracy.” finds itself in diplomatic isolation. Nonethe- ed for themselves was what all people This is well-trodden ground, and certainly less, Ankara has parlayed its weakness into wanted, which was more or less what true; but kinship as such does not explain the strength by exploiting Europe’s humanitar- Americans wanted. most alarming developments in the region.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 26 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

ISIS is not a kinship network; on the contrary, on the international scene? China has never na that we view them as competitors rather it draws on fighters from Surrey to Xinjiang, shown an interest in projecting power past than enemies. It is important to draw clear who abandon their kin to wage jihad. Nor for the outer boundary of Chinese culture, which lines and stick to them. In some fields we may that matter is Hezbollah, which began as a it treats as sacrosanct and in defense of which work with Moscow and Beijing—for example militia with strong roots in Lebanon’s Shia it will make war. Will China’s “One Belt, One counterterrorism—even as we oppose them Muslim community, yet has lost roughly one- Road” scheme and its financial arm, the Asian elsewhere. Too much American policy think- third of its frontline fighters in Syria, far from Infrastructure Bank, make China a dominant ing was beguiled by the naïve hope that Rus- their homes, for the greater glory of the Shiite Eurasian power? Mandelbaum does not men- sia and China would embrace American val- cause. tion these efforts. The Shanghai Cooperation ues, or the vain expectation that they would Globalization and war have undermined Agreement, a possible competitor to NATO, implode. Too little thought has been given to kinship networks, freeing hundreds of thou- is mentioned once in passing. managing in a world in which America has sands and prospectively many millions of Mandelbaum remarks that America failed the most power but not a monopoly. young men to adopt an apocalyptic stance to foster democratic reforms in Russia be- towards this transformation. Islam has many cause “Vladimir Putin steadily eroded the andelbaum has long argued interpretations, but one that greatly resonates democratic institutions and practices that his that the expansion of NATO af- with Islam’s militant origins channels the predecessor Boris Yeltsin had tried, unsteadi- Mter the fall of Communism served existential despair of the bulge generation of ly, to establish in Russia.” Putin continues to no purpose except to unsettle the Russians. young Muslims into homicidal and suicidal enjoy overwhelming popularity in the wake This, he believes, contributed to Russia’s de- behavior. Traditional society cannot stand up of the Ukraine crisis, to the consternation of cision to flout international law in Ukraine. to the global gale. Most of the former strong- American analysts, even under sharply dete- NATO expansion may have been counter- holds of Catholicism in Southern and East- riorating economic conditions. Russian na- productive, but was largely beside the point. ern Europe lost their faith in a single genera- tionalism and Eastern Orthodox messianism Putin cared much less about Poland and the tion, and their fertility rates—a gauge that is appeal to Russians, who appear to prefer an Czech Republic than he did about Ukraine. highly correlated to religiosity—are among ecstatic collective identity to the bland indi- I am told by an eyewitness that when Putin the world’s lowest. vidualism of modern Western democracies. It saw the news of the Orange Revolution on How should we understand the stresses is worth noting that Russia’s fertility rate has the night of November 22, 2004, he explod- in Islamic culture and their strategic implica- recovered from a low of just 1.17 births per ed: “I’ll never trust [the Americans] again!” tions? The default answer has been to ask the female in 2000 to 1.71 in 2013, a event Conflict between the Catholic, Ukrainian- West to stand surety for disastrous outcomes in demographic history. Russian culture has speaking western part of the country and the in Muslim civilization. This has only rein- shown surprising resilience, and not for the Russian-speaking east was hard to avoid, and forced the Muslim sense of entitlement and first time. The foreign policy establishment Mandelbaum does not propose a solution. drawn the West into deeper obligations. wrote off Russia in the 1990s and ignored Partition has long seemed to me the logical Russia’s return as a power until Putin seized outcome. andelbaum has little to say the initiative in Syria. The winners in the post-Cold War world about the cultures of Russia and Russia’s success in Syria illustrates Man- will be those who best can manage its in- MChina. Here the notion of kinship delbaum’s Kosovo thesis: Russia made no pre- stability, which is a euphemism for relaps- has little relevance: both are multi-ethnic tense of humanitarian motives, and showed ing into occasional cruelty. Putin’s ability empires, albeit with different characteristics. little concern about civilian casualties when to play a weak hand effectively stems from Apart from the United States, no country has it bombed opponents of the Assad regime. this insight. America’s post-Cold War vi- succeeded more than China at integrating American rules of engagement, by contrast, sion of a stable and democratic world order, disparate ethnicities. It did so not by attract- were so averse to collateral damage that most as Mandelbaum argues, was a failure across ing individual immigrants but by annexing all of the American warplanes sent to attack ISIS the board. The longer we foster the hope that the territories up to its natural frontiers and never released their bombs. Even with a weak- the West will do anything in order to avoid forcing their inhabitants to learn the Chinese er military, Russia was more effective than the humanitarian catastrophe, the more our op- characters (sometimes exterminating those West because it did not allow humanitarian ponents will use humanitarian brinkman- who refused to integrate). China created itself concerns to tie its hands. ship to get what they want. by expanding a coercive, imperial culture that Russia and China are paranoid about has prevailed for three thousand years. America’s intentions, but even paranoids have David P. Goldman is a columnist for Asia Times, How should we understand Chinese cul- enemies. As Mandelbaum suggests, it is to and the author of How Civilizations Die (and ture in the context of China’s rise as a power America’s benefit to persuade Russia and Chi- Why Islam Is Dying Too) (Regnery).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 27 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Patrick J. Garrity Regarding Henry Kissinger, 1923–1968: The Idealist, by Niall Ferguson. Penguin Press, 1,008 pages, $39.95

enry kissinger, now almost bestseller lists, even though, at over one thou- grounds, Harvard. He has written extensively four decades out of office, contin- sand pages, it covers the subject’s life only up about imperialism (or hegemony, in politer Hues to fascinate, for various reasons. to his appointment as president-elect Richard terms), and much more sympathetically than The setbacks to American foreign policy over Nixon’s national security advisor in late 1968. is the general academic norm. the past 15 years, often attributed to the To that point, Kissinger had merely been an He came to public prominence with his hubris of neoconservatives and liberal hu- academic and an occasional government con- book The Pity of War (1999), which argues manitarians, have apparently given new cur- sultant; influential in those arenas, but hardly that Britain should have stayed out of the rency to his realist world views. At the same the stuff of such a lengthy tome. conflict with Germany in 1914, at least at time, many on the Left regard Kissinger as Authorized biographies are a mixed bag. the outset, on the grounds that this course a war criminal and search for evidence that They provide access to the subject (if alive) would have allowed London to retain its em- will convict him before the bar of history, if and to others who might not otherwise be pire and global financial leadership over the not the International Court of Justice. Then willing to speak out. The biographer is pre- long term. He has authored Empire: How there is the old joke about the space race sumably granted access to private papers not Britain Made the Modern World (2003), Civi- with the Soviets—the United States was available to other researchers. On the down- lization: The West and the Rest (2011), The bound to win “because our German scien- side, the subject (or his heirs) is predisposed Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the tists are better than their German scientists.” to select a biographer who will be sympa- Modern World (2008), and a two-volume Americans have sometimes had an inferior- thetic, or at the very least not hostile. So one history of the Rothschild family (1998-99). ity complex about our diplomatic skills; we must certainly examine the credentials and He has been supportive of an activist—one often seem to win the war but lose the peace views of the author. might frankly say, imperial—American for- to the machinations of foreigners skilled in eign policy, criticizing President Obama for the dark arts of negotiation. Hence, we con- erguson is an oxford-educated bringing about an unwise American strate- jure up our own Doctor of Diplomacy, Super historian with wide-ranging interests gic retreat. He has quarreled over economic K, with a suitably thick German accent. Fwho, like so many of his colleagues, ven- theory with Paul Krugman, opposed Brit- Whatever the case, the new authorized tured to greener scholarly pastures across the ain’s withdrawal from the European Union, biography by Niall Ferguson made all the pond—in his case, to Kissinger’s old stomping and vehemently criticized Donald Trump’s

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 28 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm proposed foreign policy. Ferguson acknowl- sential “realist.” But what is realism? A crude national aspirations. Or refute the argument edges that he was not Kissinger’s first choice; might-makes-right Machiavellianism? A so- that a “moral” aspiration is another expres- that apparently was Andrew Roberts, anoth- phisticated European-style Realpolitik? Or sion for will to power. er prolific British historian, who has a good the assumption, beloved of modern academ- Ferguson summarizes the conclusions that reputation among American conservatives. ics, that all regime types seek to maximize Kissinger drew from his idealism, or at least Kissinger told Ferguson that he had been their security in an anarchic international his reflections on idealism, in light of his per- impressed by one of his books. One wonders system? sonal experiences and scholarship, and from which one. the mentoring he received from teachers such y “idealist,” ferguson doesn’t as Harvard Professor William Yandell Elliott: or those not familiar with the mean that Kissinger was a reincarna- (1) “most strategic choices are between lesser early years of the subject: Heinz Alfred Btion of Woodrow Wilson, a crusader and greater evils”; (2) “history [is] the mother FKissinger, age 15, and his German- for democracy, or a believer in the inevitabil- lode of both analogies and insights into the Jewish family emigrated to the United States ity of perpetual peace. “I am using the term self-understanding of other actors”; (3) “any (New York City) in 1938. He was drafted ‘idealism’ in its philosophical sense,” Ferguson decision is essentially conjectural and…the into the U.S. Army and became a natural- writes, “meaning that strand of Western phi- political payoffs to some courses of action may ized citizen in 1943; Sergeant Kissinger losophy, extending back to Anaxagoras and be lower than the payoffs of inaction and re- served in the European theater and, after the Plato, that holds that (in Kant’s formulation) taliation, even though the ultimate costs of war ended, in a high-level administrative post ‘we can never be certain whether our putative the latter course may be higher”; and (4) “real- in occupied Germany. (He was later commis- outer experience is not mere imagining’ be- ism in foreign policy, as exemplified by Otto sioned in the Army Reserve as an intelligence cause ‘the reality of external objects does not von Bismarck, is fraught with perils, not least officer and served until the late 1950s.) He admit of strict proof.’” Kissinger first tried to the alienation of the public and the slippage of received his undergraduate and graduate come to grips with this in his nearly 400-page the statesman into regarding power as an end degrees at Harvard and obtained a teaching senior honors thesis at Harvard, “The Mean- in itself.” position at the university, during which time ing of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toyn- he became a mainstay in the Cold War in- bee, and Kant”—which famously led Harvard think one can formulate kissinger’s tellectual establishment, serving as Nelson to put a strict limit on the length of future intellectual framework a bit differently. Rockefeller’s principal foreign policy advisor senior theses. According to Ferguson’s read- I First, the creation of order in international and also as a consultant to the Kennedy and ing of the thesis, and some associated works, affairs is the highest object of the statesman. Johnson Administrations. Kissinger, in the name of “idealism,” rejected Second, order can be maintained only if there Ferguson attempts to clarify or rebut materialism as he understood it, which meant is an equilibrium of power among the most many common judgments of the young Kiss- particularly economic determinism, whether important powers. Equilibrium is not an end inger advanced by previous writers. Did his of the Marxist variety or of those Western in itself, but a means by which nations can experience as a Jew in the chaotic Weimar developmental theories later beloved by the seek their historical aspirations in relative Republic, and as a refugee from Nazi per- Kennedy Administration. Kissinger therefore safety. The fundamental condition for order secution, lead to his later pessimistic world- realized from a very early stage in his career, is that those members must share a common view and supposed affinity for authoritarian- according to Ferguson, that the Cold War sense of legitimacy—an accepted standard ism? No: if anything, Kissinger’s personal was a battle about ideals. of conduct and a mutual recognition of the reflections were shaped by his role as an There is considerable disagreement among limits that standard places on their behavior. American soldier, liberating Europe and oc- scholars influenced by Kissinger, and those Conflict may still occur within an ordered cupying Germany. Was he simply a shame- who study political theory, about his under- system, as one power or a coalition of powers less political opportunist, willing to serve standing of philosophical idealism, particu- seeks to reinforce the equilibrium or achieve any administration or candidate that would larly that of Immanuel Kant, and his applica- certain marginal advantages through war, get him closer to power? No: Kissinger was a tion of it to his theory of international order but the system remains stable as long as the Rockefeller loyalist despite every indication and diplomacy. The most one can say with basic understanding of legitimacy remains that the New York governor would never be some confidence is that Kissinger believed intact. This is the model of the classical Euro- elected president; his association with Nix- that nations (reflected above all by their pean state system, which Kissinger explored on was very late and rather accidental. Did statesmen) seek to fulfill particular “moral” most fully in his doctoral dissertation, later Kissinger pass on secret information to the aspirations, or “ideals,” which are deter- published in 1957 as A World Restored: Met- Nixon campaign in 1968 that effectively de- mined by their unique historical experience, ternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, railed the prospects for peace with North geography, political and religious culture, 1812–1822. (In recent years, Kissinger has Vietnam? No: Kissinger did no such thing; and the like. The pursuit of these aspirations written about hegemonial models of global or and even if he had, it was no more than inevitably involves the accumulation and at least regional order, particularly that of im- Nixon could have learned from reading the use of power, especially military power, but perial China, with some degree of sympathy.) newspapers. power itself—or any other purely material The key to the day-to-day working of the Historians and biographers have chal- objective, such as economic prosperity—is ordered system is diplomacy, which is not lenged Ferguson on these points. The more insufficient to fulfill the psychological needs merely the formal process of negotiations, but startling revelation, according to Ferguson, of the human condition. Which condition, the appreciation and manipulation of the psy- is that Kissinger—at least the pre-1969 Kis- to repeat, is decisively shaped by particu- chological climate in which nations formulate singer—was an idealist (hence the book’s lar national experiences, not by nature, and their practical policy objectives. Great states- subtitle). This challenges the near-universal there doesn’t appear to be a trans-historical men appeal to—or take advantage of—those view that Kissinger was and is the quintes- standard by which one can judge the value of aspirations, their own and others, in the ser-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 29 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm vice of international order. The use or threat- ambitions to create a world order defined by white revolutionary to their own advantage. ened use of force must therefore be viewed a strange Christian mysticism. Alexander did In modern times, Charles de Gaulle seemed primarily in terms of its psychological effect. not think of himself as a European hegemon to fit this model, in the sense that he sought Order is placed at risk if one power refuses in the way that Napoleon did, but the effect of to revive great French national aspirations, to abide by the rules and seeks to overthrow his policies, if realized, would have made an which seemed to have been extinguished, by the existing system and replace it with a new equilibrium of power impossible. The other threatening to become a third force between order which it dominates—especially by im- powers of the victorious coalition, as well as East and West. Kissinger ultimately seems to posing its sense of domestic justice on other defeated France, could not ignore that possi- have concluded that Chairman Mao’s revolu- states and extinguishing their historical aspi- bility. Here, diplomacy mattered greatly. The tionary ambitions, however red on the outside, rations. Napoleon’s France and Hitler’s Ger- genius of Austria’s Klemens von Metternich should also be understood in these terms. many are notable, if not identical, examples of and Britain’s Lord Castlereagh was to arrange such revolutionary powers. These would-be a peace settlement, and a way forward (a post- or kissinger, one of the principal emperors could not be negotiated with by sta- war concert of the great powers), which would tasks of a statesman is to discern cor- tus quo powers—except as a tactic—because co-opt Russia into a new international order Frectly which of these conditions applies their ambitions admitted no limitations. They without unsettling the balance of power or to his own and other nations, and to act ap- would either succeed, or be conquered and leading to a new great war. propriately to preserve or create international deposed by a countervailing coalition, usually There is also the special case of a states- order under the existing circumstances. De- after a terrible war. man, such as Bismarck, who sought to grasp pending on one’s judgment, that course might the hem of history and make a domestic revo- involve waging war to eliminate an incorrigi- issinger also suggests that lution—to push beyond the bounds of his ble revolutionary threat; or some combination there are different, and potentially people’s experience and create a somewhat of coercion, deterrence, co-option, appease- Kless apocalyptic, scenarios, which a different set of national aspirations, perhaps ment, and psychological operations, under statesman wedded to order might confront. in order to head off another, more danger- the rubric of diplomacy, to bring a potential A nation, because of circumstances and tem- ous revolutionary path. This often required revolutionary power back into the established porary impulse, might threaten to become challenging the stability of international or- or reformed order; or recognizing and exploit- a revolutionary power, even if that was not der, but, ultimately, with a conservative intent ing a limited (white) revolutionary, if not be- its original intent. The defeat of Napoleon and limited foreign policy ambitions. Such coming a white revolutionary oneself. brought Russian armies to Paris and whet- statesmen need international partners, or Unfortunately, Kissinger argued, there can ted Alexander’s appetite for territorial at least sympathetic bystanders, who grasp be no a priori certainty as to the nature of the advantages in central Europe, along with his their purpose, and who in turn might use the threat or the viability of a strategic opportu- CONNECTING READERS TO ENVIRONMENT & POLITICS IN THE NORTHWEST

Dividing the Reservation Atomic Geography Alice C. Fletcher’s Nez Perce Allotment A Personal History of the Hanford Diaries and Letters,1889–1892 Nuclear Reservation Nicole Tonkovich Melvin R. Adams Pioneering ethnologist and federal Indian agent Alice Thoughtful, often surprising vignettes from one of C. Fletcher helped write the Dawes General Allotment Hanford’s first environmental engineers sift through Act of 1887. Her writing reveals how she and others its rubble, abandoned documents, factories, and executed that law among the Nez Perce. surroundings, recalling challenges and sites he worked on or found personally intriguing. Paperback • ISBN 978-0-87422-344-6 • $29.95 Available in September 2016 Paperback • ISBN 978-0-87422-341-5 • $22.95 Available in November 2016 Barnyards and Birkenstocks Red Light to Starboard Why Farmers and Environmentalists Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster Need Each Other Angela Day Don Stuart Incorporating national and historical context as well Rural America faces two dangerous trends—the loss of as a local fisherman’s perspective, Red Light to Starboard farms and damage to ecosystems. Don Stuart believes depicts the catastrophe that stunned the world and a major cause is political deadlock between farmers devastated a spectacular, fragile ecosystem and its and environmental activists, so he proposes a radical bordering communities. solution: collaboration.

Paperback • ISBN 978-0-87422-318-7 • $19.95 Paperback • ISBN 978-0-87422-322-4 • $28.95

Available at bookstores, online at wsupress.wsu.edu, or by phone at 800-354-7360

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 30 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm nity. If Hitler had died in 1938, he might well Germany and Europe. Kissinger’s worldview When confronted by the limits of such be viewed today as a great German national- is suffused with such tragedies. In life, there crusades, Kissinger argued, frustrated Amer- ist, along the lines of Bismarck, who merely is not only right and wrong but many shades icans typically had turned to the other ex- wanted to unify his people and who had no in between. Ideals themselves offer no dis- treme, isolationism, which itself was a threat further territorial ambitions in Europe; while positive guide to action. to international order, because in the 20th Winston Churchill would doubtless be dis- century American power had become a neces- missed as a paranoid warmonger. hat did this line of analysis sary factor in achieving a global equilibrium. The best guidepost for statecraft is his- say, practically, when it came to Certainly his account is an oversimplification, tory. Beyond that, Kissinger argued, the WKissinger’s giving advice to his at best, of the history of American foreign statesman must rely on intuition, knowing adopted country, at least to the point when policy (though Kissinger does have nice words that one’s judgment about events can only be he became Nixon’s national security advisor? to say about the realism of the founders) and verified after the fact, if at all. Further, the To start with, he believed that Americans an inadequate reflection on the American re- statesman must recognize the limits of his lacked a real sense of history, not only other gime itself. This is not to accuse him, as some ability to influence events. Even if his assess- people’s but even their own. They had never liberal and conservative critics have, of being ment is correct, the power of his own nation faced or experienced national extinction, as particularly un- or anti-American. Many na- is limited, and the leaders of potential allies had all the European powers. Hence Ameri- tive-born American scholars and politicians may not concur. He faces obstacles posed cans did not appreciate the reality of tragedy harbor these or other misunderstandings by domestic structures, whether bureau- and limits, of the many shades between right about the foundations of American politics. cratic or political. Finally, he faces his own and wrong. They were strongly attached to And Kissinger’s views are similar to those of political as well as physical mortality (a new their sense of “justice” and judged the world such doyens of foreign policy commentary as monarch dropped Bismarck, a weary elec- according to their own supposedly universal Walter Lippmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, and torate discarded Churchill). His successors but in reality idiosyncratic moral and politi- George Kennan. may not, and probably will not, be as wise. cal yardsticks. Which is not to say that Kiss- It is reasonable to assume that Kissinger Tragedy follows success, and sometimes the inger necessarily disparaged those yardsticks, thought of America as a quasi-revolutionary greater the success, the greater the tragedy. but he believed that trying to apply them state, not in the sense that it aspired to world The unification of Germany, toura de force to the world without discretion, much less conquest, but as an objectively disruptive by Bismarck, was intended to preserve a con- seeking to impose them, would naturally run force in international relations, whether cru- servative domestic order and provide a stable up against the historical aspirations of oth- sading or sulking. He saw himself, in the years security environment for the new nation. It ers, and thus make international order much before obtaining power, as a critic who would led instead to two great wars that devastated more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. provide, at least indirectly, some ballast to

MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE IN 2016

CROWNPUBLISHING.COM

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 31 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

America’s wildly oscillating course in foreign and probably fatal crisis of confidence in the (the functional equivalent of defeating the en- affairs. Ferguson writes: “Kissinger’s ideal, Atlantic alliance. emy on the battlefield). Fruitless because the then, is an American Castlereagh: a conserva- Kissinger’s solution, in his book Nuclear American and allied publics would not sup- tive statesman who must struggle at one and Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957)—which he port such an effort over the long term, and be- the same time to educate a parochially ideal- quickly downplayed, under criticism, but, as cause power, naturally, was bound to diffuse istic public and to galvanize an inert and risk- Ferguson notes, never entirely rejected—was in the international system, as other nations, averse bureaucracy in pursuit of a legitimate, the development and use of tactical (battlefield) friendly and hostile, recovered economically self-reinforcing international order based on nuclear weapons, which presumably could off- from World War II and obtained nuclear the balance of power between domestically set local Communist conventional superior- weapons themselves. heterogeneous states.” ity without triggering Armageddon through a Such a diffusion of power, Kissinger ar- strategic nuclear exchange. Kissinger was not gued, was not necessarily a bad thing, how- he united states, according to enamored with the Kennedy Administration’s ever. Multipolarity in the international sys- Kissinger, had properly rejected iso- subsequent shift to flexible response, with its tem created diplomatic flexibility, which, if Tlationism after World War II, and its emphasis on conventional forces and on coun- exploited properly, would reduce the burden moral idealism energized the use of national terinsurgency. The initiative still lay with the on the United States, allowing it to return to power, which had been essential to stabilize superior Communist numbers and their ad- a more favorable geopolitical position. His a world in chaos, one threatened by Soviet vantages of interior lines of communication, historically informed instinct, according to expansionism and radicalism in the Third and with the post-colonial wave of anti-West- Ferguson, was that the natural position of World. Some Third World radical move- ern sentiment. the United States was analogous to that of ments were directly Soviet-inspired and -sup- The point here is not that Kissinger want- Britain, as an offshore balancer, not as an ac- ported, but even those of an indigenous and ed to get into tactical nuclear wars but rather tive participant in the ordinary continental nationalist character could threaten world that the United States failed to realize that struggles for power. America should oppose order, and thus they had a natural propensity the use or threatened use of force had a criti- overt aggression in Eurasia aimed to bring to align with Moscow. (He also doubted Ger- cal psychological component (much more so about hegemony, to be sure, but it should not many’s commitment to democracy and feared in the nuclear age). That is, military action, if seek to forestall upheavals, especially those that Germany might reemerge as a revan- over domestic structures. Being forced to chist, revolutionary power; he believed that operate in a multipolar environment would the United States erred in seeking uncondi- also dampen America’s instincts to crusade, tional surrender and the partitioning of Ger- In Kissinger’s view, which had been stimulated by operating in many.) But in adopting a policy of containing containment gave a bipolar world, or to withdraw entirely in a the Communist bloc, the United States made fit of pique. several major errors that had compounded the strategic initiative Kissinger acknowledged that the United over time. In Kissinger’s view, containment, to the Communists. States had little choice but to become en- at least as it was practiced, was excessively gaged directly throughout Eurasia imme- militarized and gave the strategic initiative to diately after World War II, especially in the Communists. (George Kennan, the puta- Europe, given the enormous power vacuum tive father of containment, also objected to it must be undertaken, should be designed to that had developed. The trick now was to its practice, for much the same reasons—al- create the proper political and psychological disengage carefully where possible, especially though Kennan also thought Kissinger him- conditions for the application of diploma- in Asia—what became the Nixon Doctrine— self fell victim to the same tendencies when cy. Americans, with their limited historical and to encourage the emergence of inde- he was in office.) experience, acted as if force and diplomacy pendent centers of power (Kissinger, unlike Kissinger argued that containment was were opposites; that peace and war were two most Americans, was sympathetic to France’s flawed because Moscow and its allies could distinct conditions. Thus our penchant for Charles de Gaulle) that would become pillars probe the American defense perimeter at demaning unconditional surrender on the of a stable world order, which America, in an its weakest, forcing the United States to re- battlefield; only then could serious negotia- offshore position, might help orchestrate, but spond in the most unfavorable circumstances. tions begin. not dominate. To worsen matters, the United States, under the Eisenhower Administration, adopted issinger thought that such con- erguson places particular stress a doctrine of massive retaliation, in which ditions, certainly in the nuclear age, on Kissinger’s belief in psychological such probes theoretically would lead to an Kwere impossible (and unnecessary) Foperations to help bolster the West’s all-out American nuclear response. Eisen- to achieve. America had never been stronger (broadly defined) “moral” position as this pro- hower expected such threats to deter war, in a than in the late 1940s, when it possessed a cess unfolded. His leadership of the Harvard cost-effective fashion. Kissinger believed that monopoly on nuclear weapons and unparal- International Seminar, which brought young American leaders would also come to doubt leled economic domination. If ever there had foreigners to the United States for the sum- whether it was even worth the risk of sacrific- been a time to negotiate with the Soviets to mer, was designed, according to Ferguson, ing Washington in order to defend our most create a stable world order on terms favor- with this purpose in mind (not merely to but- vital allies in London, Bonn, and Paris. The able to the West, Kissinger argued (citing tress Kissinger’s rolodex). Ferguson also cites West Europeans would naturally assume that Churchill), it was then. Instead, the United innumerable “winning the hearts and minds” the United States would not do so if push States set aside the instruments of diplomacy exhortations from Kissinger’s public and pri- came to shove with the Soviets; and this real- with the Soviets while it engaged in a fruitless vate writings. How deeply he himself believed ization would naturally lead to a fundamental effort to develop a preponderance of power in such exhortations, as opposed to their be-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 32 Forthcoming in September 2016 from PRESS

IMPERFECT STRANGERS Americans, Arabs, and U.S.–Middle East Relations in the 1970s Salim Yaqub $₃₅.₀₀ CLOTH | THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD

“Imperfect Strangers is a fi rst-rate, highly original, and unquestionably important book. Salim Yaqub brings together consideration of high-level policymaking with analysis of American domestic politics and culture and persuasively argues that the 1970s mark a ma- jor—and mostly ignored—turning point in U.S.–Middle Eastern relations.” —Mark Atwood Lawrence, author of Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam

“Salim Yaqub has writt en a sophisticated overview of U.S.–Arab relations during that pivot- al decade, the 1970s. Deftly, he examines both American foreign policy during that critical era and how Arab Americans responded to their government’s shifting positions. Given current concerns about ISIS, international terrorism, the fraught politics of the Middle East, and the heated rhetoric and high stakes surrounding the status of people of Arab descent in the United States as well as in Europe, Yaqub’s rich and compelling work could not be more relevant.” —David Farber, author of Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America’s First Encounter with Radical Islam

WWW.CORNELLPRESS.CORNELL.EDU

10% OFF New Books from Transaction Publishers

978-1-4128-6303-2 (hardcover) 978-1-4128-6309-4 (hardcover) 978-1-4128-6332-2 (paperback) 978-1-4128-6331-5 (paperback)

978-1-4128-6283-7 (hardcover) 978-1-4128-6280-6 (hardcover) 978-1-4128-6326-1 (hardcover) 978-1-4128-6337-7 (paperback)

www.transactionpub.com eBook editions are sold through eBook vendors worldwide. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

ing a useful device to wage the Cold War, is American policymakers worried that the izing policymaking in the White House, with open to dispute. Soviet Union would feel compelled to compete a powerful national security advisor—proved Where did Moscow (and Beijing) fit into with the Chinese for leadership of the world highly attractive to President-elect Nixon. all this? After all, the Communists had a revolution, making the Kremlin even more We can see here, through a glass darkly, vote. Using Kissinger’s own framework, if dangerous. To head this off, it was widely ar- the outlines of Kissinger’s approach as na- they were in the mold of Napoleon and Hitler, gued, perhaps the United States ought to con- tional security advisor and secretary of state then their negotiations with us would merely sider an alliance with the Soviets to deal with from 1969 to 1977—but it was hardly a fixed be tactics, and a stable world order could be the Chinese madman. What did Kissinger’s plan detailing how he would try to reshape established only after a fundamental change intuition tell him? Ferguson is of the view, I American foreign policy and the world (in- in their revolutionary policies—probably in- think rightly, that Kissinger had not made up deed, a good case can be made that Nixon was volving regime change. On the other hand, his mind at the time he entered office—China the true architect, Kissinger only the imple- if Soviet leaders were the successors of Czar could go either way—but that neither he nor menter). It is ironic—or perhaps not iron- Alexander, revolutionary more by chance and Nixon was necessarily prescient about what ic—that the impetus to win, not manage or opportunity than by a committed-to-death would happen next with the Chinese. domesticate, the Cold War came from those design, then a sophisticated understanding by Architectonic theory aside, the 1960s were who in the 1970s rejected Kissinger’s policies the United States of the relationship between overshadowed by Vietnam. At the outset, Kis- as both insufficiently moral and insufficiently force and diplomacy provided the opportu- singer, along with most other Cold Warriors, realistic. They were led by a candidate, later a nity to bring about some sort of stable, if not reflexively supported U.S. involvement, on president, who exercised what one might call perfect, modus vivendi. the grounds that (like the ) every a statesman’s intuition, against the common In some of his early writings, Kissinger event has global consequences; that any show wisdom of his time, to see the possibility of seemed inclined to the former interpretation— of American weakness would be transmitted another path to security. America, to the un- in 1950, he wrote that he regarded war with to other, more important regions. Kissinger, tutored mind at least, successfully developed the Soviets as inevitable—and even in later however, after several visits to Vietnam as a a preponderance of power, resulting in the years, he sometimes suggested that he still be- government consultant, quickly concluded virtual surrender of Soviet Communism. The lieved this to be the case. On the other hand, that the war was unwinnable militarily and international order that emerged was, and in the preponderance of evidence, if not the pre- that a diplomatic solution was necessary to ex- many ways still is, dominated by the United ponderance of power, points to Kissinger’s tricate the United States through some sort of States, and not (yet) by the multipolarity that intuition that the Soviets were manageable compromise settlement with Hanoi. Ferguson Kissinger insisted was inevitable. and could become a status quo power, if the goes into great detail about Kissinger’s largely Perhaps this outcome is one of history’s lit- proper incentives and disincentives were put unsuccessful efforts to influence the Johnson tle jokes, having little to do with human agency, into place. At the very least, he believed that Administration’s policy and to encourage ne- and with tragedy lurking over the horizon. But the prospect of nuclear destruction would so- gotiations with the North Vietnamese. Fergu- it does call for an explanation. Henry Kiss- ber even Napoleon, if not a true madman like son argues, persuasively, that Kissinger failed inger’s later apologia was that he and Nixon Hitler. Ferguson suggests that Kissinger came to realize that the regime in the North was had played a weak domestic hand as best they to this view after Stalin’s death in 1953. behaving precisely as a revolutionary power: it could, and if it were not for Watergate and the was not interested in compromise but in total resulting Democratic Party tidal wave in 1974, hat leaves an interesting out- victory, defined as the unification of Vietnam things would have turned out all right in the lier: Communist China. In light of under Communist rule. Hanoi viewed nego- end—perhaps even better than they did. As TKissinger’s role in the opening to tiations merely as a tactic, to be pursued, if at it was, so his argument goes, Kissinger’s di- China in 1971-72, one might assume that all, in a manner designed to improve its posi- plomacy—particularly the opening to China, he had all along envisioned his multipolar tion or ensure success on the battlefield, which the expulsion of the Soviets from the Middle world to include an independent, objectively meant bringing about American withdrawal East, and the political defeat of forces on both anti-Soviet People’s Republic of China. Like without compromising the North’s military sides of the Atlantic that would have separated most American officials and analysts in the ability to defeat the South. the United States from Europe—created the 1960s, Kissinger was well aware of the Sino- foundations for ’s triumph. Soviet split. But informed opinion held that hatever other lessons kissin- How does one address this reading of his- China was by far the more dangerous of the ger might have learned from the tory? That will be Ferguson’s task in volume two Communist powers. Mao had orches-Wunfolding Vietnam debacle, he con- two, which perhaps will be titled, Kissinger: trated the death of millions of his citizens, cluded that it was the result not merely of the The Realist. had engaged in the seemingly insane Cultural folly of American policy, but of the Kennedy Revolution, and supported the most radical and Johnson Administrations’ chronically Patrick J. Garrity is Senior Fellow in Grand forces around the world. He spoke casually dysfunctional foreign policymaking process. Strategy Studies at Villanova University’s Ryan about nuclear war—what did the loss of a few The U.S. governmental apparatus as consti- Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the hundred million mean given the immensity tuted was incapable of absorbing the relevant Public Good, and the author of In Search of of the Chinese population?—and he had the data and bringing them to bear on immediate Monsters to Destroy? American Foreign Pol- bomb. There was certainly a case to be made issues, much less on long-range planning. His icy, Revolution, and Regime Change, 1776– that this was the stuff of Hitler. solution—most importantly, that of central- 1900 (National Institute Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 34 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Joshua Dunn Cash for Flunkers The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?, by Dale Russakoff. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 256 pages, $27 (cloth), $15.95 (paper)

prah could hardly contain salesman, who had persuaded Zuckerberg to erages in the country. Its schools have con- herself. “100 million dollars!” she put his money on the table. He told Oprah sistently failed the city’s students throughout Ogasped. “100 million dollars! Yo, yo, that together they were offering a “bold, new the rise in spending. yo, yooo!” Her studio audience whooped with paradigm for educational excellence,” which delight. would give students “the resources they need hus, it should be no surprise that Winfrey was responding to a five-year to succeed.” Surely such generosity and bipar- Zuckerberg’s philanthropy proved challenge grant, announced on her show in tisanship would transform Newark’s schools. Tfutile. The sad tale is the subject of October 2010 by Facebook billionaire Mark But Zuckerberg’s was not the first attempt Dale Russakoff’sThe Prize: Who’s in Charge Zuckerberg. The money would be devoted to transform a failing school district with of America’s Schools?, a thorough, thoroughly to rescuing the Newark, New Jersey, school truckloads of dollars. Indeed, $200 million depressing account of why a school system is system, one of the country’s most dysfunc- looked modest compared to past rescue op- so hard to reform. Previously a reporter for tional. His grant, plus others raised by the erations. In the 1980s and ’90s a federal judge , Russakoff could smell district, would bring $200 million to New- showered the Kansas City, Missouri, district a good story. Shortly after watching Zucker- ark’s children. Zuckerberg was convinced, with ten times that amount after ordering berg make his announcement, she embedded with good reason, that fixing such a broken tax increases. (See “The Two Billion Dollar herself in Newark to watch the plan unfold. system required attracting the best teach- Judge,” Spring 2009 CRB.) The result: lower But what was the plan? In Russakoff’s tell- ers. That meant money, and he was willing to educational performance and embittered par- ing, it is surprisingly hard to describe. It would help foot the bill. ents and taxpayers. be more accurate to say there was a hope: that Joining him on stage for the announcement Another beneficiary of judicially mandated Booker and Christie could use the resources were Newark’s superstar Democratic mayor, largesse was…Newark, New Jersey. A state as leverage to achieve meaningful reforms. Cory Booker, and New Jersey’s tough-talking court mandate had brought tens of millions The school district, a cauldron of mismanage- Republican governor, . Both of dollars in additional state funding to the ment and corruption, had been placed under pledged to set aside partisan differences for district every year since 1985. The ruling’s state control in 1995, giving the governor au- the good of the children. Booker was achiev- annual value reached $42 million in 2012. By thority to handpick a superintendent. Gover- ing fame for rescuing constituents from burn- the time of Zuckerberg, Booker, Christie, and nors before Christie, however, had taken the ing buildings and quickly tweeting about it, Winfrey’s dramatic announcement, Newark path of least resistance to the powerful teach- while Christie had bolstered his reputation was spending nearly $23,000 on each pupil ers’ union, the New Jersey Education Asso- by confronting New Jersey’s teachers’ union. in its public schools, a number that’s risen to ciation, making minor changes and negligible It was Booker, the plan’s architect and chief nearly $25,000 today, one of the highest av- improvements.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 35 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

To his credit, Booker saw an opportunity This bloat meant that half of school spend- willing to accept some mild reforms: “We had to use state control both to attract money ing, at best, actually made its way to the stu- an opportunity to get Zuckerberg’s money…. and to change district policy. (As mayor, he dents. When it did reach the classroom, the Otherwise it would go to the charter schools,” had no power over the schools.) In 2009 he money made so little difference that school that is, to schools operated entrepreneurially persuaded the newly elected Christie to ap- enrollment was counterproductive. One 1995 rather than bureaucratically, freed from em- point Cami Anderson, a veteran of New York report found that “the longer children remain ployment regulations hamstringing regular City’s charter school battles, as superinten- in the Newark public schools, the less likely public schools. “I decided I shouldn’t feed and dent. Backed by the governor and mayor, she they are to succeed academically.” clothe the enemy.” Del Grosso also strongly was supposed to use Zuckerberg’s money to Zuckerberg’s gift did not change those implied that once the contract expired the attack Newark’s sclerotic bureaucracy, dra- outcomes. State tests in 2015 showed that merit pay reforms would be negotiated away matically increase educational choice, and student “proficiency had declined in both lit- in the next contract unless there were “anoth- force or bribe the teachers’ union to accept eracy and math in every tested grade on the er Zuckerberg.” accountability measures. Principals would state standardized test since 2011.” Students be given greater authority to control staffing seemed all too aware that they were an after- n the end, only $60 million ended up and, in exchange, would be held responsible thought. One told a teacher, “I get frustrated going to charter schools. In Newark, these for student performance. when I don’t understand what’s going on…. If Ischools were required to have an open ad- I get thrown out of class, nobody finds out I missions policy, then admit students by lot- ut an idealistic superintendent can’t read.” tery when there was a waiting list. Parents and Zuckerberg’s millions proved no Because Zuckerberg’s effort was widely were so desperate to escape regular district Bmatch for the district’s inertia. Indeed, seen as a test case for the school reform move- schools that some charters had thousands of the “prize” of Russakoff’s title refers not to ment, The Prize has been hailed by the move- students on these lists. Zuckerberg’s gift, but to the district’s cash ment’s opponents. A New York Times review- And for good reason. A 2012 Stanford flow: “Over the years in Newark,” she reports, er reported that the book “serves as a kind of study found that students in Newark’s char- “numerous politicians had actually taken to corrective to the dominant narrative of school ter schools gained “an extra seven and a half calling the district budget ‘the prize.’” The reformers across the country.” The lesson, ap- months of reading skills and nine months money “gushed and oozed in myriad direc- parently, was that school choice and account- in math” compared to their district peers. tions,” allowing the district to serve both as “a ability measures simply do not work. With the help of Zuckerberg’s money, char- patronage mill and an educational institution, ter school enrollment increased from 5,441 controlled by whatever political machine hap- ut the evidence from newark in 2010 to 12,700 in 2015. Charter schools pened to be in office.” Its 7,000 jobs made the shows that education reform was bare- also helped spur some improvements in tra- district the largest employer in the devastated Bly tried, not tried and found wanting. ditional public schools. Russakoff notes that city, which had never recovered from its 1967 While Russakoff withholds her own opinion, the good teachers in the public schools, who race riot. evidence on what would have worked is there come off as selflessly heroic, “took it upon Like many urban school districts, New- for those who read carefully. Predictably, you themselves to glean many lessons from the ark’s is absurdly overstaffed, with twice as have to follow the money. city’s best charter schools, and found charter many administrators per student as the state For a gift meant to promote greater choice school leaders eager to help.” average. Clerks, for instance, constitute 30% and innovation, it is strange that almost half Newark, then, indicates that reform can of the central bureaucracy, “four times the the $200 million went to the teachers’ union. make a difference in children’s lives. But if ratio in comparable cities.” Russakoff reports Zuckerberg wanted $50 million to under- Zuckerberg’s millions could not catalyze that “even some clerks had clerks.” Despite or write a new union contract that would abol- comprehensive reform, what can? The only perhaps because of these legions of civil ser- ish seniority and institute merit pay. But as a school district where system-wide reform vants, “payroll checks and student data were condition of even negotiating, union president has been tried is New Orleans. After Hur- habitually late and inaccurate,” while “[t]est Joseph Del Grosso demanded $31 million ricane Katrina, the city abandoned its failed and attendance data had not been entered for in “back pay” for two years that the teachers system and made nearly every public school months.” When it was submitted, the infor- worked without a contract. That money end- a charter school. (Only 9% of New Orleans mation was often inaccurate. ed up coming out of the $200 million. public school students remain in non-charter But the central administration wasn’t the In the end, the contract had some modest schools.) The results have been impressive, only culprit. The schools were wasting money, merit-pay incentives, but lacked the key thing even “spectacular,” as one liberal commentator, leaving high school football stadium lights on necessary to be transformative—the power to Jonathan Chait, reported. But to sweep aside for no discernible reason at an annual cost fire bad teachers. Tenure requirements and the entrenched interests that blocked reform for one school of $300,000. And the teachers’ seniority rules were protected under state in New Orleans required not an act of charity, union was getting its cut. Joseph Del Grosso, law, so the contract had to leave them in place. but an act of God. longtime president of the Newark Teach- That forced school superintendent Anderson ers Union, had “won his members handsome to seek a $20 million slush fund to bribe bad Joshua Dunn is professor of at raises, sizable pay ‘bumps’ for longevity, and teachers to quit. the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, enough paid sick and personal time to cover The winner in the bargain was obvious. where he directs the Center for the Study of Gov- almost one in ten school days.” Del Grosso explained that he was more than ernment and the Individual.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 36 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Mark Bauerlein Queer to Stay

hy are my colleagues so caught each year for undergrads, but his position was Michael Warner did in his 1991 essay “Fear up in same-sex matters? understood as a side interest, not a defining of a Queer Planet.” Series Q, the academic- W Few of them are gay, but they feature. His professional identity was as a Ro- press series devoted to queer topics (Barbie’s have made “queer theory,” gender studies, and manticist taking a history-of-ideas approach. Queer Accessories, Queering the Renaissance, other schools of thought opposed to what None of the critical anthologies I was as- etc.), had started. Centers had opened at San they call “heteronormativity” central to the signed around then touched upon same-sex Francisco City College and City University humanities ever since the subjects blossomed attraction—not David Lodge’s Twentieth- of New York. PMLA in 1995 had essays on in book lists, periodicals, conferences, and hir- Century Literary Criticism, Hazard Adams’s “male transvestite theater,” “The Homoerotics ings in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Of course, Critical Theory Since Plato, or Adams and of Orientalism,” John Donne’s “Homopoet- it isn’t hard to understand why same-sex at- Leroy Searle’s Critical Theory Since 1965. To ics,” “Birth of the Cyberqueer,” and “What traction draws political support. The profes- check my memory, I just pored over one of Does Queer Theory Teach Us about X?” soriate is uniformly liberal on social issues. To the flagship scholarly journals,PMLA (or, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990), Eve them, the case for anti-discrimination is a no- Publications of the Modern Language Associa- Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet (1990), brainer, and conservative resistance to same- tion), from 1982-83, and found several essays Jonathan Dollimore’s Sexual Dissidence (1991), sex marriage and transgender rights amounts on feminist themes, but nothing on same-sex Jonathan Goldberg’s Sodometries (1992), and to a lingering Jim Crow. But making LGBT desire. In five years ofCritical Inquiry, 1979- many other studies had been published and topics into a research field and a professional 83, only four essays out of the more than a were cited everywhere. (Google Scholar cur- identity doesn’t make obvious sense. hundred broached it. For the same years, I rently tabulates 34,330 citations of Gender The demographics don’t support it. Accord- found nothing at all in the avant garde journal Trouble.) What was previously an occasional ing to the 2013 National Health Interview boundary 2. topic had become a vital theory, and to be un- Survey, a project of the Centers for Disease acquainted with it was to be out of sync with Control, 96.6% of American adults identify Queerness Everywhere your own discipline. as straight, 1.6% gay or lesbian, and 0.7% bi- I watched this remarkable emergence of sexual. Those numbers fit closely to the fields en years later, everything had queerness with puzzlement and mild jeal- as they were when I started graduate school in changed. One could now describe gay ousy. I was a liberal in politics ready to take 1983, and same-sex issues were a rare concern. Tstudies as a “booming field dominated queer themes in the field as I would most The teacher who taught me the most in those by literary criticism, film criticism, and cul- other topics of human nature and experi- years was gay and offered a course in gay lit tural history,” as Rutgers English professor ence. When I hit the job market in 1988, the

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 37 Inspiring Works on Truth, Beauty& Goodness ♦ AFTER THE NATURAL LAW John Lawrence Hill his important work traces the natural law tradition from Plato and Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas and describes how and why modern philosophers such as Descartes, Locke and THobbes began to chip away at this foundation. The book argues that natural law, which holds that the world is ordered, intelligible and good, is a necessary foundation for our most impor- tant moral and political values — freedom, human rights, equality, responsibility and human dignity, among others. Without a theory of natural law, these values lose their coherence: we literally cannot make sense of them given the assumptions of modern philosophy. ANL-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $22.95 “A stimulating and erudite book.” — J. Budziszewski, Author, What We Can’t Not Know “A much needed book.” — Michael Augros, Ph.D., Author, Who Designed the Designer?

♦ CALLED TO BE THE CHILDREN OF GOD Edited by Fr. David Meconi, S.J and Carl Olson his book gathers more than a dozen Catholic scholars and theologians to examine what the process of “deifi cation” (participating in the divine nature) means in their respective areas Tof study. It shows what “becoming God” meant for the early Church, for St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dominicans, the signifi cance it played in the thinking of St. Francis and the early Fran- ciscans. It shows how such an understanding of salvation played out during the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent, as well as in French School of Spirituality, in various Thomist thinkers, in John Henry Newman and John Paul II, at the Vatican Councils, and where such thinking can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church today. CCOG-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $22.95 “At last, an up-to-date, comprehensive, and readable introduction to the classical doctrine of divinization. A must read for any serious student of Catholic theology.” — Dr. Brant Pitre, Professor of Sacred Scripture, Notre Dame Seminary

♦ SURPRISED BY BEAUTY Robert Reilly with Jens Laurson n this Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music, Reilly notes that the greatest crisis of the 20th century was the loss of faith. Noise — and its acceptance as music — was the product Iof the spiritual confusion and became the further cause of its spread. Likewise, the recovery of modern music stems from a spiritual recovery. This is made explicitly clear by the composers to whom Reilly spoke with for the interviews in this book. He spells out the nature of the crisis and its solution in sections individual composers. It is the spirit of music that this book is most about, and Reilly has discovered many treasures. The purpose of this book is to share these music treasures, to entice you to listen — because beauty is contagious. You may be surprised by how many works of the 20th and 21st centuries of which this is true. 100s of CD recommendations. SBB-P . . . 6 x 9, 515 pages, $34.95 “Reilly’s vision of music is profoundly spiritual, expressive of what is most enriching in human life, and capable of leading us to encounter God Himself.” — Stephen Hough, Composer and Pianist www.ignatius.com P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 1 (800) 651-1531 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm word was that hiring would go to women and Much of this is press hype, of course. But couple of guys over the years were, in fact, gay, minorities—unless you were gay. I was des- given events that followed the original pub- and they got some ribbing now and then, but perate for a post, but didn’t object. Gays had lication—the explosion of queer publication, we all got mocked and pushed around for one a harder time in this world, I believed (with the running success of Series Q (co-edited by reason or another. “Intense” hate—not one a measure of condescension), and so an extra Sedgwick), and stirring testimonials to her bit. One of them we sorely envied because he push was okay. before and after her death in 2009, including worked at Hugh Hefner’s mansion. But the intellectual claims weren’t con- a recent puff in the New Yorker—much of the Sedgwick’s statement struck me as the vincing. It wasn’t just that gays and lesbians praise rings true. kind of hyperbole that breaks a reader’s trust, formed such a tiny population. The state- But when I recall looking at Between Men and it wasn’t uncommon. In “Fear of a Queer ments about homosexuality’s centrality to the back in 1987, I don’t remember anything dev- Planet,” Warner says, discipline were so overdone. I just received astating about it. As I glanced back at it af- a mass-mailing from ter receiving the Columbia ad, I realized why. The dawning realization that themes of Press with the heading “Introducing a New Sedgwick takes five pages in the Introduction homophobia and heterosexism may be Generation to the Book That Changed Hu- to press a simple observation that same-sex read in almost any document of our cul- manities Scholarship.” The subject of this an- desire between women is continuous with fe- ture means that we are only beginning nouncement is the 30th Anniversary edition male friendship, while same-sex male desire to have an idea of how widespread those of Sedgwick’s Between Men: English Literature is discontinuous with male friendship. Male institutions and accounts are. and Male Homosocial Desire, which, we are friendship, that is, is anti-gay. That’s an em- told, “challenged old ways of reading.” That pirical contention one can entertain. But when “Almost any”? Homophobia everywhere? aim was certainly common in literary stud- Sedgwick says of male bonding that it “may, That’s what the editor ofShakesqueer: A Queer ies—everyone in 1985 was after “objective in- as in our society, be characterized by intense Companion to the Complete Works of Shake- terpretation”—but Between Men performed a homophobia, fear and hatred of homosexu- speare (2011), one of the last entries in Series unique service: als,” it didn’t fit my experience at all. Growing Q, says: “this volume also suggests that queer- up in a middle-class suburb in the east, at- ness is everywhere.” Striking a devastating blow to the he- tending a large public university in the west, This was strange to hear. If theory in all its gemony of heteronormative critique, playing sports and drinking beer and work- variations in the 1980s (New Historicism, de- it opened not only literature, but also ing with guys in kitchens and fast-food joints, construction, neopragmatism) had any com- politics, religion, society, and culture to I observed lots of male bonding. Some of it I mon thread, it was the denial of universals. broader investigations of power, desire, remember with chagrin, but the fear and ha- Truth and value vary over time and across cul- and sex. tred Sedgwick highlights just weren’t there. A tures, people insisted, and to raise one feature

award-winning, myth-busting books from ISI

Finalist for World Magazine’s Book of the Year!

A tolerant, multicultural Golden Age of Islam? Never happened. Here’s what did.

“I am in awe of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise.” —FrontPage Magazine

“Desperately, desperately needed as a counter to the mythology that pervades academia on this subject.” —Paul F. Crawford

Silver Medal, Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Awards!

Think religious faith is dying? THINK AGAIN.

“God is not dead.” —Wall Street Journal

“Stark is one of the most prominent, respected, and consistently insightful sociologists of religion in the business. . . . I enthusiastically recommend this stimulating book.” —Deseret News

ORDER TODAY AT ISIBOOKS.ORG

Claremont_07.2016.indd 1 7/8/2016 12:45:51 PM Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 39 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

as definitive, an “everywhere,” was to commit a in my department. In the tenure meeting, a A New Sexual “Discourse” “mystification,” to be unaware of one’s own con- senior colleague referred to her as a “true be- ditioning. But this was one universal you had liever.” He meant it as a compliment. Lesbian s (mostly) non-heterosexual pro- to respect. When queer theorists spoke, you écriture wasn’t just an expertise for her. It was fessors published and conferenced felt obligated to accede. They laid out a new her life, and we were supposed to honor her Aqueer theory into the professional professional rule: if you study poet X and don’t commitment. One elderly professor, how- center, heterosexual professors signed on remark upon homophobia and heterosexism, ever, replied with a traditional rebuke: “This with dispatch. History appeared to call for it, you are benighted or irresponsible or worse. is supposed to be a university, not a monas- just as Civil Rights produced Black Studies tery.” But nobody picked up on his objection. in the ’70s and Women’s Liberation inspired Home of the Gays What did academic distinctions matter in the Women’s Studies in the ’80s. Though many of presence of so passionate a personality? The these teachers lived bourgeois lives and had s queer theory spread through customary follow-up to the professor’s remark worked in literary studies for years without the departments, literary studies left was to ask if her true believing had narrowed showing any interest in same-sex desire, they Ame behind. I cared about those fad- her research and teaching to partisan chan- could smoothly broaden their commitment to ing problems of meaning and interpretation, nels, but by 1996 few people had the appetite women and minorities to this smaller margin- studying Charles Sanders Peirce and William to dispute practices in the name of LGBT alized group, especially in light of the horrors James, and I was shadowed by the dialectics identity. Besides, the magnifications of queer of AIDS. The politics and sentiments were es- of Jacques Derrida and his antecedents. Such theory didn’t seem so untenable after years of pecially apt in that gays and lesbians presented concerns had slipped in the ’80s, and the ex- textuality everywhere, ideology everywhere, themselves as casualties of conservative belief posure of Paul de Man’s wartime writings gave patriarchy everywhere…. And this time, the and “.” Apart from the pains of a moral punctuation to the decline. Those of theorists bore a trait that my heterosexual being a troubled minority marked off by acts us caught up in old ideas sounded awfully dry brethren couldn’t resist: an illicit, anguished others found distasteful and worse, they had when we talked about Martin Heidegger’s desire shadowed by secrecy and suffering. to endure the calumny of and the ontic-ontological difference and Wallace Ste- For gays and lesbians, the benefits were . vens on reality. At more than one conference, obvious. The CDC statistics accurately count And they were more convenient sufferers when I stopped talking and a sexuality theo- than other groups, too. Supporting African rist rose to speak, heads in the audience lifted American claims meant altering the demo- and eyes brightened. Uncommon desire, not graphics of the faculty; you had to introduce how-to-read-a-text, was the hot thing (postco- If you want to understand uncomfortable procedures in hiring and pro- lonialism was #2). art, literature, history, motion and pay. But homosexuals were al- I watched it reverberate a few years back ready overrepresented in the humanities. Rec- at the largest meeting of scholars in the hu- and politics, you better ognition of them was cost-free. manities, the Modern Language Association understand queerness. Queer theory, too, was easily accommodat- (MLA) Convention. Longtime attendees ed to existing critical methods. It wasn’t hard know how much dour faces and forced enjoy- to convert the “binaries” of the ’70s, nature/ ment typify the annual meeting, but on this culture and identity/difference, into normal/ occasion the conviviality was genuine. I was the rate of homosexuals in the U.S. popula- queer and heterosexual/homosexual. One sitting alone for an hour at the Penguin Press tion, but they undercount the rate in the acad- could bring back the Dead White Males, too, booth, signing books for the occasional pass- emy. There are no data on how many gays and avoid multiculturalist objections. Some erby and counting the minutes. Across the and lesbians inhabit humanities faculties, but of those classic writers were gay. aisle at the Duke University Press booth, doz- from my experience, I would estimate the Queer theory had a dramatic immediacy ens of people crowded the space and spilled rate at more than 10%. The difference from as well, which gave it an edge over other con- past the partitions. They gobbled up wine the general population rate is all-important. temporary theories. As they insisted and we and cheese, called to new arrivals, smiled and It makes academia a special place for a popu- acknowledged, theorists were walking illus- shook hands and joshed. It was the commem- lation that feels at odds with U.S. society at trations of theory. To listen to a tenured pro- orative party for Series Q. At one point, an large. Instead of being 1 out of 60, gays and fessor at an elite college in New England talk organizer called for quiet and delivered a brief lesbians are 1 out of 10. about racism in working-class America or im- testimonial. You could sense the meaningful- It is logical, then, for gay and lesbian per- perialism on the other side of the earth was ness in the air. Countenances were solemn sonnel in higher education to create related one thing. People might appreciate the sen- and joyous. Queer theory had deeply affected disciplines and theories, journals and series, timents, but he had no I’ve-walked-the-walk these people professionally and personally. courses and research expertise. Given the pro- factor. A gay professor in the same depart- It was clear from the start that this per- fundity of sexual desire, we may attribute the ment discussing a work in gay studies written sonal dimension was a crucial feature. From passions and overstatements of queer theory by a friend who had died of AIDS the year an academic point of view, getting too per- precisely to this institution-building purpose, before did have it. Academics and real life sonal in your research and teaching makes at least in part. Not only does it make pro- merged, dramatically. you unprofessional. You can’t argue with fessional life meaningful and clarifying for Finally, queer theory invited heterosexu- someone so invested. Who wants to have homosexuals; it helps maintain a critical mass als into the field. Sedgwick and others ex- that kind of colleague? But this time, it was of gays and lesbians in the academic popula- tended queerness past genital desire so that a strength. I remember one case in the mid- tion, showing younger ones that the campus it incorporated any desire or identity that ’90s, when a lesbian professor specializing is, indeed, a home. The institutionalization of strayed from heterosexual grooves. True to in lesbian literature came up for promotion queer theory is a means of keeping it that way. their Hegelianism (Butler’s first book was on

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 40 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hegel), they maintained that heterosexuality ed, a professor showed racy photos of women hortatory. Take away the magnification and was in a dialectical relationship with homo- in bedrooms and amid the sheets, pausing at we have a more modest and accurate assess- sexuality. You couldn’t be heterosexual with- one to note, “I particularly like this one—look ment of parts of our culture—and a less out some assumption of its “other,” homosex- closely and you can see her tampon string thrilling and theoretical one. Only when we uality. From there, it took only a small step to hanging down in an inverted question mark.” define queerness as anything outside simple say that queer desire lies at the core of hetero- I wasn’t sure of the point and she didn’t elabo- and straightforward heterosexual behavior, normativity, not outside it, just as madness is rate, but I dared not bring it up in the Q. and and only when we interpret homophobia as the necessary “other” of reason. That was the A. The mechanisms of surveillance were fully anything less than full political and personal pertinent lesson of Michel Foucault (whose in force, and they were all on the side of the support of homosexuality, do the sweeping teacher was a renowned Hegel scholar). theorists. contentions of queer theory hold up. Without This dialectical point is the rejoinder for the Those of us who didn’t join the subfield that extension, queerness slips back into the tiny 1.6% of the U.S. population that identi- were cowed, and it was a relief to see the coer- margin—not by an act of power, but as the fies as gay. Size doesn’t matter, only difference. cions detailed in one of the great essays of the consequence of relative lack of interest. Add to that formula a scandalous desire (and a time, Camille Paglia’s “Junk Bonds and Cor- That’s what we see today, the fatigue that victimized group), and gay identity becomes a porate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the afflicts any theory once the universal claims special illuminating entry into culture at large. Wolf,” published in the Spring 1991 issue of lose their emotional force, as inevitably hap- If you want to understand art, literature, his- the humanities journal Arion. It argued two pens over time and with repetition. The en- tory, and politics, you’d better understand things that robbed queer theory of intimidat- clave of humanities research has always had queerness, too. In academia, that premise be- ing momentum. One, in its zealous embrace its rituals and taboos, and they lead inhabit- came a daunting institutional mandate. The of Foucault—in Epistemology of the Closet, ants to think that what holds true and prop- fervent expressions of LGBT professors and Sedgwick mentions “Foucault’s demonstra- er within also holds without. Reading queer ready echoes by liberal heterosexual profes- tion, whose results I take to be axiomatic”— theory and attending queer lectures is to sors created in the humanities a new sexual queer theory overlooked some of the greatest enter an impassioned universe fraught with “discourse” in precisely Foucault’s sense of (and contrary) scholarship of modern times. sexual complication and risk. But most peo- norms, values, and ideas with institutional Two, the movement policed members and an- ple don’t share the outlook. Representations power. At an American Studies conference I tagonists ruthlessly, using the powers of hir- of sexual variation are common in higher attended, after one presenter gave a harsh talk ing, promotion, and peer review. Paglia also education today, not to mention in mov- on a distinguished critic, another notable fig- delivered her verdict in an irreverent, often ies, TV, and the news, but the vast majority ure rose to observe that the critic under attack hilarious idiom that had a moral purpose—to of Americans are firm in their basic sexual was one of the first well-known professors to defend scholarly standards—and provided a aims and selves, and homosexual impulse come out of the closet, and that one might different framework for queer theory. Instead and homophobic fear and hate aren’t part of regard the presentation as gay-bashing. The of being a breakthrough school of thought their condition. We still have heteronorma- speaker could have responded, “I didn’t say opening culture to vital meanings and morally tive attitudes. They are the natural result of anything about that—I don’t care if he’s gay advancing higher education, queer theory was nearly all Americans having heterosexual or not. Can we get back to the substance?” But a parochial research field in the service of self- feelings. Queerness is part of the human the situation no longer allowed that. Instead, understanding for some and self-promotion condition, a small part. Queer theory began he bumbled his way through a penitential for others. As Professor Paglia put it to me re- with an exaggeration, an overestimation of disavowal. The rest of us took note: to treat cently after I contacted her about this essay, “It homosexuality and anti-homosexuality, and queerness as less than ever-relevant was pro- was the cutting-edge of the corporatization of the emotional and political and institutional fessionally dangerous. the university, not the radical subversion of it.” contexts of its origination allowed the exag- That was the discipline and punishment for geration to stand uncorrected. Queer theory non-recognition of LGBT. The opposite was Back to the Margin is now a part of American intellectual his- the insistent recognition of it. You could feel tory, but it will be remembered more as an its challenge when speakers pushed graphic rom this 30-year vantage point, advocacy effort than as a school of thought. sexual readings in a way that dared anyone to the intrepid idiom and bold disclo- make a traditionalist objection or point out Fsures that thrilled and emboldened Mark Bauerlein is professor of English at Emory the poor taste. At another gathering I attend- the 1990s faculty look less descriptive than University.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 41 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Richard Talbert Bestriding the World SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard. Liveright, 608 pages, $35

Drawing of high relief sculpture, 96 inches wide, depicting Tellus (Mother Earth) holding children in her arms. Aurae (land and sea breezes) are at her sides. From the Ara Pacis, altar of Augustan Peace in Rome, consecrated in 9 B.C.

ny book by mary beard is likely their leaders or populace did what they did. be treated from a range of perspectives, and to be worth reading, and this one Like it or not, the ancient writings or statis- a willingness to piece these together pains- Ais for sure. In the lengthy line-up of tics or other material needed to answer many takingly and balance them is to be applaud- rival attempts to package the history of an- questions are lost. ed. These are merits that give her book great cient Rome within a single pair of covers for Granted, plenty of fresh finds still keep strength and appeal. the general reader, SPQR (Latin acronym for coming to light, an exciting trend boosted by “The Senate and People of Rome”) is a strong incredible advances in technology. But realis- o, after such praise, is there more competitor. Beard, a professor of classics at tically we must accept that numerous writings to say? No and yes, I think. No, be- the University of Cambridge and classics edi- are beyond recovery, and in the case of statis- Scause you should read the book with- tor for the Times Literary Supplement, knows tics the data may never have been recorded out delay. Yes, because some features of it call her stuff (the book comes with a anyway. Even so, this frustrating predicament for comment. First, it’s a letdown that more hefty bibliography), but here she displays the should not deter us from formulating ques- of the evidently generous production budget precious talent to single out broad themes tions, developing hypotheses, and then debat- could not have been spent on increasing the with just a few well-chosen details for illus- ing them. Most welcome therefore is Beard’s mere handful of maps—all in grayscale and tration, rather than parading her erudition or unswerving rejection of the temptation to be- grouped together as front matter rather than overwhelming you with a litany of indigest- come merely romantic about the Romans, or spread through the book. Disclosure: I am ible names and dates. She writes, moreover, to preach that we have A Lot To Learn from known as a mapmaker, so this may seem an in a robust, lively style. Also refreshing is her them. Rather, she’s sufficiently sensitive, clear- all-too-predictable comment from me. But frankness about the severe limits on our un- eyed, and shrewd to know that the past is sel- still, who would deny that for the purpose derstanding of how Romans thought, or why dom simple. Issues and perceptions need to of following the rise of a village on the riv-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 42 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm er Tiber through domination of the Italian yet to develop. The conflicting reconstruc- yet reconciled to their increasing irrelevance peninsula to annexation of the entire Medi- tions are liable to shed more light on the (notably, the senate and populace in Rome terranean and far beyond, maps can offer a preoccupations of their imaginative authors’ itself) lashed out at the alternative priorities vital aid at every stage? Readers could justifi- own day than on the irrecoverable realities of of frontier armies facing heightened external ably want more. early Rome. Beard’s deft appraisal of these pressures that would soon in fact threaten Second, in the same vein, while the in- dilemmas is impressive and absorbing. The the empire’s very survival. In addition, just sertion of color pictures is splendid and the upshot, however, is that it’s past page 150 prior to 238 three women from a memorable grayscale ones scattered through the text also when she finally reaches the period (from Syrian family took a prominent part in rul- represent varied and imaginative choices, it’s around 300 B.C.) in which Rome first stands ing the empire for almost 20 years, a unique a puzzle that more pictures and plans were out as a community of more than local im- reversal of gender roles surely of interest to not added, including some bigger ones that portance. Many readers, I suspect, will find Beard with her special concern for the place might even have been permitted a full page. this a slow start. of women in society. For a one-volume Ro- As it is, the three-quarters page allowed for Likewise untypical, and surprising, is man history to end, as hers does, well short the monumental tomb of Eurysaces the ex- Beard’s choice of endpoint. As she acknowl- of the extended death-threat that the empire slave baker makes an unusually large picture edges, Caracalla’s grant seems to have proven experienced during the 3rd century A.D. is among the grayscale ones, which in multiple a non-event. He may have promulgated it neither a wrong choice nor even a bad one, instances are restricted to a mere quarter- on a whim as a grandiose gesture, without but it will invite some disappointment. After page. General readers understandably en- weighing the consequence that Roman citi- all, one of the most remarkable phases in the joy pictures and find them informative, and zenship—a privilege attractive to those with Roman story is how the empire successfully there is a wealth of choice from Rome’s impe- lesser status, plenty of whom served Rome remade itself after the trauma of that century. rial period to engage the photographer, but loyally to gain it—now lost its allure once ev- This was a miracle comparable to the painful those opportunities are barely exploited here. eryone was a citizen. What practical benefit, emergence of one-man rule from the wreck of Third, and more important, Beard’s book if any, the new citizens gained from the grant a Republic that could no longer control the aptly reminds us of the plain truth ignored remains obscure. The unique Year of the Six aristocratic rivalry on which it depended, nor by historians at their peril, that one book just Emperors (238 A.D.), only a quarter-century function without the government (in a mod- cannot Do It All. The history of the Romans later, could be a more telling endpoint. In ern sense) that it had denied itself in rejecting presented for the general reader poses stern this alarming eruption, sectors of society not kingship. challenges in this respect. There’s no dodging the fact that their story is a long one. The site that would eventually be developed as the city of Rome was occupied by 1000 B.C. at the very latest—which makes an obvious starting- point. But then when to end the book? Fur- ther disclosure: I too have written a history of Rome (college-level textbook), and with my Wit, Thinking, and Learning from Eva Brann co-authors have agonized over the question of endpoint. We opted first for around 300 A.D., DOUBLETHINK/DOUBLETALK the period of Diocletian and Constantine, but Naturalizing Second Thoughts & Twofold Speech met with loud disapproval from colleagues Trade Paper, 311 pp, $19.95 (2016) demanding that we extend it at least to the In her second collection of aphorisms and observations, Eva break-up of the Western empire around 500. Brann shines a light on our world—on “the way things are” Having duly done that in our second edition, —with characteristic wit and insight. we were then assailed by demands for contin- uation to Muhammad (600s) and even Char- THE LOGOS OF HERACLITUS lemagne (800). Trade Paper, 169 pp, $16.95 (2011) The surviving work of Heraclitus comprises 131 passages. Eva eard, in opting to cover from ear- Brann sets out to understand Heraclitus—in her view, the first liest Rome to the emperor Caracalla’s philosopher of the West—as he is found in these passages and Bgrant of Roman citizenship to almost particularly in his key word, Logos, the order that is the cosmos. all free persons in the empire in 212 A.D., is much less expansive. The balance of her cov- THEN & NOW erage is likewise untypical. Her first chapter The World’s Center and the Soul’s Demesne demonstrates the methods and difficulties of Trade Paper, 140 pp, $14.00 (2015) tackling Roman history with reference to the Eva Brann first treats Herodotus’s view of the “Greek conspiracy of Catiline in 63 B.C. Her next Center,” after which she offers her portrayal of an two then address the later reconstructions of “Imaginative Conservative.” early Roman society and institutions by his- torians and others in antiquity, and the deli- www.PaulDryBooks.com cate matter of how accurate these are likely to have been for a period when literacy was Use code Brann16 to receive a 30% discount. minimal and a historical consciousness had

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 43 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

imeframe aside, a further respect final missing dimension is the labor, resources, and loyalty (through religion, in which one book just cannot Do It comparative one. Perhaps this is rath- for instance) from their conquered peoples. TAll is focus. While far from neglecting A er much to hope for, but it too—like To him, Rome’s rulers would seem lazy softies ideas and institutions, Beard certainly indulges the focus on private lives on TV’s Down- who recklessly squandered golden opportuni- a predilection for individuals of all ages and ton Abbey—is currently in vogue and full ties. Rome’s subjects in general withheld their social levels and their private lives, especially of potential, although admittedly tricky to assessment. Most liked the Pax Romana. For Cicero (on whom she is an expert) and people handle. But, for example, when Americans centuries, other peoples outside the empire, on the margins. She presents them and their who love their Interstate highways and take too, marveled at it despite its glaring inequi- often pitiful circumstances with vividness and them for granted read here about the free- ties. In a cruel world, they viewed it as a safe, insight. However, readers with different pref- dom of movement permitted to everyone in stable, and prosperous haven, just as millions erences should be warned that comparable at- the (except slaves and, ironi- in Africa and Asia view Europe today. Roman tention is not given to big-picture themes such cally, senators), it’s understandable if they’re self-assurance, though arrogant, had its at- as imperial grand strategy. One consequence not overly impressed. This readership needs tractions. Hence what one admirer scratched is that the empire’s amazing stretch at its most informing that, among premodern imperial in Greek on a desert rock in southern Jordan expansive lacks the emphasis it deserves. It powers which invested heavily in construct- of all places: “The Romans Always Win”—a is not to be underestimated. The northern- ing highways, Rome was unique in making graffito first spotted by the British ambassa- most Roman milestone known—today in the them available without restriction, with not dor out for a picnic in 1987! Let’s hope that Museum of Scotland—was erected by army even tolls payable except the occasional cus- Mary Beard will write a sequel to her SPQR. roadbuilders in the Edinburgh area during the toms due on commercial goods. Contrast early 140s A.D. By chance, at the very same this with the multiple restrictions imposed Richard Talbert is William Rand Kenan, Jr., time a legionary detachment established a fort in China and in Tokugawa Japan, including Professor of History at the University of North on the Farasan islands, as we first learned in on who may travel (with extra hindrances Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the founder of its 1998 from a Latin inscription recorded there. for women in Japan), and on which highways Ancient World Mapping Center (awmc.unc. This is a location near the southern end of the (in 3rd-century B.C. Qin China, many were edu). His books include The Romans from Red Sea, today Saudi territory and as remote built for the emperor alone). More broadly, it Village to Empire (Oxford University Press) to most of us as it must have been in Roman would be worth speculating that if a time ma- and Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Ro- times, although well positioned to safeguard chine could arrange for an Inca inspector to man World ( Press). His the empire’s flourishing seaborne commerce visit the Roman empire during the first three next book, Roman Portable Sundials: The with South Arabia, East Africa, the Persian centuries A.D., he would likely be appalled Empire in Your Hand, is forthcoming from Gulf, India, and Sri Lanka. by the Romans’ lack of drive to extract more Oxford University Press in January.

from BAYLOR UNIVERSIT Y PRESS

“A forceful argument ” ...backed up by insightful homiletical discourse, about the sacred rhetoric that sustained Black Christians who left the familiar and signed up for a ‘justice ticket’ in search of jobs and freedom.

Books for Good | baylorpress.com

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 44 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Timothy W. Caspar The Cicero Test Rome’s Revolution: Death of the Republic and Birth of the Empire, by Richard Alston. Oxford University Press, 408 pages, $29.95

The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination, by Barry Strauss. Simon & Schuster, 353 pages, $27 (cloth), $16.99 (paper)

ow a historian treats the an- Today, almost no college student or profes- ow we have two new histori- cient Roman statesman, philoso- sor reads anything at all of Cicero, let alone re- cal works on the fall of the Roman Hpher, and orator Marcus Tullius veres him as a model of virtuous behavior and Nrepublic in the first century B.C. Cicero (106–43 B.C.) usually tells us a great intellectual activity. By the early 20th century, Though each has a different scope and focus, deal about his approach to the study of his- as Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Cicero figures prominently in both. Do they tory more generally. Call it the Cicero test. Walker Howe has chronicled, Cicero and the pass the Cicero test? The dominant view of Cicero, almost from other classics had virtually disappeared from Rome’s Revolution by Richard Alston, a the time of his death at the hands of the Sec- educational curricula. What happened? Be- professor of Roman history at the University ond Triumvirate, focused on his voluminous ginning in the 19th century, German scholars of London’s Royal Holloway college, does not. writings and doomed efforts to save Rome’s following the lead of G.W.F. Hegel propa- The book covers many of the major events republic. His reputation peaked in the period gated a new, pinched view of Cicero. Cicero’s from the rise of Tiberius Gracchus as tribune stretching from the Renaissance to the En- political philosophy, they believed, did little in 133 B.C. to the death of Caesar lightenment and American Founding. Dur- more than translate Greek ideas into Latin. in 14 A.D. Though frequently lapsing into ing those four centuries, as the classics scholar As Hegel taught them, they celebrated Julius academic jargon and explicitly embracing the A.E. Douglas noted, “every educated man had Caesar as the great world-historical figure Hegelian notion of the world-historical fig- studied something of Cicero’s philosophical who despite himself advanced the cause of ure, it offers a workmanlike narrative, and is writings at school or university.” Cicero’s ad- reason and freedom. Cicero’s modern critics at its best when it draws directly on ancient mirers today tend to share his view that his- tend to share the view that Cicero was on the sources—that is, when it sets aside the mod- tory reveals timeless lessons about the human wrong side of history but was too clueless or ern theory it attempts to impose on the past. character, applicable in any age. egotistical to realize it. Alston’s descriptions of battle can be grip-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 45 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

ping, such as the climactic confrontation off But does the fact of failure prove a cause who seek a return to a mythical “golden age.” the coast of Actium in 31 B.C., when Antony deserved to fail? This would mean that suc- In fact, Cicero was far from the reactionary and Cleopatra’s naval forces went down to de- cess in fact corresponds to success in theory, this book imagines him to be, but to discover feat, in part because of the flaming arrows and which is nothing other than the doctrine that you will have to read him for yourself. pitch launched by Octavian’s troops onto the that might makes right. In that case, Alston And yet, though Alston may not like the decks of their ships. would be correct to say we should not think conclusions of the “elite” authors of antiquity, The book, it must be said, is miserably ed- of politics “in terms of classes, institutions, he cannot help consulting them. They did ited. Typographical errors abound, as do split constitutions, and political structures.” In- not look at the world solely in terms of power, infinitives. Words are misspelled, missing, or stead “we should think of politics in terms knowing that such a stinting framework pre- repeated. Punctuation marks are absent here of networks of power,” and in particular the vents consideration of fundamental alterna- and duplicated there, while elsewhere maps “patrimonial network” established by Caesar tives, such as better and worse uses of power, are mislabeled. and Augustus. freedom and tyranny, or a Cicero and a Cae- Alston’s thesis is that political life, in all sar. They understood that the demise of the times and places, is best understood as the etermining who holds power in includes many figures who, competition for power: “The story I will tell a regime is indeed fundamental. As by word and deed, offered heroic resistance to here is of the fundamentals of politics: power, DAristotle says, the first question for the eventual—but by no means inevitable— money, and violence.” In other words, power the student of regimes is: who rules? The one, outcome. The reader is left with the impres- and self-interest, not political ideas or prin- the few, or the many? But there is a second sion that Alston’s thesis is disproved by the ciples, are the key. Consequently, in thinking question, more decisive or fundamental than story he tells. about Roman politics and society, we need to the first: do the rulers rule in their own in- start “not from the speeches and philosophi- terest, or for the good of the entire political he death of caesar, by barry cal discourses of Cicero and his friends, nor community? It is the answer to this question Strauss, a professor of history and clas- from the values of citizenship and Roman po- that reveals whether any particular regime is a Tsics at Cornell University, is quite dif- litical culture as they have been received and good or bad one, a conclusion we cannot reach ferent. Its scope is narrow: the major events modified over generations of modern political simply by counting the number of rulers. surrounding the famous assassination on the thought, but from the perspective of the sol- Alston would render Aristotle’s second Ides of March in 44 B.C. At the same time, it dier in the camp, or the poor man in the street question moot: rulers never act, voluntarily is an entertaining history written in a popular, or the field.” at least, for the good of the entire community, colorful style, vividly bringing characters to but only in their own interest. They may be life. Strauss’s text and copious endnotes dem- hat of cicero? alston makes coerced into accepting changes to the political onstrate full mastery of the ancient sources. clear his personal distaste for the order but that merely confirms the original Strauss rejects Alston’s dismissive attitude Wman: he refers to Cicero’s “long thesis. Unhappily for Alston, if his thesis is toward the conclusions of “elite” historians, and sadly not quite completely lost poem” correct, it removes any ground for condemn- but acknowledges those sources are scanty by about his own consulship; and says that ing, as he frequently does, the actions taken today’s standards. Just five detailed accounts immodesty was “a trait with which Cicero by the Roman ruling class to defend its own of Caesar’s assassination have come down to should have been abundantly familiar.” It is interest. But condemn he does, and in so do- us, only one contemporary with the event it- Cicero’s political failure that he finds most ing he makes it clear that he thinks there is a self. The rest, written later, relied on contem- significant, however. timeless standard of justice that limits what porary accounts now lost. Although there Cicero’s suppression of the Catilinarian power may rightfully do. is “basic agreement” among the detailed ac- conspiracy during his consulship in 63 B.C. One lesson has to do with the role of a just counts “about the conspiracy and the crime,” is a harbinger of things to come: though he government. In Alston’s retelling, the redis- nevertheless there are a few crucial disagree- was hailed at the time as pater patriae, or Fa- tributive policies of the Gracchus brothers, ments. Because none of the available sources ther of his Country, and would subsequently and later of Caesar and Augustus, become is “impartial” and “each author has an ax to be revered through much of Western history a kind of ancient precursor to today’s liber- grind,” the historian must “exercise imagi- for his actions, Alston sees Cicero as a “con- al welfare state. The New Deal in Old Rome nation, ingenuity, and caution.” The need to troversial figure” whose actions identify him (1939), by H.J. Haskell, was an earlier state- practice “informed speculation” is a theme not as a hero but as a “potential tyrant.” By ment of this theme. As Alston writes, the running through the book. contrast, the populist and future dictator “Roman grain dole” was a policy “very similar Is it true, for example, that Caesar laughed is on the right side of history, to those adopted by modern states in order to as he entered the Senate house on that fateful a defender of “law and the rights of Roman alleviate poverty.” The “best hope for the poor” day? Yes, we would like to believe it, since it il- citizens.” is not limited constitutional government and lustrates so well the “hubris” that most sourc- By the end of his life, with the republic the enforcement of property rights, but some es emphasize as the cause of Caesar’s down- crashing down around him, Cicero’s politi- form of “social provision” from the ruling po- fall. But because the sources are incomplete cal failure is complete. “His political vision litical class. The proper task of government, and uncertain, this may or may not be true, of a Rome governed by the senators in ac- whether in ancient Rome or a contemporary and so the “good historian…must be highly cord with a social and political hierarchy liberal democracy, is to bring about historical skeptical.” One fact about which eight ancient dominated by the traditional values of the progress toward a better future. Accordingly, sources do agree is that Caesar received 23 traditional aristocracy of the city,” according Alston disdains those “elite Roman moralists” stab wounds. Strauss rigorously follows his to Rome’s Revolution, “was exposed as flawed who looked to the past and had an inordinate own rules, constantly weighing the various and failed by the very fact that he had to ex- focus on “moral decline,” the political “conser- sources’ motivations to assess how their biases plain himself to Octavian.” vatives” of every age—Cicero, for example— may color their presentations.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 46 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

As for the Cicero test, The Death of Caesar prophecy covered a month’s worth of days, of iven this unstinting sketch of passes easily, treating the man, the politician, which the Ides was merely the last. Brutus as Caesar’s tyrannical character, it is and the political philosopher discerningly and selfless republican hero? Only if one reads Plu- Gpuzzling that Strauss would say of generously. With no hint of irony, Strauss tarch, as Shakespeare did, and neglects other Caesar that he “was what Aristotle called a speaks in praise of the voluminous writings counterbalancing sources. Nicolaus’s account, great-souled man.” The great-souled or mag- Cicero produced in his last few years of life: in particular, is decidedly hostile to the con- nanimous man is indeed courageous. But this “In an outpouring of philosophical writing be- spirators. Though “Brutus believed in ideals means he will not hesitate to brave dangers for tween 46 and 44 B.C. Cicero offered a bril- that were bigger than himself,” Strauss rejects some worthy cause, not that he is addicted to liant description of republican ideals.” Shakespeare’s unmixed view of Brutus as a risks, which would be evidence of the vice of Strauss not only takes Cicero seriously “model of ethics,” because the ancient sources rashness. The magnanimous man possesses as a political thinker, but celebrates him as say differently. Strauss instead describes Bru- all the virtues. Tyranny, by contrast, is a vehi- “the last lion of the Republic.” Cicero offered tus as “misunderstood” and “multifaceted,” cle for the display of the greatest human vices, “heroic resistance from the well of the Senate” someone who acted from a mix of principle especially injustice and immoderation. as he delivered a series of speeches against and self-interest. In other words, Strauss re- This misdiagnosis stands out precisely be- Antony in 44–43 B.C., collectively known as minds us that Brutus was a real human being cause it is an aberration. Strauss tells us that the Philippics. He could have fled Italy, but before he was a poetic hero. Caesar was able to maintain his power by as- instead chose to stay and fight: “Whatever And what about the most famous line we siduously cultivating “a few trusted loyalists,” happened, Cicero could be sure of one thing. think we know from history, “Et tu, Brute?” the elites of Italy, the provinces that benefit- Never again would he have to say that he Turns out that is not quite right either. Cae- ed from him, the urban plebs, and the army lacked courage. By taking his stand, partic- sar’s last words, if he had any, were probably “above all”—which sounds strikingly similar ularly at the age of 62, Cicero risked every- in Greek, not Latin: “Kai su, teknon?” or “You to Alston’s “patrimonial network.” And later thing for the Republic.” Courageous to the too, child?” Strauss dismisses the notion be- he says the “secret of Roman politics,” which end, Cicero “died with dignity and without lieved by some that these are the words of a was only “revealed” in the aftermath of Cae- offering resistance.” father to an illegitimate son, but thinks they sar’s assassination, was that “Caesar was dead Strauss provides portraits in full—the vir- could very well have been meant as a curse. but Caesarism lived on.” tues as well as the vices—not only of Cicero What is lost in terms of poetry is gained in For Strauss to state the realities of tyran- but also of several other major players in Ro- historical accuracy—and foresight, as Brutus nical political power is not, however, to deny man politics at the time: Caesar, of course, as would die by his own hand following the Bat- humans’ ability to choose a different course. well as Octavian (later the Emperor Augus- tle of Philippi in 42 B.C. Indeed, the conspirators demonstrate by their tus), Mark Antony, Cassius, and Brutus. He Finally, what about his central subject? words and deeds the fundamental alternative also does good service in resurrecting the lit- Strauss leaves no doubt that Caesar’s goal was to tyranny that exists in any age. As Strauss tle-remembered Decimus Junius Brutus Albi- personal glory and power at the expense of concludes, even “if they didn’t save the Re- nus, whom Strauss argues was “no mere detail” the republic. The portrait of Caesar drawn by public, they saved republicanism.” In so doing, but was rather “the key” to the whole conspir- Brutus in his speech to the Roman people two they became “powerful reminders that as long acy. Decimus, the “linchpin of the plot,” goes days after the assassination is “scathing but as men and women remember the names of to Caesar’s home on the morning of the Ides accurate.” According to Brutus, Caesar killed those who killed Julius Caesar, dictators will of March and persuades him to attend a meet- the best citizens while also attacking liberty not sleep safely.” ing of the Senate, despite his wife’s desperate and the people’s tribunes, in his pursuit of un- The lasting lesson of the death of Caesar, pleas and Spurinna’s ominous prophecy. limited power. “To sum up [his] speech in a and of the broader Roman revolution that phrase, Caesar was a tyrant.” replaced a republic with tyranny and empire, trauss’s narrative of the cen- Agreeing with the sources, Strauss points is that what endures is something the politics trality of Decimus runs contrary to to Caesar’s character flaws as the ultimate of power can never hope to explain. Humans Sthe story told by Shakespeare and cause of his death: an inveterate “gambler,” a possess the capacity to stand against tyranny. his source Plutarch, who make only passing “risk taker” and “addict,” and driven by his im- Whether they succeed or fail, they can dem- references to Decimus while mythologizing mense hubris, he wanted to have “one last roll onstrate timeless qualities worthy of imitation Brutus instead. Indeed, one of the striking of the dice.” Thus, Caesar goes to the meeting in any age. aspects of Strauss’s narrative is its emphasis in the Senate on the Ides of March without a on the lasting influence of Shakespeare’s play, bodyguard, not because he thinks it safe, but Timothy W. Caspar is associate vice president which has shaped what we think we know precisely because he believes it’s dangerous. for external affairs and lecturer in politics at about the assassination. Caesar had beaten the odds on the battle- Hillsdale College, and the author of Recovering “Beware the Ides of March,” for example? field so many times he was convinced his luck the Ancient View of Founding: A Commen- Purely a Shakespearean invention: Spurrina’s could not run out. tary on Cicero’s De Legibus (Lexington Books).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 47 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Mary Lefkowitz Ancient Authors Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond, by Richard Jenkyns. , 288 pages, $27.99

t’s become increasingly hard to find Greeks had settled in the south of Italy as century B.C. Greek poet Callimachus tech- a book about literature as literature, and early as the 8th century B.C. The Romans ad- nically sophisticated, and illustrates his point Inot literature as or political ax- opted their alphabet and, along with it, their by providing a literal English translation to grinding. Fortunately, there is no psychologiz- literature, even to the point of making their show how effectively Callimachus arranges ing in Richard Jenkyns’s new book, Classical own language conform to the established met- his words. But Jenkyns considers the poet’s Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to rical patterns used by the Greek poets. The writings dry, and suggests that his influence Virgil and Beyond, because its author under- Greeks, in turn, were eventually compelled on Roman poets wasn’t as great as has re- stands that we know too little about ancient to learn about Roman history and law, after cently been imagined. authors to try to explain how their lives might the Romans conquered the eastern half of the But other classics still deserve our at- have influenced their works. Nor is the book Mediterranean. tention. Among them, indisputably, stand concerned with “reception,” that is, the study Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid, epics that of the ways in which subsequent authors have nyone who has an interest in are in their different ways the most influ- understood ancient Greek and Latin writ- ancient literature will find this book ential works of ancient Greek and Roman ings. Instead Classical Literature concentrates Astimulating, if only because Jenkyns literature. In ancient Greece schoolchildren on what ancient Greek and Roman authors doesn’t try to suggest that every extant piece learned to read and write by copying out and wrote and the characteristics that made their of Greek or Latin writing is equally appeal- reciting passages from the Iliad. TheAeneid writing distinctive. It is short and readable, ing or worth the time and trouble it might became an instant classic, even though its in contrast to most histories of ancient lit- take his readers to appreciate it. He tells you author had asked that it be destroyed if he erature, which tend to be long, and bristling what he judges to be worth reading, and what hadn't finished it when he died. For much of with scholarly references. Jenkyns does not he thinks you need not bother with, like the the 20th century the Iliad was regarded as pretend to be anonymous, omniscient, or im- dramas written by the Roman philosopher a product of an oral tradition, composed in partial. Professor Emeritus of the Classical and poet Seneca (4 B.C.–65 A.D.), who had effect by many different bards—as if such a Tradition at Oxford, he has a distinct autho- more influence on William Shakespeare significant and coherent work of literature rial voice that engages his audience, making than any other ancient dramatist. Nonethe- could have been produced by a committee! the reading of his book more like taking part less Jenkyns dislikes the Roman’s overblown Jenkyns explains why the Iliad, although de- in a conversation than listening to a lecture. rhetoric and fondness for ghoulish detail; “in veloped through traditional methods, almost Although works written in Greek and in the end,” he insists, “it is hard to avoid the certainly is “the creation of a single mind,” Latin are often discussed separately, Jenkyns conclusion: a man must have real talent to composed at a time when it could be pre- deals with both languages and the ways in write works as bad as these.” Quite a few served in writing. which authors in one influenced authors in professional classicists would disagree, but In his discussion of the poem’s narrative, the other. The two civilizations were closely Jenkyns always explains why he thinks an he concentrates almost exclusively on human related by culture as well as by geography. author has been overrated. He finds the 3rd- action, and particularly on Achilles, whose

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 48 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wrath causes most of the deaths so vividly de- characterizations of the uncontrolled, di- of Turnus—without the reconciliation and scribed in the tale. Heroism, Jenkyns observes, vided mind. reflection of the last book of theIliad . But is essentially selfish; even if at end of the poem along with the violence there is hope, since we Achilles sees himself clearly, he is not prepared he book’s second half is devoted to have already learned of the promise of Rome’s to change. But Jenkyns might also have point- authors who were inspired by Greek lit- future, even though (as Jenkyns might have ed out that the damage caused by Achilles’ Terature but who wrote in Latin. Roman added) that future was accompanied by con- wrath was also a part of Zeus’ plan for the de- writers enriched their own work by careful ref- tinued violence and cruelty. struction of Troy; without the gods, his anger erences to Greek models that educated audi- would have been far less effective. The gods’ ences might easily recognize: Catullus might enkyns devotes less space to post- interventions, however brief, are consequen- seem to be translating a famous poem of Sap- Virgilian literature, but he does include (as tial. The same might be said about divine ac- pho, until we come to the last line, and realize Jmost surveys fail to do) some of the great tion in Homer’s Odyssey. The goddess Athena he is talking about a crisis of conscience that writing by non-native speakers of Greek—the is more than a fairy godmother, patroness, or Sappho doesn’t mention. Most remarkably, gospels of Luke and John, the letters of Paul protector. She orchestrates the action of the Roman poets employed Greek metrical pat- of Tarsus, and the stunning last few chapters epic, making sure that both Odysseus and his terns, which are not easily replicated in Latin, of the New Testament’s Book of Revelation. son Telemachus return safely to their home- a language with relatively few short syllables. Among Roman writers, he pays special atten- land, and assists them in defeating, with the Lucretius chose to write a long poem about tion to “the saturnine grandeur and dark bril- help of two slaves, Penelope’s more than one Epicurean philosophy in dactylic hexameter, liance” of Tacitus and Juvenal. Tacitus writes hundred suitors. the same verse pattern employed by Homer about ambition and power in a taut, acidic for his epic narratives. Lucretius took advan- style that is not as dispassionate as he claims it n other places, jenkyns comments tage of Latin’s ponderous sonorities to say of to be. Juvenal wrote satires, short verse essays on the remarkable simplicity that makes the philosopher Epicurus’ theories about the about society that have no analogue in Greek ISappho’s verse unique, and the lyric poet nature of the universe: “where he is craggy and literature. His voice (like that of Lucretius) is Pindar’s sudden metaphors and attention awkward, it is to express the recalcitrance of impersonal, and his particular targets are vul- to detail so striking and memorable. But in his material.” But Lucretius’ eye for illustrative garity and tastelessness. He was also techni- his view the greatest Greek lyrics were writ- detail is distinctive and original, and his ability cally proficient, able to shape a hexameter as ten by the tragic poet Aeschylus. The comic to see the poetic in the mundane helped make effectively as Virgil. The modern notion of poet Aristophanes made fun of Aeschylus’ it possible for Virgil to write the Georgics. satire derives primarily from him, rather than clunky, pompous language and dramaturgy, Virgil gets a chapter of his own in Jen- from his less acerbic predecessor Horace. but Jenkyns defends the deep psychological kyns’s survey. Original, complex and, allusive The book ends with a brief reminder of how insight of the poet’s words, and shows that in his earlier works, Virgil in his epic poem many genres of European literature derive his plots are carefully and effectively struc- the Georgics used farming the Italian country- from antiquity, and how later writers found tured. By contrast, Jenkyns regards Sopho- side as a commentary on man and the forces the work of Greek and Roman authors not cles as “strange, savage, and extreme,” rather of nature, as well as on the destruction and restrictive, but inspirational. By portraying than being the model against whom other brutality of the civil wars of his own time. His ancient literature as transformative, Richard dramatists should be judged, as Aristotle Aeneid, despite its title, is not a poem about Jenkyns presents a powerful argument against seems to suggest in the Poetics. Sophocles’ the journey of Aeneas, in the way that the Od- those who would dismiss the Classics as dead vision of humanity, Jenkyns observes, is not yssey is about the wanderings of Odysseus; it white European male . Better for so far from that of the historian Thucydides, is clear from its opening lines that the Aeneid us to do as the Romans did, to read and learn who makes his audience confront the human is also the story of Rome, its founding and its from them, and communicate all the more ef- brutality and fallibility that ultimately led to future; a story of a journey that also explores fectively because of our connection with an Athens’ defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Yet the nature of empire. Aeneas must leave Dido instructive and enduring past. it was Euripides who had the greatest influ- and Carthage and go to Italy; the cause must ence on subsequent European literature. His take precedence over the needs of the indi- Mary Lefkowitz is the Andrew W. Mellon Pro- exciting plots inspired both adventure novels vidual. Unlike Odysseus, Aeneas does not get fessor in the Humanities Emerita at Wellesley and light comedy. His Medea and Phaedra to return home or find happiness. The poem College, and the author, most recently, of Eurip- provided the archetypes for later dramatic ends with an act of violence—Aeneas’ slaying ides and the Gods (Oxford University Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 49 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Douglas Kries Sinner, Scholar, Saint Augustine: Conversions to Confessions, by Robin Lane Fox. Basic Books, 688 pages, $35

Saint Augustine

xcepting only the new testament to 387, the year of his baptism by Ambrose, nation as a priest in 391 and then bishop in itself, the most illustrious work ever bishop of Milan, and the death of Monica, his 395—sermons. Lane Fox’s treatment of these Epenned by a Christian author is surely mother, in Ostia. Ignoring for a moment the years stresses that Augustine was living as a Augustine’s Confessions. The first nine books important exceptions to be discussed below, monk, first in his hometown of Thagaste and are its most popular, memorably telling the tale none of Augustine’s own writing from those 33 then in Hippo. His first love was the contem- Christians have always loved best: sin leading to years survives. The biographer is forced to rely plative life, inspired by philosophy and faith, conversion and then redemption—the tale of on Augustine’s memories of those early years and he felt the demands of the active life of the prodigal son. What makes Augustine’s ver- as they are selectively remembered in 397 in the priesthood to be an imposition. sion so original, however, is that the conversion the Confessions. Doing his best to round out and redemption part of his story leans heavily the story from other sources, Lane Fox empha- his twofold division is subject to on the not-always-so-pious passion, philosophy. sizes Manicheanism—that strange, dualistic, one major qualification, for there is a In Augustine: Conversions to Confessions, anti-Jewish sect claiming to be the true Chris- Tvery important year of Augustine’s life Oxford historian emeritus Robin Lane Fox tian faith founded by Mani, the embodiment for which we have both contemporary liter- attempts a biography of the African bishop of the Holy Spirit. Although it is often debated ary evidence and a retrospective treatment from his birth in 354 A.D. up through his just how well versed Augustine was in this cult in the Confessions. In 386, while practicing composition of the Confessions in 397. Lane since he was only a “Hearer” rather than one and teaching rhetoric through the imperial Fox admits, though, that he treats Augus- of its “Elect,” Lane Fox’s conclusion is that Au- court, Augustine read “the platonic books” (he tine’s life prior to the Confessions principally gustine knew rather more than less. doesn’t specify which ones, though most schol- as preparation for the writing of that master- The second task of the biographer is to ars think they were the works of Plotinus and piece, so the book can be appropriately under- study the years from 387 to 397, from Augus- Porphyry). These books, he says, enabled him stood as “a biography of the Confessions.” tine’s baptism to the writing of the Confessions. to recognize the Manicheans’ essential error of He divides his massive book into six parts The historical sources are now the opposite of ontological materialism, thus paving the way and 43 chapters, but it is simpler to say that what they were for the first task, for the nar- for intellectually resolving the problem of evil Augustine: Conversions to Confessions is divided rative of the first nine books of theConfessions and seeking Christian baptism at Easter in into two parts that are distinguished according breaks off after the events of 387, but Augus- 387. In the months between his first encounter to the surviving historical sources that must be tine’s writings from the subsequent years are with Platonism and his baptism, Augustine employed for each. First, Lane Fox must write extant. These include dialogues, commentar- withdrew from Milan to a villa in the coun- about the period from Augustine’s birth up ies on Scripture, letters, and—after his ordi- tryside at Cassiciacum. He wrote four dia-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 50 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

logues there, but they are in the style of Cicero the production of “semen bread.” But even if that there are no “hidden patterns and cross- and contain much more Platonism than they we overlook this issue, which Wills seizes upon correspondences” in the work. One cannot do Christianity, at least on the surface. This rather singularly, it is hard to get past Lane help wondering what we are to do, then, with seeming discrepancy between Augustine’s Fox’s repeated allusions to Augustine’s pining the fact that the nine books of the Confessions own writings at the time of his conversion and for the soft caresses of women. Already in the dealing with Augustine’s life up through 387 baptism and his retrospective treatment of second chapter, moreover, he finds it necessary divide at the mid-point of the middle book, that period of his life ten years later in the Con- to give us an account of the unusually large and with the first four and one-half books deal- fessions has dominated scholarly debate for the long breasts possessed by certain women who ing with Augustine in Africa and the last four past century, even leading some to conclude once lived close to the sea in Libya. Since this and one-half treating Augustine in Italy. Why, that in 386 Augustine converted to Platonism description of the Libyan breasts is contained one wonders, does Book 5, the central book, and only later to Christianity. Since the debate in a letter of the Greek bishop Synesius, whom begin with a Manichean bishop named Faus- has been a spur to scholarship, today we now Augustine never even met, it seems quite un- tus and end with a Christian bishop named know a great deal more than previously about necessary and indeed almost prurient for Lane Ambrose? Or why are both Books 4 and the Milanese Platonism circulating among the Fox to relate it to his readers. 6 dominated by treatments of Augustine’s people surrounding Ambrose. friends? Or why does Book 3 contain the Lane Fox’s treatment of the circle of Mi- second criticism, and one to be initial encounter with philosophy resulting lan and the question of Augustine’s struggle taken more seriously, is that Lane Fox in a falling into Manichean materialism, and between the attractions of Platonism and Aunderestimates the significance of Ci- Book 7 tell the story of the healing of Augus- Christianity is measured. He emphasizes that cero to Augustine’s intellectual development, tine’s materialism under the influence of the Augustine, especially under the new pressures including during the important months at Cas- notion of immaterial substance found in the brought about by his unwanted ordination to siciacum. This is presumably because he does books of the Platonists? Or why does Book 2 the priesthood, undertook greater study of not take Cicero himself too seriously; “Plotinus, tell the story of the corruption of Augustine’s the Bible during the years 391 to 397, but he unlike Cicero, was a profound and independent sexual desire with reference to a pear tree, and sees no radical discontinuity in Augustine’s philosopher,” he writes. But the significance of Book 8 the story of the healing of Augustine’s basic orientation. His conversions (to philoso- Cicero’s presence at Cassiciacum is undeni- sexual longings at the foot of a fig tree? Or phy, to Manicheanism and back, and to celi- able; the very genre of the dialogues Augustine why does Monica figure prominently in both bacy), were completed in 386-87; after that, wrote there relies upon him. Also, Augustine Books 1 and 9? If indeed Augustine did plan he turned toward confessing. clearly states in the Confessions that during the the Confessions carefully according to a didac- years prior to his conversion in Milan, he did tic scheme, if they do contain “hidden pat- here is much to appreciate in not understand the hidden dimensions of the terns and cross-correspondences,” then our Augustine: Conversions to Confessions. Academic teaching. Indeed, his discovery of ability to mine them as a source for writing TLane Fox is a gifted stylist, and he the esotericism of Cicero and other Academ- a biography is seriously compromised, for we writes for non-specialists in a way that is very ics occurred about the time that he was coming have to wonder whether there are not things engaging. Most importantly, he makes one to understand the figurative sense of Scripture altered or left out that, from the point of view want to read the Confessions, as well as Au- from Ambrose; one has to wonder whether the of writing history, were more important than gustine’s other early writings, again and again. two discoveries were not related. In any case, by the things that were included. The author’s treatment of the second of the the time he retired to Cassiciacum, Augustine three biographical tasks explained above is knew of the existence of Academic esotericism. ane fox states in his preface that probably the most valuable part of the work. But Academic esotericism is an idea Lane Fox he is not a Christian; elsewhere he says Augustine’s writings from 387 to 397 are di- seems not to take seriously; he wonders how Lthat Darwinism has disproven Aristote- vergent in tone, tenor, and genre, and it isn’t Augustine could ever have been taken in by “the lian physics, and it soon becomes clear that he easy to understand how they once fit together notion that the Platonists had a long-concealed is quite committed to historical criticism of the in the mind of the nascent monk turned priest ‘secret doctrine.’” Bible. In reflecting on his own relation to Au- turned bishop. Lane Fox is able to connect the Too much attention to sex and too little gustine, he says, “I have often wondered how he disparate dots in order to construct an intel- to the existence of esotericism among phi- would write to me, belittling my worldly multi- lectual narrative that seems at least probable. losophers are problems, but the most serious plicity, but failing, I think, to dislodge it.” Why At least three criticisms can also be made, weakness of Augustine: Conversions to Confes- Robin Lane Fox has written such a lengthy and the first of which is that the book is overly con- sions is Lane Fox’s frequently repeated claim well-researched book about a man who is un- cerned with sex. To be sure, Augustine himself that Augustine did not plan his masterpiece able to move him profoundly is hard to under- gives Lane Fox plenty of opportunities to dis- carefully, preferring instead to just sort of stand, and one cannot help but wonder wheth- cuss the subject, but even in confessing his sex- let it tumble out as the spirit of the moment er the author’s own attitude toward his subject ual sins, Augustine usually spares us the details, moved him. He insists that the Confessions is not more complicated than he says it is. a delicacy that Lane Fox doesn’t imitate. The is “not a rehearsed narrative” but something acerbic and prickly Garry Wills has especially that arises “spontaneously” within a prayer Douglas Kries is the Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J., attacked the book in the New York Review of that the reader overhears. “[W]e are listening Professor of Christian Philosophy at Gonzaga Books on this score; Wills is particularly exer- to his self-analysis in progress,” Lane Fox says, University, and the co-editor (with Ernest L. For- cised by Lane Fox’s overdone emphasis upon “unrevised and written down as it happens.” tin and Michael W. Tkacz) of Augustine: Politi- the Manichean cultic sex act that resulted in Most curious of all is Lane Fox’s assertion cal Writings (Hackett Publishing Company).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 51 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Edward Feser A Mere—Brilliant—Sophist Hume: An Intellectual Biography, by James A. Harris. Cambridge University Press, 633 pages, $55

he best-known event in scottish from the outset, an intellectual biography. To influences on Hume’s intellectual output—on philosopher David Hume’s life is his be sure, Harris, who teaches philosophy at the evolution of his thinking, the composition Tdeath in 1776. Historians tell us that the University of St. Andrews, offers the and publication of his works, and the nature the great skeptic and critic of traditional reader some valuable insights into Hume’s of the controversies into which he entered. religious belief faced the end with tranquil- outer life. Most interesting is his account of Harris’s book is a work of superb scholarship, ity and even good cheer, untroubled by the the philosopher as a young man. The older well-written and insightful, and will be an in- thought that his demise would be his an- Hume—serene and worldly-wise, a liter- valuable resource to students of early modern nihilation. The 65 years that preceded that ary eminence and toast of Paris who rubbed thought. It is novel in its very conception—an demise were not uneventful, exactly. There shoulders with Rousseau, , and intellectual biography of Hume has not been were, for example, the public controversies James Boswell—is well known to students of attempted before—and offers a fresh perspec- caused by his various works, and his troubled philosophy. Less familiar is the 18-year-old tive on Hume’s motivations and the character relationship with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. But who suffered from anxiety and depression of his work. neither, for the most part, was his outward to the point of a nervous breakdown, and life plausibly the stuff even of a good PBS the first-time author who veered between ume’s multivolume history of costume drama. As with so many philoso- bouts of elation and panic when contemplat- England was among the works for phers, what was of greatest interest in the life ing what he hoped were the merits (but also Hwhich he was best known during of Hume is to be found in his head and in the feared were the deficiencies) of his forthcom- his lifetime. Indeed, commentators in the de- pages of his books. ing Treatise of Human Nature. cades after his death tended to see him pri- This is precisely what James Harris’s new For the most part, though, what Harris marily as a historian, and regarded his philos- book on Hume is concerned with. It is, as provides is a wealth of details, drawn from ophy as having an essentially negative signifi- his subtitle alerts us and as he emphasizes letters and other documents, concerning the cance, a collection of skeptical errors to which

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 52 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm later thinkers provided a corrective. By the it could be interpreted? And apart from the middle of the 19th century his significance as arguments the thinker actually gave for it, a historian was also being challenged, on the what arguments could be given for it? Fur- grounds that his research was weak and his thermore, what objections might be raised style too bloodless. against it? And what responses to those objec- John Stuart Mill began the trend toward tions could be given? Asking questions like a more positive estimation of Hume’s im- these not only helps us to see how the ideas portance as a philosopher. Mill argued that of past thinkers might be relevant today, but Hume posed a serious challenge that had also helps us to see what a past thinker him- not in fact successfully been addressed by self might have intended, and what the crit- Thomas Reid, Immanuel Kant, and others ics and admirers he engaged with might have who were thought to have refuted him. In the had in mind in responding to him the way early 20th century, Norman Kemp Smith they did. Hence an approach which neglects inaugurated the interpretation of Hume as such questions and confines itself to the more than a mere skeptic. Hume had, Kemp gathering of documentary evidence and the Smith argued, a positive account of human like is bound to be less penetrating than it nature, and one that provided the key to might have been. understanding Hume’s project as a unified philosophical program, one set out in the here is another aspect of much Treatise of Human Nature and implemented contemporary scholarship on the his- in the later works. Later 20th-century com- Ttory of philosophy that is relevant here. mentators would cement the Kemp Smith Pop accounts of the history of early modern interpretation. thought famously present Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and company as having liber- n harris’s view, none of these ap- ated Western philosophy and science from $29.95 HARDCOVER proaches to Hume is quite right. He the bogeyman of medieval Scholasticism. Iagrees that Hume was always a philoso- Sweeping away this purported mishmash of pher, and never merely a historian or man of religious dogma and uncritical attachment letters (though his conception of philosophy to Aristotle, the early moderns—so the story HOW REPUBLICAN was broader than that of the contemporary goes—rebuilt Western thought from scratch. academic). But Harris thinks it a serious in- Contemporary historians of science and of LEADERSHIP HELPED terpretive error to try to find a single, uni- philosophy know that this is a myth. For one CREATE AMERICAN fied program running through all of Hume’s thing, what the traditional narrative represents work, and he urges us not to discount either as “Scholasticism” is in fact largely a crude FOREIGN POLICY the skeptical tenor of much of that work or caricature. For another thing, early modern the role that literary ambition played in mo- thinkers often betray a much greater reliance tivating it. on actual Scholastic ideas and assumptions What one will not find in Harris’s book than modern readers are aware. Twentieth- “Original and meticulously is much in the way of critical, philosophical century scholars like Étienne Gilson (in phi- researched . . . . analysis of Hume’s ideas. For the most part, losophy) and Thomas Kuhn (in the history of Informative and highly that is not a problem, and Harris’s approach science) inaugurated a trend toward a more readable.” is certainly defensible. There are already a nuanced reading of the relationship between great many works devoted to such critical early modern thought and its Scholastic ante- —Ruth King, Family Security analysis, and it is precisely the gap in the ex- cedents. Contemporary historians of philoso- Matters isting Hume literature—the lack of sufficient phy like Margaret Osler, Dennis Des Chene, attention to what Hume was reading, to the Walter Ott, Helen Hattab, and many others circumstances under which he wrote specific have greatly furthered this recovery of the works, to his interactions with other promi- actual history of the Scholasticism-to-early- nent figures of the day, and so forth—that modern transition. Harris is trying to fill. Surprisingly, and disappointingly, Har- On the other hand, the mixing of criti- ris’s book shows little evidence of having been UNIVERSITY OF cal analysis with historical research has in informed by these developments. Yet the top- contemporary academic philosophy become ic of Hume’s relationship to Scholasticism is a standard part of writing works on the his- ripe for a serious and detailed treatment. This NEBRASKA PRESS tory of the subject, and for good reason. The is so in several respects, not the least of which critical philosophical analysis of the ideas being that Hume famously declared “School ESTABLISHED 1941 of some thinker of the past involves asking metaphysics” to be among the chief targets of questions such as: What exactly does this his skeptical arguments. But in fact, as sev- unpblog.com or that particular claim made by the thinker eral historians have pointed out, at least one nebraskapress.unl.edu mean? Apart from what the thinker explic- of Hume’s most famous themes—his skepti- itly said about it, what are the different ways cism about causality as a real feature of the

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 53 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

world (as opposed to a mere projection of the green ones, right and obtuse triangles, isos- from the Scholastic sources he might have mind onto the world)—has medieval Scho- celes and scalene triangles. By contrast, any come into contact with there? Did he consider lastic antecedents. In particular, one finds an- image we can form of a triangle will not ap- objections to his arguments that might have ticipations of Hume’s claims and arguments ply to all triangles, since it will always exhibit been found in these sources? Unfortunately, on this subject in William of Ockham and features had by some triangles (e.g., a blue Harris does little to address such questions, in Nicholas of Autrecourt (who is sometimes right triangle) but not by all (e.g., a red ob- and while he is correct to say that not much is described by historians of philosophy as “the tuse triangle). known, that is not to say that nothing is known medieval Hume”). Some of Hume’s criti- Hence, whereas the pop narrative would or that the question might not be investigated. cisms of anthropomorphic conceptions of have it that Hume put forward novel and dev- Indeed, Harris refers in the footnotes to some the deity are also of a kind a Scholastic might astating objections that earlier philosophers work on the subject, but does not pursue it endorse. like the medievals had never thought of, in fact himself. from a Scholastic point of view, at least, all he Also regrettable is the absence of any dis- hen there is the fact that posi- had done was to revive elementary fallacies cussion of the conflicting accounts of Hume’s tions like Hume’s are also sometimes that had long before been exposed and refut- death. The standard story is the one alluded Tanticipated and criticized by Scholastic ed. (The eminent 20th-century philosopher to above, that he faced his demise with seren- writers. For example, much of the edifice of Elizabeth Anscombe—herself influenced by ity; and it may well be correct. But there is a Hume’s thought rests on his assumption that Aquinas—famously described Hume as “a competing account, related in a 19th-century to have a concept is essentially to have a kind mere—brilliant—sophist.”) work by Anglican church leader Alexander of mental image. It is because he cannot trace Haldane, according to which Hume’s death- certain key metaphysical concepts—the no- nd that is not all. as harris bed cheerfulness was a pose and in which at tion of a substance, of causal power, of the notes, Hume spent more than two least one person who attended to him found self, and so on—to any specific mental image Ayears at the Jesuit College at La Flèche him to be sunk in depression and gloom. Of that he denies that we really have such con- in France. Harris observes rather dryly that course, it is true that some of his religious cepts. But Thomas Aquinas (under the influ- “we know almost nothing of how he passed critics would like to believe this. But it is no ence of earlier thinkers like Aristotle) would his time there,” but that Hume left with “a less true that some of Hume’s secular admir- have pointed out that this conflation of con- complete draft” of what would become the ers would like not to believe it. In any event, cepts with images cannot be correct. For ex- first two books of theTreatise of Human Na- questioning hagiography is hardly something ample, we quite easily grasp the concept of a ture. The questions this raises cry out for ask- to which Hume himself could have objected. triangle as that of a closed plane figure with ing. What did Hume read while he was there? three straight sides. Thisconcept applies to all What sorts of conversations did he have with Edward Feser is the author, most recently, of possible and actual triangles—red ones and the Jesuits? Did he borrow any of his ideas Neo-Scholastic Essays (St. Augustine’s Press).

The Courtship of Eva Eldridge The Sacred Cause of Union And the Monkey Learned Nothing A Story of Bigamy in the Marriage-Mad Fifties Iowa in the Civil War Dispatches from a Life in Transit by Diane Simmons by Thomas R. Baker by Tom Lutz

diane simmons R The Sacred Cause of Union IOWA IN THE CIVIL WAR AND THE THOMASR R. BAKER MONKEY Courtshipthe LEARNED NOTHING tom lutz of eva eldridge

dispatches from a life in transit n

A Story  of Bigamy  in the   

Marriage-Mad Fifties n

272 pages . $19.95 paperback original 268 pages . 5 maps . 10 illustrations 236 pages . $16.00 paperback original $27.50 paperback original

I OWA where great writing begins University of Iowa Press . order toll-free 800.621.2736 uiowapress.org

ªClaremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 54 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Eva Brann Novelist and Calvinist The Givenness of Things: Essays, by Marilynne Robinson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 304 pages, $26

rom the hour that, early in this could it have been? Thus in Thomas Mann’s most implicitly, namely in setting out their century at the urging of our college Joseph novels, the grand resolution, the broth- worlds as through and through significant, as Flibrarian, I entered Marilynne Robin- ers’ arrival in Joseph’s Egypt, a Biblical scene thought-inducing. I here mean “philosophy” son’s Gilead (2004), the first of a trilogy with indistinct to us before, is now documented for not as a professional pursuit but as the human Home (2008) and Lila (2014) still to come, I good. urge to get to the bottom of things, the former knew that I’d found a great contemporary (4) The tale may pretend to make itself up as it being to the latter as coming to survey some writer. Although I’m an indiscriminate lover goes, but in truth its author has conceived it from rural real estate with a theodolite in hand is of fiction, from airport blockbusters toWar its end backward. As certain theologians recon- to taking a morning walk in a spring meadow and Peace, I’ve always been eager to under- cile human freedom with God’s omniscience with your senses alive. stand that truly distinct class, the classics. by understanding Him not as driving events Here’s my list of features that mark great fic- causally forward from the beginning of time o my mind, marilynne robinson’s tion writing: but as contemplating them backwards permis- three novels bear all these marks in (1) The anti-heroes have their own moment sively from the end of days, so the earthly god Tplus and overplus. As in real, ordinary of redemptive goodness. Thus inParadise Lost, of novels, the author, knows the outcome of life, nothing much happens in these books, even the devil gets his due. Satan “stood…stu- a novel’s events and the afterlife of its people, but that unspectacular little shimmers with pidly good” within sight of Eve in paradise. and by these the story is back-lit. Thus in her significance, which the simple language in (2) The fates of these fictions begin to matter: letters Jane Austen gives information about its colloquial American beauty conveys with what is Iowa’s Gilead to me or I (a German Emma’s living arrangements beyond her mar- piercing accuracy. And whether she tells how Jew grown up in Brooklyn) to Gilead? And yet riage to Mr. Knightley, and I would bet she it all came out or not, we’re sure that it did as I’ve woken up at night wondering: will Jack be knew it before she began to write. Great writ- it must. with Stella? ers leave much unsaid, but they don’t turn their Yet as she herself says, she lives the double (3) As the story approaches one of its culmina- creatures over to terminal indeterminacy; they life of a novelist and a scholar. As a scholar tions the reader becomes anxious for the author. know the outcome before going in. she is the author of books of essays, of which Can this come off? And behold! Who’d have (5) Great novels are philosophical, some ex- the latest has the lovely title The Givenness of thought it would be like this, and yet, how else plicitly so, like George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Things. “Givenness” implies both God’s gifts,

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 55 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

bestowals of sheer existence to be apprehend- in her appreciation of the given (which is the ed by laypeople, and data, “givens” (plural of literal meaning of conservatism: intense de- a NYU PRESS Latin datum), facts behind existence to be re- votion to what is). But then again that same 1916 • Champion of Great • 2016 vealed by scientists. Her—late-found—theo- duality is to be found in the Lollards, the ideas for 100 Years logical learning, which bears the marks of not “poor priests” of the 14th century whom she A Body, Undone having been attained in fulfillment of any pro- admires, and their Bible-translating mentors. Living On After Great fessional requirement—“I really am a Calvin- They were populists, who tend to be both Pain ist”—illuminates her writing in both realms. right-wingers in their love of tradition and Christina Crosby Thus of the two pastors whose parallel lives defenders of the poor in their poverty and are the armature of the Gilead trilogy, the one thus of the left. “Crosby knows that there are no satisfying conclusions when whom, I suspect, she loves the better, John one lives ‘a life beyond reason’— Ames, sees what the 18th-century Calvin- book of nearly 300 pages bris- and that bit of wisdom alone is ist theologian whom she also loves, Jonathan tling with strong opinion gives ample cause to read this elegant and harrowing book.” Edwards, saw: the cause of a rainbow, the sun occasion for cavil. But the spirit of ar- — The Washington Post A shining full upon drops of rain from heaven gumentative refutation would just glance off $22.95 | Cloth for Edwards and drops dispersed by a sprin- a book so chock-full of rightmindedness. A The Poverty Industry kler for Ames. So too a remarkable feature of most appealing example is her skewering of The Exploitation of The Givenness of Things, that science is under- the materialistic postulates of neuroscience America’s Most stood as an aid—even a savior—rather than insofar as they foreclose inquiry into the Vulnerable Citizens an enemy of faith, seems to be, if not derived soul. Yet there are certain terms that would, Daniel L. Hatcher from, at least supported by Edwards. The pri- I think, have benefitted from conversation mary guiding texts, preferred over Edwards’s with unlikeminded friends. I have the im- “The Poverty Industry breaks fresh ground. Every American writings, are however John Calvin’s own. I pression (how wrong one can be!) that these who cares about the intersection teach at a—secular—school in which selec- essays were essentially conceived in solitude. of private profits and public tions from Calvin’s So I’ll end with some terms that might justice should read this book, Institutes of the Christian and wrestle with its arguments.” Religion are required reading for us all, and have worked differently in the book with — Sarah Stillman, so I am bound to respect this classical work, more collaborative thinking-out, the kind staff writer for The New Yorker $35 | Cloth but I can’t take to its severity, as anyone could that never crowds out ultimate thinking-by- to Edwards’s charm—my deficiency as a non- oneself. Obama’s Guantánamo Christian. In the author’s Christian world, where Stories from an Enduring every creature is created individually by the Prison ut are the novelist and the es- Creator, radical individuality is to be princi- Edited by Jonathan sayist really one? Is the novelist, who is pally cherished and by it human ordinariness Hafetz Bessentially sweet-tempered, who is gen- is sanctified. Robinson is deeply interested “A n alarming and important erous to all her characters and makes them in ontology, which she links with metaphys- indictment of Obama’s matter, who is imaginatively fulfilling and ics, that is, in an inquiry into, and account of, ineffectual approach to one of his signature campaign issues not given to sloppy indeterminacies, whose such Being as is beyond nature and its basic and of America’s tarnished story is fraught with the most humanly seri- study, physics. Among my colleagues it is a system of justice as a whole.” ous questions, and whose people ply practical question frequently broached (and not unac- — Kirkus Reviews $35 | Cloth theology—is that writer identical with the knowledged by her) whether faithful theolo- sometimes a little cranky scholar-advocate of gians can in fact be uncompromised ontolo- Preventive Force the essays, who is learned, to be sure, but also gists. At any rate, in the grand—originally Drones, Targeted Killing, impassioned? pagan—metaphysical tradition, radical indi- and the Transformation of Well, there are 17 of these essays, brief viduality is eclipsed by prior commonality: es- Contemporary Warfare treatments of everything under—and above— sence (transcendent Being) precedes existence Edited by Kerstin the sun: “Humanism,” “Servanthood,” “Fear,” (being ). This possibility, that Fisk and Jennifer M. here and now Ramos “Value,” “Experience,” “Realism,” to name human commonality is even more wonderful but a few. They treat of everything from the than personal particularity, seems to me to be “Few security issues have glorious ordinariness of the world to the suppressed in the essays. prompted as much political, insufferable injustice of society, along with A second cavil concerns not a missing pos- legal, or ethical debate as the use of drones. This timely some wonderfully Talmudic textual exegesis. sibility but an unresolved ambivalence. As a volume should be a go-to Thus a question becomes permissible of the believing Protestant, Robinson is, true to the guide for the academics and policymakers who want to learned essayist that would be grossly beside name, a protesting critic and consequently make sense of this important the point if asked of a fine novelist: what are “subjective.” For her “the phenomenon of con- topic.” her politics? I have the sense that they are, sciousness, rather than the objective cosmic — Sarah Kreps author of Drones: What in true postmodern style (of which her fic- order, [is] the central reality.” Accordingly, Everyone Needs to Know tion shows not a trace) conflicted: admittedly the philosopher who incarnates Protestant- $30 | Paper liberal in her outrage at social injustice (she ism, Immanuel Kant, the author of three nyupress.org | @nyupress writes as if no one in jail had done hurt to “Critiques,” advances a cognition that goes others), but conservative by background and out from the subject to form the world rather

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 56 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

than coming in to inform the soul from the fications are overcome not by more complex- world. Here is the problem: the very givenness ity but its cognitive antithesis, depth. Depth NORTHERN of God’s gift of the world as addressed to our seeks for meaning-fraught simplicities in ways receptivity seems at odds with the central- that are surely thoughtful but probably ulti- ILLINOIS ity of human consciousness in construing it. mately not formalizable and always at once How interesting it would be to hear her work- persuasive and tentative. UNIVERSITY ing out this problem. Perhaps it is asking her The other questionable notion is that ad- to leaven her Protestant view with a pinch of vancing science relegates past systems to the PRESS Catholicism. “out of date.” Not so. They usually become localized to very small regions of the new last difficulty concerns too un- world system. Thus we, as humans, live in a protesting a faith: an excess of belief tiny sub-astronomical locale, within our own ROBERT NIXON AND POLICE A in science. The root problem here Euclidean geometry, where classical physics TORTURE IN CHICAGO, 1871–1971 is the trust in analogy and its poetic mode operates. The same holds for the subatomic Elizabeth Dale called metaphor. Imaginative scientists, ea- physics that makes our classically causal “Dale offers a highly readable, ger to bring their difficult theories back to world look big and in which we continue well-researched analysis of an common understanding, invent enticing important criminal case with to carry on. That puts us, as does our privi- a fresh perspective.” names such as “special and general relativity,” leged position on a planet located in a small —Michael J. Pfeifer, author which seems to throw nature on the side of strip of organic viability, in the perfect place of Rough Justice: Lynching moral relativism, and “(quantum) entangle- to initiate the search into the near-infinite and American Society, ment,” which seems to gain physics entrance spaces above us and into the near-infinitesi- 1874–1947 to the metaphysics of space and time. But mal realms below us. For our local geometry, while the philosophers’ physical metaphors in which our immediate environment and for soul matters are simply unavoidable, the our cognitive constitution cooperate more physicists’ philosophical analogies for quan- simply than they would in Non-Euclidean ISBN 978-0-87580-739-3 184 pp., cloth, $32.00 tified nature seem to me generally misleading. spaces, seems to put us uniquely in medias AN ACADEMY AT THE COURT They white out the mathematical context that res, uniquely placed for the inquiry into our would make nonsense of the application. For Beyond. In fact, the author herself acknowl- OF THE TSARS example, the trajectory of an event in Spe- edges our “providentially scaled” model of Greek Scholars and cial Relativity is set into a so-called “absolute reality. Jesuit Education in Early world” (the Minkowski diagram) which puts Modern Russia Nikolaos A. Chrissidis paid, if it does anything, to the notion that ’ll end with two passages for which “An important, original, and “everything is relative.” And the space-time of I simply thank her. One speaks of the well-written work, with a entanglement does not immediately propel “durance vile of rationalist thought,” the major contribution to make.” I —Valerie Kivelson, us into a deeper understanding of the space very long prison sentence of a certain kind of our bodies inhabit and the time our souls simplistic or ideological thinking. I would go University of Michigan live in, since, when hyphenated, space and further: “Rationalist thought” is really a con- time are each no longer what they were when tradiction in terms. they were immediately experienced by us as Here’s the other: ISBN 978-0-87580-729-4 384 pp., paper, $55.00 separate. Hence I’m heart and soul with the author in thinking that at least an elemen- There is a word that fell like a curse tary knowledge of classical physics is a civic on American religious culture— duty, as is an amateur’s acquaintance with “relevance.” Any number of assump- NEW IN PAPER postmodern science, the theories that have tions are packed into this word, for gone past verification by sensory observation. example, that the substance and the ALEXANDER I I also think, however, that it is highly prob- boundaries of a life can be known, and lematic to regard science, which, to be sure, that they should not be enriched or ex- The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon transforms human affairs through technol- panded beyond the circle of the famil- Marie-Pierre Rey ogy, as explicating through its theories the iar, the colloquial. TranslaTed by susan emanuel human condition. “Marie-Pierre Rey has Two notions in particular which appear I would add to “religious culture” education, written a new biography of in The Givenness of Thingsseem to me ques- where the curse of relevance is currently doing Tsar Alexander I that should tionable: One is that science is complex and its worst. become the standard work in any language.” that complexity is a cure for reductionism, —The Journal of Modern the “nothing but” mode of explication. To Eva Brann is a longtime tutor and former dean History me it seems, on the contrary, that science is at St. John’s College, Annapolis, and the author, ISBN 978-0-87580-755-3 504 pp., paper, $30.00 reductionism, namely the description—ana- most recently, of Doublethink/Doubletalk: lytical, formal, and complete—of everything Naturalizing Second Thought and Twofold in terms of the complicated interrelations Speech (Paul Dry Books). In 2005 she was the among simple units. I think that such simpli- recipient of the National Humanities Medal. 800-621-2736 www.niupress.niu.edu

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 57 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Michael Knox Beran Brexit and All That The English and Their History, by Robert Tombs. Alfred A. Knopf, 1,024 pages, $45

obert tombs has written a com- With their vision of freer commercial, intel- arrived Irish immigrants, who had no prehensive history of England: it be- lectual, and spiritual markets, their commit- connection with factory work. Such Rgins with the Neanderthals and ends ment to the , and their invention slums in London, Liverpool and Man- with New Labour. So vast a topic, so large a of constitutional government, the Whigs cre- chester illustrated not industrialization book (more than a thousand closely printed ated what called the “only but the problems of rapid urbanization pages), inevitably contains many strands, but set of ideals that has consistently opposed all without manufacturing industry—what perhaps the most notable is the Whiggish, or arbitrary power,” a philosophy that has at the England’s booming population might classically liberal, one. To be sure, Tombs, a same time brought about unprecedented ma- have suffered had itnot been for the fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, is terial prosperity wherever it has been applied. Industrial Revolution, and which was keenly aware of those Whig foibles which being suffered in the ancient teeming another Cambridge don, Sir Herbert Butter- ut what about the dark satanic cities of eastern and southern Europe, field of Peterhouse, deplored in his 1931 book, mills? The slag heaps of the Industrial from Palermo to Moscow. The Whig Interpretation of History. But unlike BRevolution were surely as hideous as Butterfield, Tombs wants his readers to un- John Ruskin and Charles Dickens made them Factory work might not have been pleasant, derstand how much the Whigs got right, and out to be, but as a result of all that smoke, but in Tombs’s telling things would have been although he seems to have conceived his book Tombs maintains, there “were fewer poor a good deal worse without it. The triumph of almost as an elegy for Englishness, it can be people in England” in the 19th century “than Whiggism, in his view, meant not only more read, in the light of the Brexit vote, as a blue- elsewhere in Europe.” Friedrich Engels got it cakes and ale but also a more stable, less violent print for revival. wrong when he political order. “There were at least twenty-two The pivot on whichThe English and Their incidents in Europe between 1844 and 1914,” History turns is what Tombs calls the “great denounced as the “degradation” of the he writes, “in which more than twenty-five divide,” the period between 1500 and 1700 new industrial “proletariat” what was in people were killed by government forces; none when the medieval molds were shattered and fact the plight of a non-industrial, un- was in Britain. This is not bad testimony to an the rudiments of modern England emerged. skilled underclass, many of them newly absence of intense hatred and fear.”

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 58 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Tombs challenges contemporary narratives his is the tricky part of tombs’s easily confounded with divinely sanctioned that would make the English story into one of neo-Whig argument. The English Ref- secular riches and bred what Coleridge called continuous class- or gender-inspired oppres- Tormation that installed Henry VIII as a Christian Mammonism—a drab and soul- sion, but he is not a complacent—what in the head of a new church gave the liberating kick less England of “looms and coal mines and 18th century would have been called a “vul- that prepared the way for the Whig revolution, counting houses…the power and the weak- gar”—Whig. He knows very well what Whig- with all its blessings. But there is a degree of ness of great possessions,” as Waugh wrote gery is not good at. It is too “mechanistic” a truth in the old Tory notion of an acquisitive, in his biography of the English Jesuit martyr creed to create communities like the ancient solipsistic Puritanism stifling what Tombs Edmund Campion. city-state or the medieval town, in which art calls an ancient “festive, communal” culture. Although he is more measured, Tombs too cooperated with faith to create agreeable, at “Merrie England,” with its public poetry (May deplores the “incalculable” cultural losses of times beautiful, forms of common life. Tombs games, Whitsun ales, Morris dances, the art the English Reformation. But the old order, in writes sympathetically of the old English “cul- of the cathedrals and parish churches), was yielding place to new, did not entirely disap- tural and religious centres” before the Great not, he thinks, entirely a myth. pear, and Tombs suggests that it was the very Divide that severed England from the Cath- “Whoever was born a poet” in the Middle persistence, in Reformed, Whig England, of olic Church. With their “origin myths and Ages, Victor Hugo said, “became an architect,” the older cultural strain—it might be called legends” and their highly developed spiritual a creator of three-dimensional forms that the Tory strain—that kept the country from life, the old centers nourished, he argues, a brought the community together, a master of becoming Dickens’s Coketown writ large. He culture that relied as much on the soft com- what Friedrich Nietzsche called “that higher notes, by way of example, that although the pulsion of art and mysticism to promote social art, the art of festivals.” Johannes Gutenberg Reformation did away with the old liturgies, cohesion as on the cruder whip of the statu- and the Protestant Reformation changed much that was humane in their culture sur- tory law. The medieval English towns “were the equation: one could now take one’s po- vived, and he points to artists like William not chaotic places.” Their “confraternities and etry as well as a good deal of one’s spiritual Byrd and Thomas Tallis who perpetuated an guilds,” their “festivals, processions and plays refreshment privately, through printed books. “ancient Catholic tradition” of cultural artistry, (such as the York and Wakefield mystery This was liberating—and also isolating. The one that has continued to soften the rough plays),” promoted social cohesiveness through Puritan’s introspective preoccupation with places of post-Catholic English life. the easy, Orpheus-lyre compulsion of art and his soul, unmediated by tradition and sacra- This older culture, growing as it did out of music, and knitted up the disparate threads of mental guidance, was morbid, or so mystical a communal faith that insists on the dignity daily life in ways that put to shame the barren conservatives from Samuel Taylor Coleridge of all human life, may have contributed to the culture of the modern community center or to Evelyn Waugh have argued. At the same comparative gentleness of English manners welfare bureau. time, the Calvinist theory of grace was all too in another way. “There are doubtless several

Coming This Fall from The MIT Press

Hate Spin The Manufacture of Religious Offense and Its Threat to Democracy Cherian George How right-wing political entrepreneurs around the world use religious offense—both given and taken—  to mobilize supporters and marginalize opponents. Information Policy series

System The Shaping of Modern Knowledge Clifford Siskin The role that “system” has played in the shaping and reshaping of modern knowledge, from Galileo and Newton to our own “computational universe.” Infrastructures series

Ecologies of Power Countermapping the Logistical Landscapes and Military Geographies of the U.S. Department of Defense Pierre Bélanger and Alexander Arroyo “Bélanger and Arroyo recalibrate how we understand relations of military and urban space, expertly linking disparate and often invisible logics and landscapes. A graphical masterpiece, Ecologies of Power is essential reading for anyone interested in how the world is being made.” —Charlie Hailey, author of Camps: A Guide to mitpress.mit.edu 21st-Century Space

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 59  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

reasons,” Tombs writes, “why English politics of both England’s UKIP and America’s Tea tection of American arms, has the free state has long been unusually peaceful, at least to Party as a dodgy, paranoid philosophy out of broadly and continuously flourished there; the the extent that it is very rare for people to kill touch with the times. cases of Japan and South Korea are similar. or even hurt each other; but it seems plausible that the shared Christianity of rival parties he last pages of tombs’s book are n much of the rest of the world, was one of the causes.” Other nations with as much a mortuary as a history, em- Whiggery doesn’t thrive. Among the Is- a Christian heritage, among them Germany Tbalming as they do a distinctive Eng- Ilamic nations, stable constitutional gov- and France, did of course fall into mass po- lishness that, before the Brexit vote at any rate, ernment is the exception not the rule. The litical violence. The peculiar combination, in seemed rapidly to be becoming a thing of the Latin American republics have a checkered England, of Christian aspirations and Whig past. The British electorate’s decision to leave history of caudillos, military juntas, corrup- institutions may have helped set the English the European Union will certainly disrupt tion, and poverty. Of the Asian powers, India apart. and perhaps forestall England’s transition has in recent years become reliably Whiggish; from island kingdom to European province China, Russia, and Iran have not. hig england, its idea of in- in “alignment with Continental norms.” But In the United States itself, the child of Whig dividual liberty leavened with an it is too soon to tell whether this revival of revolution, classical liberal principles are losing Wolder Tory aspiration toward com- the cranky English stubbornness that long their hold on the popular imagination. The tra- munity, has for some time been falling into defied the orthodoxies of the Continent will ditional Whig jealousy of executive power has obsolescence. Tombs endorses historian José lead to a Whig renaissance; it may yet be that so far faded that government by presidential Harris’s contention that since the Second England’s Whig experiment, with its antipa- fiat—in effect, lawless government—inspires World War Britain, once “one of the most lo- thy to arbitrary power, will come to be seen little concern and is often hailed for its bold calized and voluntaristic countries in Europe,” as an historical anomaly, a rare exception to expediency. In the courts lawyers for the ex- has become “one of the most centralized and the compulsion in which the annals of human ecutive are re-litigating the dispensing power— bureaucratic.” “European integration,” Tombs experience are largely written. the royal prerogative to suspend the law at the writes, “pushed English and British law and The Whigs’ geographic and cultural range executive’s pleasure—one of the causes of the institutions—now often presented as em- has, after all, been exceedingly narrow. That Revolution of 1688. Individual liberty contin- barrassingly archaic and ripe for ‘moderniza- Whig liberty throve in Britain was partly a ues to be a cherished ideal in the United States, tion’—towards alignment with Continental fluke: in the dawn of the modern era Eng- but as a result of changes in school and college norms.” Less emphasis was placed on the soft land, with its “moat defensive,” had no need curricula there seems to be little understanding compulsion of culture and manners in the pro- of a large standing army, and English mon- of how vulnerable freedom is without the legal motion of civil order; England joined the rest archs were therefore unable to impose on the and constitutional infrastructure to sustain it. of the world in becoming ever more reliant on kingdom an absolutist regime like those their Hayek said that he wrote his 1960 book, the harder coercion of a rapidly metastasizing brother kings were busy building in France, The Constitution of Liberty, in order to reas- statute book and a pervasive administrative Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Nineteenth-cen- semble the “broken fragments” of the Whig bureaucracy—that “giant power,” as Honoré tury Continental nations that attempted to tradition before they were swept away in the de Balzac called it, “wielded by pygmies.” emulate the English model met with only lim- “collectivist tide,” and in his concluding chap- There was a ray of light. Margaret Thatcher ited success. Where free states did emerge in ter he cited Lord Acton’s belief that Whig- brought the back into favor, and Europe, they were all too often at the mercy of gism “is the supreme achievement of English- under Tony Blair the Labour Party broke the reigning dynasties—Romanov, Habsburg, men.” What may be most valuable in Robert with socialism. , Tombs writes, and Hohenzollern—with their authoritar- Tombs’s account of the decline of Englishness “laid New Labour’s golden eggs.” But if Blair ian traditions. (Otto von Bismarck’s Reich- is the warning it sounds. If the outcome of made peace with city grandees, he did little stag was constitutional window-dressing; the the Brexit vote gives ground for cautious op- to loosen the stranglehold of the overregu- Prussian officer corps and General Staff were timism, the fact remains that the Whig ide- lated state, and the recent banking booms in effectively independent of legislative control.) als which inspired Hayek and Acton—ideals London, like those in New York, suggest rot Gerhard Ritter, in his 1940 book Machtstaat rooted in repugnance to the coercion of hu- rather than vitality, the cronyism of Court und Utopie, went so far as to argue that na- man beings by arbitrary power—are fragile, Whiggery (financial and political elites in bed tions like Germany, militarily vulnerable on more fragile, perhaps, than we know. together). Country Party or Patriot Whig- account of their position at the crossroads of gery developed in the 18th century precisely Europe, could never develop the sort of secure Michael Knox Beran, a lawyer and writer, is to check the corruption of Court Whigs, but free institutions the insular English have long the author of Forge of Empires: Three Revolu- in another sign of the demise of the Whig tra- enjoyed. Whether or not Ritter was right in tionary Statesmen and the World They Made, dition, defenders of the status quo have suc- this, the fact remains that only since 1945, 1861–1871 () and Jefferson’s De- ceeded in portraying the Country Whiggism when Western Europe came under the pro- mons: Portrait of a Restless Mind (Free Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 60 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Darren Staloff Founding Scribblers The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate: 1764–1776, edited by Gordon S. Wood. The Library of America, 1,889 pages, $60

n the importance of being earnest, them, there is also something tragic to these People of Britain Electors.” In his celebrated Lady Bracknell does not like arguments. arguments. Given the enormous stakes—the rejoinder, Maryland’s Daniel Dulany did not I“They are always vulgar,” she declares, “and political unity of the English-speaking world— deny the plausibility of virtual representation often convincing.” The arguments gathered in one cannot help wishing that another mode of as such. Instead he argued that it could not ap- Gordon Wood’s magnificent two-volume col- disputation had been found. ply to the colonies because their interests and lection, The American Revolution, are certainly those of British voters were too disparate: they the latter, although rarely the former. Judi- he core argument that rent the lacked “that intimate and inseparable Relation ciously selected and meticulously edited with empire was whether Parliament had the between the Electors of Great-Britain and the an admirably clear introduction and an exten- Tright to impose taxes on the colonies. Inhabitants of the Colonies, which must inevita- sive and useful chronology, Wood’s 39 docu- Even before the imposition of the Stamp Act bly involve both in the same Taxation.” ments—largely pamphlets and newspaper es- in 1764, Massachusetts lawyer James Otis re- The problem with Dulany’s argument was says with a handful of speeches, sermons, and jected the possibility. The core principle of the that the colonies had been paying taxes in the state documents—lay out the debates that led British Constitution was that “the supreme form of tariffs since at least the 1650s. When to the dismembering of the first British Em- power cannot take from any man any part of Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exche- pire and the birth of the American Republic. his property, without his consent in person, or quer, exploited this loophole in 1767 by pass- These arguments convinced each side of the by representation.” Writing on behalf of Prime ing taxes in the form of import duties, the rectitude of its position and left British sub- Minister ’s administration, Americans responded with a fresh distinction. jects on both sides of the Atlantic persuaded Thomas Whately insisted that the colonies Genuine navigation acts were intended to they had little choice but to take up arms in were represented, if not actually then virtu- facilitate trade within the empire, and when defense of their most cherished principles. The ally, “for every Member of Parliament sits in the avowed purpose of such acts was to tax level of argument was impressive, with the de- the House, not as a Representative of his own the colonies they ceased to be legitimate. “If baters appealing to practices embodied in the Constituents, but as one of that august Assem- you ONCE admit, that Great Britain may lay ever-elusive British constitution as well as the bly by which all the Commons of Great Britain duties upon her exportations to us, for the strictures of natural and divine law. But given are represented.” That the colonists lacked a purpose of levying money on us only,” warned that the revenues at issue were so much small- say in electing those representatives was simply Pennsylvania’s John Dickinson, “the tragedy of er than the cost of either collecting or resisting irrelevant, for “neither are Nine Tenths of the American liberty is finished.” William Hicks

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 61 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

went further and denied the right of Parlia- tained an uneasy peace in the early 1770s. ment to regulate trade at all. Given that com- That peace was shattered in 1774 when the merce was, after all, a natural right, how could British government responded to the Boston we “tamely concede a power of restraining our Tea Party with the notorious “Intolerable natural liberty?” By the end of the 1760s the Acts,” which closed the port of Boston and two sides had argued themselves into an irrec- new-modeled the government of Massachu- oncilable conflict of principle. setts. The two sides did not change their po- sitions, but they did raise the rhetorical heat. similar impasse arose on the ques- Thomas Jefferson’sA Summary View of the tion of sovereignty. As every patriotic Rights of British America broke no new consti- A Briton knew, the Glorious Revolution tutional ground, but it self-consciously spoke of 1688 had finally fixed the sovereignty of “with that freedom of language and sentiment the British state in the King-in-Parliament. which becomes a free people claiming their The American claim that the colonies could rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not be taxed without their consent belied the not as the gift of their chief magistrate: Let fact that sovereignty could not be divided. those flatter who fear; it is not an American In Our Hands Even worse, it undid the Glorious Revolu- art.” For New York loyalist Samuel Seabury, A Plan to Replace the Welfare State tion’s check on the absolutist pretensions of such “real whig” rhetoric was belied by the the latter Stuart monarchs. As the British bu- naked and hypocritical usurpation of power By Charles Murray reaucrat William Knox noted, the Americans by the Continental Congress. “What right or Spring 2016 ISBN: 978-1442-2-60719 saw the colonies as part of “the king’s domain” power has any assembly on the continent to Ten years after the original, this updated rather than “the British state.” If so, he con- appoint delegates, to represent their province edition examines a rich and startling new plan to create a society in which everyone, cluded, “they can have no title to such privi- in such a congress?” he asked. “The assemblies including the unluckiest among us, has leges and immunities as the people of England have but a delegated authority themselves” the opportunity and means to construct a derive under acts of parliament.” The claim and “cannot therefore have even the shadow satisfying life. that the colonists recognized the sovereignty of right, to delegate that authority to three or of Parliament absent the power to tax or legis- four persons.” The irascible Samuel Johnson late for them was the height of sophistry; “its was even more dismissive: “how is it that we power over the colonies is somewhat like that hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the allowed by the deists to the Almighty over his drivers of negroes?” American calls for armed creatures, he may reward them with eternal resistance were met by Johnson’s response happiness if he pleases, but he must not pun- that “nothing remains but to conquer or to ish them on any account.” yield.” The furtive calls by American loyal- The American rejoinder was that most of the ists for moderation and compromise—the colonies had been settled and chartered before most popular involving the constitution of an the Glorious Revolution as part of an extended American Parliament—met with deaf ears as multiple monarchy that included Ireland, Scot- both sides, convinced of the rectitude of their land, and various other locales that were not di- principled positions, resolved to settle the ar- rectly governed by the English Parliament. The guments with bullets and bayonets. charters were, in fact, full-blown social com- pacts, and the colonies were, as William Hicks, n contrast to previous collections Economic Freedom an attorney from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, like Samuel Eliot Morison’s Sources and and Human Flourishing first argued, “so many different countries of the IDocuments Illustrating the American Revo- Perspectives from Political Philosophy same kingdom, the nature of whose situation lution, 1764–1788, and the Formation of the Edited by Michael R. Strain and prevents their joining the general council.” Like Federal Constitution (1923) and Merrill Jensen’s Stan A. Veuger Scotland and Wales—and Durham, for that Tracts of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 July 2016 ISBN: 978-0-8447-5001-9 matter—the colonies could be neither taxed (1967), Wood’s is both far more extensive and nor governed by a parliament they did not be- includes British and Tory documents as well as So much of the policy and political debates around issues of economic liberty are cast long to. Nor was this a reversion to a Tory or their “patriot” counterparts. One of the great in somewhat narrow terms. But it is help- divine-right view of royal sovereignty, for the virtues of Gordon Wood’s collection is thus to ful—and refreshing—from time to time to Glorious Revolution applied to the whole king- show how these arguments about core princi- step back and examine the foundation. Is dom, requiring the monarch to govern accord- ples concerning the relationship between taxa- economic liberty necessary for individuals to lead truly flourishing lives? To answer ingly within each of his parliaments, whether tion and representation on the one hand and this question—and more—this volume in Great Britain, Massachusetts, or Virginia. metropolitan sovereignty and provincial lib- brings to bear some of history’s greatest The result for Americans would have been erty on the other developed in debate and then thinkers, interpreted by some of today’s something close to the commonwealth status drove the two sides to positions so radically leading scholars of their thought. of Canada and New Zealand today. opposed as to leave no choice but what John Having argued themselves into two equally Locke had termed an “appeal to heaven.” That coherent, principled, and irreconcilable posi- such principled stands resulted in the birth of a tions by the time Parliament rescinded most great federal republic grounded in the consent of the Townshend duties, the two sides main- of the governed and the rule of law is a matter

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 62 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of justifiable pride for all Americans. But there was the very point of the colonies, as a British is a sad poignancy to these debates, for few respondent to Samuel Johnson noted. From New Books disputants could have anticipated, and fewer the very first settlements the British state had desired, the ultimate outcome. As late as 1774, wisely “chosen copious returns of trade, rather Hot Off the Press New York delegate Philip Livingston’s stalwart than scanty resources of tribute,” and as such This Summer! defense of American resistance—including “it would be absurd now to shake and to reverse the infamous Tea Party—rejected the possi- your system.” The self-government of the colo- Use Code CRB16 & bility of an independent American republic “as nies had hardly “overturned your empire.” To Get a 40% Discount! the most vain, empty, shallow, and ridiculous the contrary, “[i]t has made it.” project, that could possibly enter into the heart of man.” Thomas Bradbury Chandler, the An- erhaps no american tried harder Wolfhounds glican rector of Elizabeth, New Jersey, could to reason with his British interlocu- and hardly believe that his fellow countrymen Ptors than . When Polar Bears could consider destroying the political unity of he testified before the House of Commons The American the English-speaking world over the remaining in 1766 he did not invoke principle against Expeditionary minuscule taxes on tea, whose burden he aptly the Stamp Act but rather noted “there is not Force in Siberia, compared to “the weight of an atom on the gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay 1918–1920 shoulders of a giant.” Chandler’s critique was the stamp duty for one year.” The assertion even more aptly directed at the British. After of parliamentary rights would do little harm Details the military aspects of the all, the Americans simply wanted to return to “if they are never attempted to be carried into American Expeditionary Force’s (AEF) deployment to Siberia following World the status quo before the crises of the 1760s. It practice,” but if military measures were used to War I to protect the Trans-Siberian was Parliament that had roiled the empire, de- enforce them that body would soon discover Railroad. ploying force and expending vast treasure in a that “No power, how great soever, can force Pub. 6/15 • 6 x 9 • 264 pp vain attempt to force the colonials to pay what men to change their opinions.” The simple and ISBN 978-0-8173-1889-5 / $49.95 would have been, at best, an insignificant sum. worldly fact that Franklin insisted on was that, Given the practical costs and consequences for while the colonies served the mother country both sides, the principled stand of Parliament by purchasing vast quantities of its manufac- can only be seen as imprudent at best, foolhar- tures, they did not feel they could afford to Heightened dy and pigheaded at worst. pay the taxes Parliament imposed, regardless Expectations of principles, and no amount of force or legal The Rise of the rom a practical perspective, the constraint could compel people to purchase Human Growth real problem with the core of these ar- taxed items if they chose not to. Hormone Industry Fguments was that they were, as Wood The thrust of Franklin’s argument was in America styles them, a “Pamphlet Debate” where both echoed in England one decade later by Ed- sides argued whether Parliament had the right mund Burke in his celebrated call for con- Explores the complex relationship to impose its will on the colonies. A small but ciliation. The projected revenues of American between the history of the social tantalizing number of documents sought to taxation were trivial, the costs of collecting stigmatization of short stature in boys eschew that question and ask instead whether them substantial, and the potential impact on and the rise of the multibillion-dollar human growth hormone industry. it should do so. The very first document in the export of British manufactures devastat- Pub. 6/15 • 6 x 9 • 208 pp this collection, by the pseudonymous British ing. Prudence demanded that the whole issue ISBN 978-0-8173-1910-6 / $39.95 author “Cato,” argues against prohibiting the of taxation be dropped and the colonies be al- colonists from settling the trans-Appalachian lowed to go on as they had before the imperial west. Cato did not invoke principles of right crises. “I am not determining a point of law,” but rather maxims of prudence, reasoning he reminded his fellow parliamentarians, “I Thomas that if the booming colonial population were am restoring tranquility.” To destroy that tran- Goode bound by their current settlements “it is prob- quility and the empire it rested on for a mat- Jones able they will speedily set up Manufactures ter of abstract principle was to fall victim to of their own, and be our Rivals instead of our a “species of delusive geometrical accuracy in Race, Politics & Customers.” Governor Stephen Hopkins of moral arguments” which was itself “the most Justice in the New South Rhode Island made a singular argument about fallacious of all sophistry.” Such sophistry be- the commercial restrictions of the Grenville trayed the small-mindedness of a pedant. As ministry. To be sure, he argued against their Burke pointedly remarked, “a great empire and The first comprehensive biography of a key Alabama politician and federal jurist rectitude, but his most telling argument was little minds go ill together.” whose life and times embody the conflicts that the new duties on molasses were “much and transformations in the Deep South higher than that article can possibly bear” and Darren Staloff is professor of history at the City between the Civil War and World War I. would only result in the death of the trade. Re- College of New York and director of the Hertog Pub. 7/15 • 6 x 9 • 248 pp gardless of the purported powers of Parliament, Scholars Program at the Macaulay Honors Col- ISBN 978-0-8173-1913-7 / $54.95 could it “change the nature of things, stop all lege of the City University of New York. He is our means of getting money, and yet expect us the author, most recently, of Hamilton, Adams, to purchase and pay for British manufactures?” Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and The University of Alabama Press And the consumption of British manufactures the American Founding (Hill and Wang). 1-800-621-2736 • www.uapress.ua.edu

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 63 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Richard Samuelson Hamilton versus History

in-manuel miranda’s musical, from Ron Chernow’s bestselling 2004 biogra- they were also republicans, which shaped and Hamilton, is a phenomenon. A smash hit phy, Alexander Hamilton, notes that Hamil- constrained their quest for glory. They recog- on Broadway. A critical success. Winner ton was a man of 1776 and played a leading nized that the “spur of fame,” as historian Dou- L role in establishing our republic. It celebrates of many, many accolades, including 11 Tony glass Adair called it, came at a cost. In The Fed- Awards, a Grammy, and a Pulitzer. The show’s his opposition to slavery. But why did he op- eralist, Hamilton called “the love of fame, the hip-hop music is being played and replayed pose slavery? Why did he support a republi- ruling passion of the noblest minds.” From the across the country. Almost single-handedly the can revolution? Why did it succeed? On that perspective of republican governance, the func- show has saved Alexander Hamilton's place on front, Hamilton is open to some criticism. tion of the love of fame is to spur noble action, the $10 bill. The sold-out production will run to lure the ambitious soul to sacrifice self for for a long time, unfazed by Miranda’s recently the public good. But Hamilton knew that. He ending his star turn in it. As a patriot and his- Discussed in this essay: and the others understood that their desire torian, I approve. declared: “it for glory was a mixed bag; it had a substantial is only when men begin to worship that they Hamilton: An American Musical. Music, personal cost. In the end, it killed Hamilton. begin to grow. A wholesome regard for the lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yet, seeking fame for noble deeds, as opposed memory of the great men of long ago is the best Richard Rodgers Theatre to base ones, is worthy of praise, a good use assurance to a people of a continuation of great of one’s time on earth. Hamilton said the re- men to come, who shall be able to instruct, to public needed a certain number of “public fools” lead, and to inspire.” Love of Fame to survive. The phrase is an echo of Paul’s in- In this time of racial tension, it’s inspiring junction in I Corinthians that “we are fools for to see “an American Musical,” as the show is f one theme drives the drama it is Christ,” who willingly sacrifice self, status, and billed, which celebrates the founding, and in Hamilton’s desire for glory. One hears the reputation for the Savior’s glory. which all the lead roles are played by minority Irefrain “I am not throwing away my shot!” George Washington saw the problem with actors. But what sort of regard for the great repeatedly as Hamilton rises from obscurity panting after glory. In his second term as men of long ago does the musical foster? And to glory: he was not going to miss his chance president, he said that he regretted his deci- what kind of great men does it anticipate? to make his mark on the world. sion to run again “but once…and that was ev- What kind of America does it promote? That It is not that Hamilton and the other found- ery moment since.” Part of him always wanted is more problematic. The show, drawn loosely ers didn’t want fame. They certainly did. But out, desiring nothing more than to sit under

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 64 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm his own “vine and fig tree,” to quote the proph- own words, “[t]he ability to be in the future et Micah. The founders were not Romans or useful…in those crises of our public affairs Spartans, living for the glory of the republic which seem likely to happen, would probably MUST READ and nothing else. On the contrary, Washing- be inseparable from a conformity with pub- ton and his fellows also drew upon a version of lic prejudice in this particular.” This is where The true story of three American boys, the Christian ethic—an essential part of the Hamilton’s thirst for glory and his extreme their friendship, and the terrorist attack reason they opposed slavery. Even as it was self-regard made him a slave. He opposed that would have killed more than 500 wrong for one man to own another, so too was dueling on principle and as a Christian, and it wrong for the republic to own any citizen yet to remain a public figure, he concluded people if not for their heroic actions. or all citizens. In America, unlike Sparta, it that he had to bend to public opinion. After takes a family to raise a citizen. That respect Washington’s death in 1799 and Thomas Jef- for private life channeled and constrained the ferson’s election a year later, Hamilton’s posi- quest for fame. Contrast Washington’s hum- tion was weaker, even if he was able to keep ble family tomb with Napoleon’s monumental Burr from being elected governor of New resting place in Paris. York in 1804. Hamilton’s efforts there led to One story that runs through the play is the Burr’s challenge. Dueling would, Hamilton rivalry between Hamilton and Aaron Burr. thought, reaffirm his reputation. To put it Burr, the show’s narrator, opens the drama in the language of the show, to have refused asking, “How does the bastard, orphan, son would have been to throw away his shot! of a whore and a Scotsman…grow up to be In his account of the duel, Miranda fo- a hero and a scholar?” The show ends, essen- cuses on Hamilton’s concern with his legacy, tially, with the duel. Between is the story of rather than on his desire to be able serve in these two “orphans” (Burr’s parents died by the future as he had in the past; just before the time he was two). In the show, Hamilton the duel, he asks: “If I throw away my shot, is brash and audacious, and Burr is more will- is this how you’ll remember me?” pointing ing to hold back. Unmentioned is that Burr back to his first major number: was the son of Princeton University’s (then the College of New Jersey’s) president, and I am not throwing away my shot! the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. Hamil- I am not throwing away my shot! ton was like those freeswinging baseball play- Hey yo, I’m just like my country, ers from the Caribbean: bases on balls don’t I’m young, scrappy and hungry, get you off the island. and I’m not throwing away my shot. Why in the end did Hamilton and Burr duel? “Affairs of honor” were common in He continues a bit later, the founding era, but they often were nego- tiated to satisfaction before they made it to Don’t be shocked when your hist’ry the dueling ground. The song “The Ten Duel book mentions me. Commandments” brilliantly describes the I will lay down my life if it sets us free. More From PublicAffairs process of negotiating these affairs, follow- Eventually, you’ll see my ascendancy. ing the outline Joanne Freeman described in her Affairs of Honor (2001). Next time At the end, he reflects: “What is a legacy? / I teach the duel, I might play the song in It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to class. But in this case Hamilton refused to see.” He goes on, negotiate. Why? And having agreed to a duel, why waste his shot (that is, purposely miss America, you great unfinished symphony… his opponent), as Hamilton did? It is not you let me make a difference clear within the show. Moreover the show’s a place where even orphan immigrants portrait of Burr is generally sympathetic, so can leave their fingerprints and rise up. much so that Hamilton’s view of him as a charlatan, as Hamilton states on stage, rings The image of an “unfinished symphony” is false. Writing at The Federalist website, Na- Romantic or Whitmanesque: America is a tasha Simmons calls Burr “the real hero of canvas on which artists and other great men, ‘Hamilton,’” a reading suggesting that Mi- from Hamilton to Miranda, may paint and randa doesn’t take seriously Hamilton’s cri- repaint, leaving their “fingerprints” for later tique of Burr, or the difference between his generations to see as a sign of the great man’s PUBLICAFFAIRS character’s republican quest for fame and “ascendancy.” The republic becomes a blank www.PublicAffairsBooks.com Burr’s Napoleonic ambition. The best answer canvas on which ambitious and talented men, is that it had to do with the relationship be- of whatever character, leave their mark. If so, fb.com/PublicAffairs tween Hamilton’s ambition and his desire to there would seem to be, as in the show, lit- @Public_Affairs serve. Henry Adams explained that the duel tle moral difference between Hamilton and was politics, not personal. In Hamilton’s Burr.

CBR-Ad_2016.indd 1 7/1/16 11:45 AM Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 65 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Step on a Journey of generations is why the American Revolu- Hey! Hey! tion, unlike the French, did not crash and Look around hat reading comes through in burn. As Lincoln recognized, the words of Hey! Hey! Hamilton’s rendering of the Declara- the Declaration were “a standard maxim At how lucky we are to be alive right Ttion of Independence. Miranda gives us for free society, which should be familiar to now! a “girl power” story, almost certainly part of all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, the show’s appeal to contemporary audiences. constantly labored for…even though never The last bit alludes to the English poet The only line presented from the Declaration perfectly attained.” He also noted that the William Wordsworth’s “bliss was it in that is “we hold these truths to be self-evident that words, left unchanged, serve as “a rebuke dawn to be alive,” the memorable line from all men are created equal,” sung by Ham- and a stumbling-block to the very harbin- his poem, “French Revolution,” a reflection on ilton’s soon-to-be wife, Eliza Schuyler, and gers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.” a very different revolution, which Hamilton her sisters. “When I meet Thomas Jefferson,” Rather than respecting the essential truth saw through quite early on. That latter revo- Angelica Schuyler exclaims, “I’m ’a compel of American life, Miranda’s Hamilton gives lution was more Rousseauian and Romantic him to include women in the sequel.” A po- us the Declaration as a step on a journey, than ours. It was much more compatible with tent anachronism—imposing a 21st-century as truth evolves, part of an unfinished and the march of History Miranda puts on the meaning on the words of 1776. It would do unfinishable symphony. It does not point stage than with “a truth, applicable to all men more justice to the founding to recognize, as to a political standard and to the eternal and all times.” Although the show notes that Abigail Adams famously did, that the prin- negotiation between what is best simply and the American Revolution was more stable ciples of 1776 by their very nature applied to what is possible, here and now. It leaves little than the French—hence Hamilton’s support all humans, including women. That was “self- room for politics, rightly understood. for President Washington’s Proclamation of evident” in the strict sense of the term. Yet The same holds for Miranda’s decision to Neutrality—there is little or nothing in the borrowing from Abigail would celebrate the have a non-white cast, rather than simply show that would suggest why the American founders over today’s creators, and turn the hiring whoever was best able to portray each Revolution was a success and the French was focus to transcendent principles. character. When the immortal words of the not. But, we might ask, in what sense are all Declaration are read, a combination of the Given this perspective, it’s no surprise that human beings equal? As possessors of rights Schuyler sisters and a “Female Ensemble” the word “nature” is absent from the show. It endowed by their Creator. That many did declares: might be implicit at the start, in the hurricane not yet enjoy those rights in 1776 meant that that terrifies young Hamilton, but that is na- there was work to do; the recognition that Hey! Hey ture as a problem to be overcome, not a boun- perfecting American liberty was the project Look around tiful creation, the source of rights and obliga-

25% discount for all ouSr ttit.l eAs tuhrgouugsht Oinctoeb’esr P30r, 2e0s16s. O/ rBdero oonklinse ,f wowrw t.shtaeu gSusutimne.mnete; urse code CLAREMONT.

Brague, The Legitimacy of the Brague, The Legitimacy of the Lawler, American Heresies Deneen, Conserving Pieper, Don’t Worry about Pieper, Rules of the Game. Human. $26, cloth Human. $26 cloth and Higher Education $20, pb America? $19, paper Socrates. $25, cloth; $15, pbk $19, cloth; $11, paper

Rosen, The Language of Love Rhodes, Knowledge, Sophistry, Lukacs, We at the Center of Burger & Goodin, eds., The Embry & Hughes, eds., The Baker, The Mystery of Death $30, cloth & Scientific Politics. $32.50 cl the Universe. $18, cloth Eccentric Core. $26, paper Timelessness of Proust. $17 pb and Beyond. $17, paper

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 66 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tions. “God” is not entirely absent, as in Ham- an ambition similar to that of her husband. ilton’s plea that he run for a third term, King ilton’s “God. I wish there was a war.” (The “When my time is up, / Have I done enough? / George is dumbfounded: “I wasn’t aware that last six words are, in fact, Hamilton’s, from Will they tell my story?” A few lines later, the was something a person could do. / I’m per- his 1769 letter to Edward Stevens. Miranda show ends, plexed. / Are they going to keep on replacing added the “God.” In general, Miranda does a whoever’s in charge?” (The king’s famous com- good job of integrating Hamilton’s words into Who lives, who dies, who tells your ments about Washington’s resignation had to the dazzling score.) “Creator” does not appear, story? do with his stepping down as commander in but the word “create” and its cognates appear Time… chief of the Continental Army in 1783, but a few times; notably, as the revolution comes, Will they tell your story? close enough.) “every action’s an act of creation!” Creation, in Time… In 1796, Hamilton wanted Washington this sense, is the creation of meaning, which Who lives, who dies— to serve a third term as president, and prob- leaves nature behind or pretends it does not Who tells your story?” ably to remain president for life. Washington exist. Hence one is most alive when one is refuses: “If I say goodbye, the nation learns making history, and a creator like Hamilton, She is more concerned with being remem- to move on. / It outlives me when I’m gone.” and perhaps Miranda, is more truly alive than bered in history than with helping orphans. The nation is Washington’s legacy. But Wash- the common sort. Our Creator, or even “na- And it’s about women being remembered in ington also introduces a different ideal, “Like ture’s God,” who made the “laws of nature,” addition to men—perhaps I should write the scripture says; / ‘Everyone shall sit under which justified revolution and made slavery a “great men.” their own vine and fig tree / and no one shall wrong, is conspicuously absent from the score. make them afraid.’” The republic Washington, That Miranda has endorsed Hillary Clinton By George Hamilton, and the others founded is a free re- for president and has been a recurring player public. Each of us has duties to it; but each in gatherings at the Obama White House are he stories of the two georges— of us also has private rights, to sit peacefully consistent with this gloss on the founding and George Washington and King George on his own property, and manage it as he sees on the nature of rights. TIII—offer, however, a contrary example. fit, presumably with no federal bureau of fig After her husband dies, Eliza Hamilton George III provides a foil for the American tree management. Yet Washington’s story is, opens an orphanage—an effort to honor her experiment. He mocks and derides the Amer- in the context of the show, overwhelmed by late husband, by providing other orphans a icans with perfect comic timing and cartoon- the story of the Hamiltons and their ambition shot at life. But that is not what she says. In- ish pomposity. When the Americans declare to be remembered. There is no recognition of stead Miranda inserts a feminist moral into independence, he confidently sings: “You’ll be the goodness of a private life, even one, like the story, projecting into Mrs. Hamilton back.” And when Washington rejects Ham- that of Mrs. Hamilton, devoted to charitable

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 67 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm service. The show would have to allow room Rewriting History for revealing the affair. When Monroe visit- for the goodness of life in civil society for that ed her in the 1820s, after his presidency, she to come through. The life devoted to serving amilton’s rewriting of history was still expecting an apology. In general the orphans would have to be good in its own is most clear in the story of Alexan- record suggests that Eliza never considered right, and not as a vehicle for achieving fame. Hder and Eliza. Miranda renders it herself a public person, and that if she, like Miranda silently edits history to make it fit beautifully and tragically. In the show, Eliza’s Martha Washington, destroyed her letters the story he wishes to tell. A relatively small sister Angelica meets Hamilton first, and is to her husband, it was because she had no matter is that he makes Hamilton look like clearly smitten. But Eliza is her sister, and interest in becoming an historical character. the essential man at Yorktown; more largely, she is also smitten, and Angelica surrenders For her, a good life was a private life, not a he embellishes Hamilton’s works, as if the to her sister’s happiness. Angelica is portrayed public one. She spent her last years working true story were not enough to demonstrate as the more intellectual of the two—and be- on her husband’s historical reputation, not America’s debt to him. At Yorktown, as Cher- comes a vehicle for the show’s efforts at con- her own. now notes, Hamilton was “panting for a com- sciousness raising. In fact, in 1780 when Eliza By juggling the timeline, Hamilton sets the bat role,” and kept “badgering” Washington met Hamilton, Angelica was married, having famous duel in the context of this romantic for one. Washington finally relented. As the eloped with British M.P. John Barker Church story and, at the same time, simplifies the siege closed he let Hamilton lead one of the in 1777. On stage Miranda turns the story politics—part of the reason why the story of final charges. Heroic certainly, but Hamilton into a romantic myth, wonderfully seductive the duel is not clear in the show. One won- was hardly the hero of Yorktown the show in its own right. At least Miranda is honest ders: does Miranda do that because he doesn’t presents. Before the battle, they sing the lines enough to tell the audience that, Eliza having know how to portray Hamilton’s mixed feel- that also close the show: “Who lives, who dies, destroyed her correspondence with her hus- ings about dueling? When the show began who tells your story,” the words that reappear band, their story is essentially made up from with “I’m not throwing away my shot,” I was at the end of the show, as Miranda gives Mrs. about the time that Hamilton’s adultery with expecting it to end with exactly such a reflec- Hamilton her glory. Maria Reynolds was exposed in 1797. This tion. There appears to be no room for it in the In general Miranda pushes aside ideas that mythic version romanticizes an already ro- moral world of the show. Though its embrace were important to Hamilton and to the found- mantic story. On stage, Miranda has Eliza of the famous men of long ago is obvious, it ing, like the survival of liberty, but which, one isn’t discerning enough to capture the vital suspects, don’t fit into his own point of view, differences between Burr and Hamilton, or or which might not sit well with his audience. between Hamilton’s morality and that which When discussing Washington’s Farewell Ad- Hey yo, I’m just like is common on Broadway today. dress, which Hamilton drafted, Miranda my country…and I’m Ultimately, Miranda’s blockbuster re- mentions the president’s desire to defend neu- writes history to play up what he takes to trality in foreign affairs, and his criticism of not throwing away be our new, improved 21st-century under- partisanship. No mention, though, of his re- my shot. standing of human equality, brought to you action to the French Revolution, best seen in by heroic Creators. Hamilton, in other words, his concern for the moral character of citizens: is a musical well suited to the age of Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Today’s would- [L]et us with caution indulge the suppo- break with her husband after he publishes be heroes pant to contribute to our “unfin- sition that morality can be maintained his “Reynolds Pamphlet,” the long public es- ished symphony” whether, allegedly, to re- without religion. Whatever may be con- say confessing his affair, but vindicating his store the republic to its former greatness or ceded to the influence of refined edu- public honor. Chernow notes that Eliza was to “fundamentally transform” America mov- cation on minds of peculiar structure, more angry at those who revealed the affair ing “forward” to a perfect future. But absent reason and experience both forbid us to than she was at her husband. Moreover, the nature, can there be any standard? Or do we expect that National morality can pre- biographer suggests that “[o]ne imagines that risk proving the show’s King George right: vail in exclusion of religious principle…. she had tolerated some discreet philander- Americans are on the way back, becom- Who that is a sincere friend to it, can ing from Hamilton before,” albeit nothing so ing, whether in the name of “greatness” or look with indifference upon attempts to public. Miranda suggests that Eliza was so “progress,” mere fodder for would-be tyrants shake the foundation of the fabric? angry at her husband that she effectively sepa- claiming to be our friends? And aided by an rated herself from Hamilton from the time ever-growing host of court followers, syco- On the importance of morality and religion, of the Reynolds pamphlet until after their phants, and bureaucrats who write, enforce, Hamilton was on the same page as Washing- son died in his duel. (Miranda moves Ham- and judge the law. ton, even if he was not always orthodox him- ilton’s pamphlet attacking President Adams Though very much of the contemporary self. He seems to have grown more observant from the election season of 1800 to the start age, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s show points after his son Philip died in a duel, shortly after of Adams’s term, and the Reynolds pamphlet Americans by the thousands back to the Jefferson became president. Chernow argues ahead in time to late in Adams’s term. He also founding, leaving them rapt and rapping, that for Hamilton “religion formed the basis moves Philip’s duel back in time, to just be- and for that he should be thanked; but once of all law and morality.” Of Eliza, Chernow fore the election of 1800. That Eliza was three there they would be wise to look elsewhere notes, she “was a woman of such deep piety months pregnant at the time of Philip’s duel for stage direction. that she would never have married someone suggests that Miranda is creating a past that who did not share her faith to some degree.” did not exist.) Richard Samuelson is associate professor of his- But that story, however true as history, is not What we do know is that Eliza never for- tory at California State University, San Ber- the story Miranda wants to tell. gave James Monroe (not Burr, as in the show) nardino, and a fellow of the Claremont Institute.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 68 STRING THEORY VIRGIL THOMSON URSULA K. LE GUIN David Foster Wallace on Tennis The State of Music & Other Writings The Complete Orsinia With an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan Tim Page, editor Brian Attebery, editor

Gathered for the first time in a deluxe collector’s Here, for the first time in a single volume, are four The Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin edition edition, here are David Foster Wallace’s legendary classic books by America’s greatest critic-composer: begins with the complete Orsinian writings, enchant- writings on tennis, five tour-de-force pieces written The State of Music, a provocative picture of the ing, richly imagined historical fiction collected here with a competitor’s insight and a fan’s obsessive composer’s place in the American cultural and eco- for the first time. Through a novel, Malafrena, a enthusiasm. Wallace brings his dazzling literary nomic landscape; the best-selling autobiography series of linked stories, most originally published as magic to the game he loved as he celebrates the Virgil Thomson, a witty, gossipy, picaresque tale Orsinian Tales, and lyrical poetry, Le Guin weaves other-worldly genius of Roger Federer; offers a that traces both his own career and the rise of the colorful history of the central European country wickedly witty dissection of Tracy Austin’s memoir; musical modernism; American Music Since  , a of Orsinia from the Middle Ages to the fall of considers the artistry of Michael Joyce, a supremely literary portrait gallery of full-length studies of Ives, communism, a dazzling political and cultural back- disciplined athlete on the threshold of fame; resists Ruggles, Copland, and Cage, among others; and drop for haunting tales of courage and freedom, love the crush of commerce at the U.S. Open; and recalls Music with Words, a composer’s handbook to and duty. Features a new introduction by Le Guin, his own career as a “near-great” junior player. setting texts to music. Rounding out the volume and her own hand-drawn map of Orsinia. Whiting Award-winning writer John Jeremiah are thirty-two previously uncollected pieces, many 614 pages • $35 cloth • LOA #281 • e-book Sullivan provides an introduction. first published in the New York Review of Books. “Le Guin’s masterpiece . . . a provocative adventure firmly 160 pages • $19.95 cloth 1,184 pages • $50 cloth • LOA #277 • e-book founded on an unmodish and undeviating nobility of style, “The greatest tennis writer ever.” The New York Times of mind, and above all of responsible imagination.” Kirkus Reviews

WAR NO MORE JOHN O’HARA THE UNKNOWN KEROUAC Three Centuries of American Antiwar and Stories Rare, Unpublished & Peace Writing Charles McGrath, editor Newly Translated Writings Lawrence Rosenwald, editor Bringing together sixty stories written over four Todd Tietchen, editor Foreword by James Carroll decades, former New York Times Book Review Jean-Christophe Cloutier, translator editor Charles McGrath presents the largest, most War has been a reality of the American experience comprehensive collection of John O’Hara’s brilliant This landmark edition of never-before-seen works from the beginning and in every generation there short fiction ever published. by a legendary American writer reveals the missing have been dedicated and passionate visionaries who links in Jack Kerouac’s path to a wholly new style of 872 pages • $40 cloth • #282 have responded with vital calls for peace. Spanning storytelling. Includes early essays on Frank Sinatra from the Revolution to the war on terror and fea- and bebop; “La Nuit est ma femme” and “Sur le turing more than 150 eloquent and provocative chemin,” two novellas originally written in the writers, War No More gathers the essential texts of French-Canadian dialect that was his first language; this uniquely American antiwar tradition in one vol- the pivotal 1951 journal in which he experiences ume for the first time: a bible for activists, a go-to the breakthrough that leads to On the Road; and resource for scholars and students, and an inspiring the late reflective works “Memory Babe” and “Beat and fascinating story for every reader interested in the Library of America Spotlight.” crosscurrents of war and peace in American history. America’s nonprofit publisher 470 pages • $35 cloth • LOA #283 • e-book 868 pp. + 16-pp. insert • $40 cloth • LOA #278 • e-book www.loa.org mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Rafael Major It Was a Very Good Year The Year of Lear, by James Shapiro. Simon & Schuster, 384 pages, $30

n may 1901, manhattan theatergo- ccording to james shapiro, shake- James and Parliament, and the religious divi- ers arrived at the People’s Theater on speare’s success was due to his knowl- sions underlying the Gunpowder Plot made Ithe Bowery, and cabs and carriages were Aedge that “plays best please when root- the question of unification all the more urgent lined up to the end of the block. As expected, ed in what audiences long for or dread; people for both Protestants and Catholics. Ordinary patrons were fashionably dressed, but there tend to weep at tragedies because they are citizens of London would have been inundat- was something different about this crowd, mourning their own real or imagined losses.” ed with pamphlets and sermons arguing for and the New York Times reporter sent to Shapiro is Larry Miller Professor of English and against the king’s plan to rule over the review the play was surprised that “the audi- at Columbia University and a prominent entire “sceptered isle.” It is hard to imagine ence resembled a big family party.” It was the Shakespeare scholar. His The Year of Lear: an Englishman or Scotsman in 1606 who had premier and groundbreaking performance of Shakespeare in 1606 is an exhaustive analysis not yet considered the possibility of becom- a Yiddish adaptation of Shakespeare entitled, of a single year in the Bard’s life, and especial- ing British for the first time. The first time The Jewish King Lear. This same production ly of the social and political aftershocks of the a Shakespearean character speaks the word eventually caused one anguished member of Gunpowder Plot—the failed assassination of “British,” according to Shapiro, is in King Lear the audience to run down the narrow aisle to- the king the year before—as they might be (and it occurs there three times). Several such ward the stage screaming, “To hell with your related to Shakespeare’s writing. There is cer- coincidences noted in The Year of Lear make a stingy daughter…spit on her…and come tainly something to Shapiro’s approach. It is persuasive case that Shakespeare was reflect- with me. My wife will feed you. Come, may likely, for example, that Lear’s division of his ing on contemporary events and issues when she choke, that rotten daughter of yours!” kingdom in the opening scene of Lear would he penned his most tragic play. The sight of a well-intentioned father who have had a special resonance during the con- But there are limits to this way of under- gave his children wealth and independence troversy over the unification of Britain, which standing an author, and Shapiro exhibits only to be betrayed by them was too much. arose with the accession of James VI of Scot- these limits especially in the last third of his The sight of shameless human greed had pro- land to the English throne as James I. Unifica- book, where he turns from an extensive his- voked raw compassion. tion was the most pressing issue facing King torical study of 1606 and textual analysis of

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 70 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Lear to interpretations of Macbeth and Ant- Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, and Philip of Equivocation. The discovery of theTreatise ony and Cleopatra. Neither of these interpre- Sidney’s Arcadia. These sources also contain caused a sensation because it was a handbook tations is carried out with the thoroughness stories of a united kingdom’s division and a for readers who desired to lie under oath, applied to Lear, and the connections Shapiro king’s betrayal at the hands of his children. “concealing the truth by saying one thing makes between these plays and the year 1606 Take Holinshed’s Chronicles for example: while deceptively thinking another.” This are less satisfying—so unsatisfying, in fact, “Leir the sonne of Baldud, was admitted ruler discovery of “equivocation” in 1606 was scan- that they raise questions about Shapiro’s en- ouer the Britaines, in the yeere of the world dalous because it meant that it is impossible tire approach. 3105 [approx. 800 B.C.], at what time Ioas for authorities to identify dangerous citizens raigned as yet in Iuda.” In this older version and their subversive thoughts. According to he risk in using biography and his- published in 1577, Leir overcomes the un- one official, if it were possible to say or write torical events to interpret Shakespeare kindness and unnaturalness of his daughters things that are able to deceive honest people Tis the inevitable necessity to proceed by Gonorilla and Regan. “it would supplant all justice.” isolated fact, supposition, “imaginative labor,” But the mention of the reign of Joas of Ju- The existence of a phenomenon like equiv- enlisting or dismissing anecdotes (when con- dea reminds readers of something more fun- ocation is important for reading Shakespeare venient), until finally…the logical scaffolding damental than the events of 800 B.C., or 1577, because he “had been employing this device begins to buckle. Shapiro contends, for ex- or 1606. All of human history is filled with in his plays and poems long before he or his ample, that “Shakespeare’s Macbeth was writ- moments when the possibilities of a settled or culture had settled on a name for it.” If this ten not for posterity but for contemporaries united political life seem to be in reach, only is true, it explains why Shakespeare alone, like Matthew Banks and his fellow carpen- to be destroyed by divisions and internal fac- among his fellow playwrights, was able to ters” experiencing the deep cultural anxieties tion. Shapiro would have his readers believe avoid legal trouble throughout his entire ca- set in motion by the Gunpowder plot. There that plays like Lear and Macbeth succeeded reer. As Shapiro repeatedly points out, this are hundreds of anecdotes about Abraham because they appealed to the real and imag- ability to avoid official censure was not the Lincoln’s reading of Shakespeare—and scores ined longings of Shakespeare’s contempo- result of the poet’s intellectual conformity of them involve Macbeth—but it takes little raries. This must be partially true, but were with contemporary moral, political, and imaginative labor to imagine he would be the longings of human beings in 1606 so dif- theological views. It is true that the equivo- puzzled by Shapiro’s contention. ferent from our longings in 2016? cations of Shakespeare’s characters are some- Was the power of Macbeth diminished for times playful, but they are sometimes sub- Lincoln because he was unaware that Mathew espite reservations about sha- versive “in the most cunning and destructive Banks and his fellow carpenters were fans piro’s eagerness to narrow the im- ways imaginable.” of Shakespeare? Will Macbeth become more Dportance and appeal of these plays If Shapiro is correct about this facet of terrifying for future generations now that to a single year, there is much to learn in Shakespeare’s art of writing, it would also we are reminded that many Londoners were this volume about the activity of reading and help explain why he continues to attract audi- troubled by the possibility of demonic activ- attempting to interpret Shakespeare. Un- ences who have little or no knowledge of the ity in 1606? The assertion thatMacbeth was like many scholarly analysts of Shakespeare historical circumstances of his life. Jacobean written for contemporary carpenters is an iso- sources, Shapiro does not attempt to use carpenters, Abraham Lincoln, Jewish immi- lated exaggeration, but it is exaggerations like likely sources as shortcuts for interpreting grants to America, and readers of this jour- this that led an exasperated Rudyard Kipling the plays. In the case of Lear, Macbeth, and nal all have a keen interest in understanding to speculate that the conversation of a “half- Antony and Cleopatra he emphasizes Shake- Shakespeare’s power to move them because tipsy sailor” would be enough raw material for speare’s manipulation of source material as a Shakespeare was concerned with the kinds of a genius like Shakespeare to write the entire way of isolating authorial choices. The advan- questions that have always fascinated human Tempest. The events that occurred in 1606 tage of this approach is the prospect of get- beings—even if those questions had been are interesting to think about, but maybe the ting a real sense of Shakespeare’s own activity forbidden by the authorities and unnoticed usefulness of historical speculation is limited as a dramatist, rather than speculating about by almost everyone in the audience who first when reading an author like Shakespeare. biographical and historical connections. watched King Lear. On the other hand, as Shapiro shows at The real highlight—albeit only a subplot— length, there is irrefutable evidence that the in The Year of Lear is Shapiro’s awareness of Rafael Major is senior lecturer in the Honors Col- sources of King Lear likely include an earlier the importance of the issue of censorship. It lege and Political Science Department at the Uni- English play entitled King Leir, Geoffrey of was in 1605 that officers of the crown discov- versity of North Texas, and is currently complet- Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, ered a clandestine volume entitled A Treatise ing a book-length study of Shakespeare’s comedies.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 71 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Cheryl Miller Rage Against the Machine Freedom: A Novel, by Jonathan Franzen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 576 pages, $28 (cloth), $17 (paper)

Purity: A Novel, by Jonathan Franzen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 576 pages, $28 (cloth), $17 (paper)

onathan franzen doesn’t do hope and sales. A canny manipulator of the media, Fran- Gawker declared). Purity, like The Corrections, change. Sure, his 2010 novel, Freedom, a zen ensured his fifth novel would be met with thrived on the publicity, debuting at number Jchronicle of the Bush years—or “the worst a firestorm of controversy not unlike the one two on the New York Times bestseller list. regime of all,” as one character puts it—may that greeted The Corrections, his 2001 breakout have ended in giddy anticipation of the Obama success. Mention of his spat with Oprah Win- ranzen has long seen himself as presidency, earning the book a place on frey is now practically obligatory: she selected an oppositional writer. An avid student Obama’s vacation reading list and its author The Corrections for her television book club; he Fof “theory” in his college days during an invitation to the White House. But the disparaged her previous picks as “schmaltzy” the 1970s, he began his career as a hip, young honeymoon was short-lived. Near the close and middlebrow; she disinvited him. (He man- postmodernist, influenced by Michel Foucault, of Purity, Franzen’s latest offering, a character aged to patch things up just in time for Freedom writing against the illegitimate power struc- rails against “the disappointments of Obama,” to be featured on the show.) With the current tures of “late capitalism.” But the commercial which include “the concentration of capital in contretemps, Franzen has riled up the digital failure of his first two novels—the dystopian the hands of a few” and “the worldwide abdica- hordes with his criticism of bloggers (“yakkers” satires The Twenty-Seventh City (1988) and tion of responsibility for climate change.” Her and “braggers”), smartphones (“enablers of Strong Motion (1992)—persuaded him that the interlocutor, the millennial protagonist Purity narcissism”), and Twitter (“unspeakably irritat- novel was finished as a vehicle for social change. Tyler (suggestively nicknamed “Pip”), hardly ing”)—aspersions he doubles down on in Pu- Writing in Harper's in 1996, he announced he gives a shrug—she knows she’s stuck in this rity, comparing the internet to East Germany would no longer seek to be “socially useful,” to “shitty world of her parents’ making,” and that under the Stasi. In response, Franzen-mocking “Address the Culture and Bring News to the nothing can “alter the world’s shitty course.” hashtag campaigns have launched (“#franzen- Mainstream”—the news being that people Or to put it in the social-media argot of real- freude”); memes based on unflattering photos who think they are happy are not really happy, life millennials: “LOL nothing matters.” have circulated; angry, hyperbolic reviews have that people who think they are free are not re- Purity is a novel of great expectations posted (“Purity is a worthless novel and its au- ally free, and that moral and political purity is dashed—except for those concerning book thor, Jonathan Franzen, a worthless writer,” impossible. The novel, he lamented, holds too

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 72 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm marginal a place to try to influence contempo- of missing out, the fear of being flamed or for- ing his portraits of family dysfunction an aura rary culture, crowded out by purveyors of “elec- gotten.” These are the “terrors of technocracy, of social significance. tronic distraction,” like television and the in- which [seeks] to liberate humanness through Franzen borrows from the idea ternet. Moreover, American culture, powered the efficiency of markets and the rationalism that the family contains in embryo all the an- by a frenetic capitalism, moves too fast for the of machines.” tagonisms that later come to plague wider so- novelist to entirely capture it, let alone remake ciety. In Freedom, this is initially dramatized it—even as capitalism flattens and homogeniz- hese myriad leaps of logic might as a comedy of manners, centering on a house- es society, killing off the “specificity” on which be dismissed as the rantings of a char- hold of yuppie gentrifiers, the Berglund fam- literature depends. Franzen concluded: Tacter literally in the process of losing ily. Its opening chapter recalls David Brooks’s his mind. But they closely resemble charges work of “comic sociology,” Bobos in Paradise The American writer today faces a cul- made in Franzen’s own journalistic voice, as (2000), with its self-deprecating itemization tural totalitarianism analogous to the well as by less crackpot characters in his other of upper-middle-class consumption habits. political totalitarianism with which two novels. Thus, inThe Corrections, Chip Lam- Take, for example, this catalogue of housewife generations of Eastern Bloc writers had bert, an erstwhile academic theorist who finds Patty Berglunds’ day: to contend. To ignore it is to court nos- himself entangled in a zany subplot involving talgia. To engage with it, however, is to post-Soviet Lithuania, observes that the main Behind her you could see the baby- risk writing fiction that makes the same difference between his home and his adopted encumbered preparations for a morning point over and over: technological con- country is the form of coercion used: “mind- of baby-encumbered errands; ahead of sumerism is an infernal machine, tech- numbing and soul-killing entertainments and her, an afternoon of public radio, the nological consumerism is an infernal gadgetry and pharmaceuticals” in America and Silver Palate Cookbook, cloth diapers, machine. guns in Lithuania. In Freedom, totalitarianism drywall compound, and latex paint; and is embodied by Apple and its iPods, which then Goodnight Moon, then zinfandel. ut old habits die hard. the infer- cleverly co-opt the slogans and imagery of rock nal machine keeps rearing its head in ‘n’ roll rebellion to better serve the capitalist But this self-mocking soon takes on an edge, BFranzen’s work, although nowhere is as Patty and her husband, Walter, an environ- the point made quite as explicitly as in Purity. mental lawyer, try to reconcile their liberal pol- Through a series of interlocking, time-shifting itics with their privilege. Franzen skewers the narratives, Franzen moves the reader from Prozac, sitcoms, MP3 couple as “the super-guilty sort of liberals who 21st-century America, where a young woman, players, YouTube videos needed to forgive everybody so their own good Pip, joins a WikiLeaks-style outfit in hopes of fortune could be forgiven,” who are stymied finding her mysterious father—and paying off are interchangeable about how to respond “when a poor person of her six-figure college debt—to the old Com- devices by which the color accuse[s] you of destroying her neighbor- munist East Germany, where Andreas Wolf, hood.” Ultimately, the humor curdles into self- the creepy founder of the whistleblowing site, infernal machine exerts hatred and self-disgust—what Purity calls “the becomes enmeshed in a criminal secret that logic of ick, the logic of guilt.” threatens his already tenuous sanity. its insidious control. What connects these plots—beyond the n which direction the connection identity of Pip’s father—is Franzen’s insistent between family discord and social dis- contention that American techno-consumer- order. As one character declaims, “The iPod is Iorder runs is never made entirely clear ism is morally equivalent to Communist dic- the true face of Republican politics,” reducing by Franzen. Freedom, in a chapter ironically tatorship. He uses Andreas to issue a stream artistic expression to “Chiclet-manufacturing” titled “Free Markets Foster Competition,” of paranoid invective against the internet, and masking political coercion with the illu- examines how the competitive pressures of which he calls “totalitarian” in the sense that sion of consumer choice. democratic capitalism distort intimate rela- it is “a system that [is] impossible to opt out Fiction may feed on specificity, according tions. Living under a system built on the im- of.” “If you substituted networks for social- to Franzen, yet his treatment of technology perative of perpetual growth, the Berglunds ism, you got the Internet,” Wolf explains. “Its and politics is curiously one-dimensional. It’s are filled with insatiable desires—insatiable competing platforms were united in their am- not just that he treats prescribing people anti- because they have no object. The desires of bition to define every term of your existence.” depressants or giving them internet access as each family member inevitably impinge on The internet is the means by which capitalism the equivalent of Communist repression, but the desires of others, setting husband and can pervade all aspects of human life, turn- that even within his critique, distinct forces wife, parent and child, in antagonistic com- ing every interaction, however personal, into in American society—television, biotechnol- petition with one another. Patty can only data that can be monetized or commoditized. ogy, the internet, social media—are rendered be free to follow her desires at the expense (Pip discovers this by way of a sexual encoun- as the same. Prozac, sitcoms, MP3 players, of her husband; the Berglunds’ children, at ter turned humiliation, during which she YouTube videos—they are all completely in- the expense of their parents. Freedom is un- finds a series of boorish texts on her partner’s terchangeable devices by which the infernal derstood to mean doing whatever you want, iPhone, bragging to a friend about her “8+” machine exerts its insidious control. without impediment, absent any sense of looks and cleavage.) And like East Germa- But it’s not Franzen’s politics that win him community or social responsibility. Writ ny, the internet, while ostensibly liberating critical acclaim and commercial success—or large, the result is moral collapse and social (“dedicated to giving consumers what they not just his politics. Rather, it is the way that disintegration: marital infidelity, civic irre- wanted”), is governed by fear, in this case “the he has married his political vision to the tradi- sponsibility, military adventurism, and envi- fear of unpopularity and uncoolness, the fear tional, character-driven domestic novel, lend- ronmental degradation.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 73 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Freedom offers an alternative to this de- society. The novel’s psychology is decidedly whereby all the “loss and waste and sorrow” based notion of freedom (“the freedom to Freudian. Its characters are driven by irratio- of the preceding pages is somehow magically f[--]k up your life whatever way you want nal impulses, born out of past traumas, that healed. Purity allows for no such false com- to”). As the Bush years come to an end, the they desperately try to repress or purify, pay- fort: family becomes a prison, giving lie to the Berglunds’ familial conflicts also find resolu- ing the price in guilt and neurosis. Damaged “the dream of limitless freedom,” the uniquely tion, reconciling the estranged spouses with parents beget damaged children, and aberrant American idea that we can remake ourselves one another as well as with their children. mother-son and father-daughter relationships anew. As Franzen explained in an interview: Franzen telescopes this action such that abound. Pip seeks out older lovers to assuage we never see why Patty and Walter forgive the absence of her father, making her vulner- Family’s the one thing you can’t change, one another or what enables them to live at able to Andreas’s predations. Andreas’s sexual right? You can cover yourself with tat- peace thereafter. (Indeed, he seems to insist crimes are spurred by his need to avenge him- toos. You can get a grapefruit-sized ring on the magical, mysterious quality of their self against his mother, a monster of solipsism going through your earlobe. You can remarriage by modeling it after the last scene whose demand to be at the center of her son’s change your name. You can move to of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, where a life comes close to incest. The deeply painful a different continent. But you cannot long-lost wife is miraculously restored to her marriage of Pip’s mother and father is under- change who your parents were, and who husband.) The Berglunds’ happy ending is taken in rebellion against their own parents your siblings are, and who your children achieved deus ex machina, both via a plot de- and breaks downs as they repeat the same de- are. So even in an intensely mediated vice (a convenient car crash that removes an structive patterns from their childhood. world, in a world that offers at least the obstacle to Walter and Patty’s reunion) and Can Pip break this cycle of intergenerational illusion of radical self-invention and the coming Obama presidency. With this re- repetition? Franzen’s ending is ambiguous. She radical freedom of choice, I as a novel- pudiation of the Bush years, a new politics, reunites her mother and father, but her fam- ist am drawn to the things you can’t get national and familial, becomes possible— ily is not miraculously restored as in Freedom. away from. one in which the excesses of capitalism are Instead, her parents pick up where they left off, tempered by a concern for the common good full of “raw hatred” for each other. Pip leaves And so the infernal machine rears its head and the Berglunds come to accept the limits them, with her hopes for her future shaken: “It again. But what Franzen decries in Purity is not on their personal freedom. had to be possible to do better than her parents, its victory, but its failure. American capitalism, but she wasn’t sure she would.” Her own cou- for all its proliferation of choices and lifestyles, n purity, this hope has soured. the pling gives reason to doubt; she ends up with a cannot emancipate us from the ascriptive ties “possibility of significant change” Franzen young man the reader has earlier seen sexually of family and birth; who we come from irre- Ifelt while writing Freedom proves illusory, humiliate her. The family inheritance she long vocably shapes who we are. Even when absent, with a president too weak to take on Wall sought now looks to be a curse: her parents as Pip’s father is, parents exert their influence Street or fight climate change (or so the au- have bequeathed to her a “broken world” and over children in ways neither parents nor chil- thor groused at a New York book festival in a history of family guilt and pain that she, “her dren can control. This is the tragic recognition 2011). Franzen’s vision of human nature has mother’s daughter,” seems fated to reenact. that all Franzen’s work is built around, that also become darker: while Freedom suggests his characters rage against, and that ultimately personal dysfunction is a byproduct of bad amily is destiny. in freedom, those leads to the despair of Purity. politics (and thus susceptible to social ame- bonds, first struggled against, are even- lioration), Purity insists man is sick at heart, Ftually accepted, even willingly chosen. Cheryl Miller is a writer in Washington, D.C., and this sickness, in turn, permeates our But its ending unfolds as wish-fulfillment, and managing director of the Hertog Foundation.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 74 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Joseph Epstein A Thinker, I Suppose

What are you? You call yourself a thinker, I suppose. ed a subject “in which one could hope to know noted “value pluralism,” holding that useful —R.H.S. Crossman to Isaiah Berlin more at the end of one’s life than when one had values can be, and often are, in conflict. Ber- begun.” He turned to traditional political phi- lin was opposed to the notion that the central rolixity, thy name is isaiah, last losophy, which led him to his ultimate general questions of human life can have one answer. name Berlin. So one feels on coming to subject, his passion: the history of ideas. Wallace Stevens’s “lunatic of one idea” was Pthe last letter in the four-volume col- not for him. In a talk called “Message to the lection of the letters of Isaiah Berlin, edited No Hedgehoggery Twenty-First Century,” read on his behalf at with sedulousness and unstinting devotion by the University of Toronto in 1994, three years Henry Hardy. A former editor at Oxford Uni- s for his own contribution to before his death, Berlin wrote: versity Press, Hardy, not long after meeting this history, Berlin is credited with Berlin in 1972, took it upon himself to gather Aformulating the useful distinction be- if these ultimate human values by which together Berlin’s various writings, which to- tween negative and positive liberty. Negative we live are to be pursued, then compro- day, nearly two decades after his death, fill liberty covers that part of life—private life, mises, trade-offs, arrangements have to up no fewer than 17 books, including 10 reis- chiefly—not covered by coercion or interfer- be made if the worst is not to happen…. sues of his older books. He has now come to ence by the state, allowing freedom to act upon My point is that some values clash: the the end of editing these letters. No writer or one’s desires so long as they don’t encroach ends pursued by human beings are all scholar has ever been better served by an edi- upon the freedom of others. Positive liberty generated by our common nature, but tor than Isaiah Berlin by Henry Hardy. is that entailed in choosing one’s government, their pursuit has to be to some degree I write “writer or scholar,” but it is less than which in turn determines in what parts of controlled—liberty and the pursuit of clear whether Berlin was one or the other, or life interference and coercion ought to be ap- happiness…may not be fully compatible for that matter if he were either. Berlin began plied to the lives of citizens in pursuit of what with each other, nor are liberty, equality, his university life as a philosopher, in the age is deemed the common good. Much has been and fraternity. of British analytic philosophy, which, though written about this distinction by contemporary he recognized its usefulness, he found too arid philosophers, not a little of it disputatious. “The Hedgehog and the Fox” is Berlin’s for his tastes, altogether too dead-ended. He The other idea associated with Berlin’s most famous essay, taking off from an epi- gradually came to the conclusion that he want- political thought is pluralism, sometimes de- graph supplied by the 7th-century B.C. Greek

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 75 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm poet Archilochus: “The fox knows many Awards and honors rained down upon him: rior intellectual penetration, and character things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” the presidency of the British Academy, hon- analysis. The essay is on the intellectual travail of Leo orary degrees, festschrifts, doctoral disserta- On and On Tolstoy—a natural fox in Berlin’s reading, tions written about his works, an Order of who, in his search for the unifying principle Merit, international prizes, headship of Wolf- lthough the four volumes of ber- controlling the multiplicity of human actions, son (a new Oxford college), all this and more— lin’s letters run to more than 2,000 longed to be a hedgehog. The temptation of and yet none of it was sufficient to convince Apages, these published letters, Mr. hedgehoggery was never one to which Berlin Berlin that he was a figure of the first qual- Hardy informs us, are a selection merely and himself succumbed. ity. Self-deprecation is a leitmotif that plays scarcely all of his letters. These letters give us throughout his letters over nearly 70 years. “I insight into Berlin’s character that Michael Intellectual Celebrity am quite clear that such career as I have had Ignatieff’s biography,Isaiah Berlin (1998)— was securely founded on being overestimated,” researched while its subject was alive and ructifying as these ideas have he wrote toward the end of his life to the ar- published at his request posthumously—fails been, it is not as a political philosopher cheologist John Hilton. to give. The letters emphasize Berlin’s doubts Fthat Berlin is chiefly of interest. He was and failings and are far removed from Ignati- instead that less easily defined phenomenon, a eff’s hero worship. flâneur of the mind, an intellectual celebrity Books discussed in this essay: The letters make plain why Berlin never in three different nations, England, America, wrote the great book every serious intellectual and Israel, a personage, no less—yet perhaps Isaiah Berlin: Letters 1928–1946, with scholarly pretensions hopes to write. “I not all that much more. As for his reputation edited by Henry Hardy. really must try and achieve one solid work— in England, the 27-year-old Berlin, anticipat- Cambridge University Press, say a study of [Vissarion] Belinsky [the 19th- ing his own career, recounts telling Maurice 752 pages, $105 century literary critic]—and not scatter my- Bowra “that in Oxford & Cambridge only per- self in all these directions all over the place,” sonalities counted, & not posts, & that strik- Enlightening: Letters 1946–1960, edited by he wrote. In 1981 to Joseph Alsop he confess- ing and original figures always overshadowed Henry Hardy and Jennifer Holmes. es: “Occasionally I wonder how many years dim professors etc.” He was himself nothing Random House, 900 pages, I have left,” and “will I be able to write a big if not striking; it is only his originality that is $50 (cloth), $29.95 (paper) book in the years left to me, and does it matter in question. whether I can or not?” He never did. In many ways Berlin, as he would have been Building: Letters 1960–1975, edited by Other impressive intellectual figures in the first to say, led a charmed life. Born in Henry Hardy and Mark Pottle. Berlin’s generation failed to write the master- 1909 in Riga, Latvia, the only surviving child Random House, 864 pages, work everyone thought was in them, Hugh of a successful Jewish lumber merchant, he $59.95 (cloth) Trevor-Roper, Maurice Bowra, Arnaldo Mo- and his family, after a brief stay in the Soviet migliano, and Edward Shils among them. Union, departed in 1921 for England. A tubby Affirming: Letters 1975–1997, Why these extraordinary men failed to do boy, with a lame arm caused at birth by an ob- edited by Henry Hardy. so remains a mystery, but in Berlin’s case it is stetrician’s ineptitude, a foreigner in a land not Random House, 704 pages, $75 clear that he talked and dawdled and scrib- without its strong strain of xenophobia and bled it away in correspondence. Even his pro- anti-Semitism, the young Isaiah Berlin care- Personal Impressions, by Isaiah Berlin. digious letter writing, he claimed, was a form fully negotiated his way up the slippery slope Princeton University Press, of stalling. “Answering letters, in fact, is a to eminence. He gained entrance to St. Paul’s 528 pages, $29.95 kind of drug,” he wrote to one of his stepsons, School in London, thence to Corpus Christi, “great relief from real work.” Oxford, and thence to an early fellowship at Isaiah Berlin: A Life, The letters themselves tend to be vast ram- All Souls, the first Jewish fellow in the history by Michael Ignatieff. Vintage UK, bles. To a lifelong correspondent named Row- of that college. He waited until his mid-forties 356 pages, $16.50 land Burdon-Muller, Berlin writes: “Forgive to marry Aline Halban, née Gunzbourg, a me if I do not write you a long letter,” and then woman whose substantial wealth allowed him proceeds to write him a long letter. To Mar- to live out his days in great comfort, amidst One might suspect this to be false humil- garet Paul, an economics tutor at St. Hilda’s costly paintings and servants, and putting him ity on Berlin’s part. From the evidence abun- College, he writes: “By nature I like to say too permanently out of the financial wars. dantly supplied by his letters, however, he much, to exaggerate, embellish, inflate.” In this Gregarious and charming, Berlin met ev- genuinely felt himself, as a thinker, a scholar, same letter he goes on to do just that. To the eryone: Sigmund Freud, Chaim Weizmann, a writer, and a Jew in England, a nowhere novelist Elizabeth Bowen he writes: “Please Winston Churchill, David Ben-Gurion, Fe- man. Berlin kept no diary; he wrote neither forgive me. I write on & on as I talk, & how lix Frankfurter, Igor Stravinsky, Jacqueline autobiography nor memoirs, though he pro- tiresome that must often be…. I really must Kennedy, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Paster- duced a book, Personal Impressions (1980), not go on and on.” To Felix Frankfurter: “God nak…the list goes on. Less a Casanova than of portraits of friends and famous men he knows why I go on—maundering like this.” a Mercurio, he found his way into the select had known. His letters are the closest thing Everyone who ever met Isaiah Berlin re- circles of such women as Marietta Tree, Sibyl of his we shall have in the line of introspec- marked on his rapid-fire, glittering, torrential Colefax, and Emerald Cunard. Before long tion. They are a gallimaufry, a jumble, an talk. Edmund Wilson, in his journal, writes Berlin himself became a name others wished extraordinary mixture of attack, sycophancy, that Berlin showed up at his, Wilson’s, Lon- to add to their own lists of social and intel- resentment, confessions of weakness, gossip, don hotel and talked uninterruptedly for lectual collectibles. exaggeration, generosity, kindliness, supe- nearly two hours. “He won’t, where the com-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 76 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

petition is easily overpowered and he can get nan—who hasn’t much substance but a certain I think.” The saintly ofPer - the bit between his teeth, allow anyone else amount of sensibility & is the Bloomsbury (of- sonal Impressions is in the letters “a genius but to talk; you have to cut down through his ficial) dauphin &, they hope, commentator.” surely a foolish one with the inhumanity of a continuous flow determinedly, loudly and Of the Schlesingers, Arthur and his first wife, child.” Maurice Bowra, whom he elsewhere emphatically, and he will soon snatch the ball Marian, he writes: “She is much more intelli- lauds for his nonconformist spirit and role as away from you by not waiting for you to finish gent & a better man in all ways.” “a tremendous liberator in our youth,” is in the but seizing on some new association of ideas Several of the figures inPersonal Impressions letters this “pathetic, oppressive, demanding, to go off on some new line of thought.” Later whom he elevates in his high panegyrical style guilt inducing, conversation killing, embar- in his journal Wilson added: “His desire to are taken down in his letters. Aldous Huxley, rassing, gross, maddening, at once touching know about everybody and everything seems for example, is “enormously unsympathetic, and violently repellent, paranoiac, deaf, blind, to become more and more complulsive.” Com- ing from Edmund Wilson, himself a famous monologist, this is strong criticism. New from KANSAS Berlin’s loquacity was transformed into ver- bosity in his writing. Had the government ever Democratic Religion from declared a tax on adjectives, he would have had Locke to Obama to declare bankruptcy. Triplets in adjectives, Faith and the Civic Life of Democracy nouns, clauses was his speciality. Here is a Giorgi Areshidze sample sentence from “The Hedgehog and the “Can liberalism really be neutral toward religion? Fox,” a splendid essay that would nonetheless In Democratic Religion from Locke to Obama, gain from being cut by at least a third: “With Giorgi Areshidze contends that it cannot. it [Tolstoy’s attitude toward history] went an Areshidze elegantly explores the practical effects incurable love of the concrete, the empirical, of liberal democracy’s philosophical roots and the verifiable, and an instinctive distrust of the insightfully uncovers the theological foundations of some of America’s leading statesmen. In doing abstract, the impalpable, the supernatural—in so, he offers a provocative challenge to Rawlsian short an early tendency to a scientific and posi- liberalism and those who believe that the liberal tivist approach, unfriendly to romanticism, ab- state is and should be neutral toward religion.” stract formulations, metaphysics.” Berlin was a —Vincent Phillip Muñoz, author of God and the man to whom it was not unnatural to append Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson a postscript three times the length of the letter 224 pages, Cloth $29.95, Ebook $29.95 itself. From Harvard he writes to his wife about The Coming of the his being asked at a dinner party to say “a few Nixon Court words” about the current political situation, to The 1972 Term and the which he responded: “‘No, no, I cannot make a Transformation of Constitutional Law short statement. Are you asking me to say a few Earl M. Maltz words?’ Everyone laughed, I hope happily.” “Most of modern constitutional law has its roots in the Supreme Court’s dramatic 1972 Term. Indiscretions Now, Earl Maltz has provided a lucid, fair minded, The Fourth Amendment and insightful analysis of the Term. This work is in Flux required reading for anyone who cares about the .s. eliot somewhere notes that The Roberts Court, Crime Control, Supreme Court and constitutional law.”—Louis and Digital Privacy every good letter should contain an in- Michael Seidman, author of On Constitutional discretion. Berlin’s letters score high on Disobedience Michael C. Gizzi and R. Craig Curtis T 256 pages, Cloth $34.95, Ebook $34.95 “A significant contribution to the literature on this criterion. “Plauderei [chatty gossip] is my natural medium,” Berlin writes in one of them. Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that is written Disqualifying the High Court clearly and concisely. It should be read by legal A sideline interest in these letters is Berlin’s scholars and students, and anyone with an take-downs of people to whom he writes with Supreme Court Recusal and the interest in how law enforcement interests collide great intimacy in other letters. Of the afore- Constitution with the privacy rights of citizens.”—Craig mentioned Rowland Burdon-Muller, a wealthy Louis J. Virelli III Hemmens, Chair and Professor, Department of homosexual with radical political views, he “That recusal buffs will want to have Virelli’s Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington meticulously researched new work on their State University writes to Alice James, daughter-in-law of Wil- shelves is a given; but the book will also appeal “The Fourth Amendment in Flux is an excellent liam James, that he “gets me down no less than to anyone who is intrigued by the sparks that book for political science, pre-law and criminal can fly at the intersection where the institutional you,” and that he is, though “genuinely civilised, justice students.”—Michael Palmiotto, Professor interests of two co-equal branches of govern- not a little snobbish and talks too much.” To of Criminal Justice, Wichita State University this same Burdon-Muller, he writes of the phi- ment collide.”—Richard E. Flamm, author of Judicial Disqualification: Recusal and 200 pages, Cloth $39.95, Paper $19.95, Ebook $19.95 losopher Stuart Hampshire, whom he genu- Disqualification of Judges inely liked, that he is about to deliver a lecture 296 pages, Cloth $39.95, Ebook $39.95 “suitably enough on ‘Emotion and Expression,’ or something of the kind, which sounds more like his own personality than like philosophy.” University Press of Kansas Of Noel Annan, one of his intimates, he writes Phone 785-864-4155 • Fax 785-864-4586 • www.kansaspress.ku.edu to Marion Frankfurter, “I am glad you like An-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 77 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm thick skinned, easily offended presence.” He did not particularly like Jews. He may have too professional an interest in the Holocaust, thanks Felix Frankfurter for sending him a liked Baruch…but…quite definitely thought and [to] glory in being obsessed by it.” He dis- copy of his memoirs, and tells him how much of them as foreigners of some kind, metiques, liked above all Hannah Arendt. “I see noth- he looks forward to reading it—then writes to resident aliens, some of them perfectly nice, ing in her writings of the slightest interest, Rowland Burdon-Muller that “the vulgarity but still not Englishmen, not Scotsmen, not and never have.” To Derwent May he writes of the whole thing is exceedingly depressing… Welshmen, not Irishmen—Jews.” that “she had become conceited, fanatical, and the book has given me nothing but acute em- Berlin never expressed shame at his Jew- talked terrible nonsense both about Jews and barrassment.” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that it ishness, nor attempted to hide it in the man- about history in general; and what a strange was the sign of high intelligence to be able to ner of Proust’s character Bloch, who removed thing it was that all those intellectuals in keep two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at all evidence in himself of the “sweet vale of New York should be taken in by all this cul- the same time; but to keep two contradictory Hebron” and broke the “chains of Israel,” and tural rhetoric.” Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem ideas of the same person is, one should think, in later life sported a monocle. Berlin was not (1963) he thought both “heartless and wrong.” rather a different order of business. synagogue-going, except on high holy days; he Henry Hardy, perpetual counsel for Isaiah wanted to but finally could not believe in an Evasive Action Berlin’s defense, contradicts the notion that afterlife, though to comfort his aged father he Berlin was a logorrheic, social climbing time- claimed that he did. “As for my Jewish roots,” erlin’s jewishness may also have waster, reminding readers of his letters that he wrote, “they are so deep, so native to me, had to do with his never finding it easy he published some hundred and fifty essays that it is idle of me to try to identify them.” Bto take strong positions, at least public and gave a great many lectures. But, as Berlin Another time he claimed that Jewishness “was ones, especially if it might make him enemies. himself acknowledges, he was able to produce not a burden I ever carried, and not an attri- “For reasons that must have been deep in his written work chiefly under deadline pressure; bute I ever felt made a difference to my philo- personality,” writes David Pryce-Jones in his he likened himself to a taxi, “useless until sum- sophical opinions, to my friendships, to any memoir Fault Lines (2015), “he wanted influ- moned I stay still.” Lecturing was torture for form of life that I lived.” ence without the attendant publicity. In the him, only relieved when he lost the use of a vo- absence of civil courage, that necessary virtue, cal chord and had a proper excuse for turning he preferred a strategy of backing into the down invitations to give further lectures. His letters are a jumble limelight.” In his letters he called the student rebels of the 1960s “barbarians” of little intel- Holding Grudges of attack, sycophancy, lectual quality, stirred into action by ennui. He felt much the same about the university erlin was one of nature’s true resentment, confessions of campaign for egalitarianism, which in intel- extroverts, who flourished on commit- weakness, gossip, exaggeration, lectual matters he knew could be fatal. But he Btees, in common rooms, at dinner par- generosity, superior wrote or publicly said nothing about this out- ties. “I am utterly miserable if alone,” he wrote side his letters. “I am temperamentally liable to Stuart Hampshire, “and avoid it now by ev- intellectual penetration, to compromises,” he writes, when what he re- ery possible means.” As for his need to please, ally means is that he wavers. he allowed toward the end of his life that its and character analysis. Where possible, he did his best to lend re- source was to be found in his efforts to adapt spectability to his tergiversations on subjects to a new environment when, as a 10-year-old upon which some might think it impossible boy, he emigrated with his family from Riga. One wonders if being Jewish didn’t confer a to remain neutral. To Morton White, who Might it also have sprung from his precarious permanent insecurity on Berlin. Touchier than taught philosophy at Harvard, he writes in position as a Jew in English intellectual life? a fresh burn, he seems never to have forgotten 1966: “You and I and Arthur [Schlesinger]—I In his letters, Berlin is always on the qui vive a bad review of any of his books. He held on to feel we are all there, stuck together in some for anti-Semitism, which in England could be grudges more firmly than an Irishman (in Irish curious middle-of-the-road patch of terri- found in the highest places. “The upper class- Alzheimer’s, the joke goes, one forgets every- tory—no clear answers about Vietnam, about es of England, and indeed, in all countries,” he thing but one’s grudges). He threatened to sue Berkeley U., about any of the questions upon wrote to Alistair Cooke, “have a large dose of Robert Craft unless he removed a paragraph which it is so easy and delightful to have clear anti-Semitism circulating in their veins.” In on Berlin’s loquacity from one of his Stravin- black or white positions, doomed to be con- England he felt it was to be found in Blooms- sky books, Dialogues and a Diary (1963). He demned by both sides, accused of vices which bury, in the form of a “club anti-Semitism,” sometimes found insult where it is unclear any we half acknowledge because of general scep- not least in Bertrand Russell, E. M. Forster, was intended. When Michael Oakeshott in- ticism and doubt about our position, or po- and Maynard Keynes in whom “it was at once troduced him before a lecture at the London sitions in general, and not because we think genuine and superficial.” (One recalls here School of Economics by saying, “Listening to them just or fair.” In his eighties, he writes to Virginia Woolf, in her diary, writing about him you may be tempted to think you are in Henry Hardy that his propensity to please first meeting Berlin, noting, “a Portuguese Jew, the presence of one of the great intellectual vir- “probably does spring from unconscious ef- by the look of him.”) In government, Ernest tuosos of our time, a Paganini of ideas,” Berlin forts to fit myself into a totally new environ- Bevin, the trade unionist who became Secre- found this to be “ironic disparagement.” ment in 1919. As it is successful, the need for tary of State in the Labour government, was Oakeshott remained on Berlin’s permanent it evaporates, I suppose, but its traces cannot no friend of the Jews. Even Winston Churchill enemies list. The pro-Soviet historian E.H. but remain in all kinds of subconscious, unex- was not without his touches of anti-Semitism: Carr was on it; so, too, were Harold Laski, Lil- pected and perhaps rather central ways.” Else- “And Winston, too,” Berlin writes, again to lian Hellman, A.L. Rowse, C.P. Snow, and where he writes: “I wish I had not inherited Alistair Cooke, “who was a stout Zionist, George Steiner, whom he regarded as “having my father’s timorous, rabbity nature! I can be

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 78 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

brave, but oh after what appalling superhu- sian Communism at firsthand. Explaining his man struggles with cowardice!” The question anti-Communism to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., is whether Berlin’s floundering on most of the he writes: “No doubt inoculation by the 1917 New From key issues of the day was the result of genuine Revolution was in my case a dominant fact.” perplexities or of fear of displeasing. He considered Stalin’s murderousness not a In one of his letters, Berlin allows that in departure but a natural continuation of the SUNY Press writing about other people he was often guilty policies of Lenin. He considered Stalin even of writing about himself. Nowhere does this more monstrous than Hitler. To his friend come through more strongly than in his Ro- Shirley Anglesey he wrote that the fall of the manes Lectures on Russian novelist Ivan Tur- Soviet Union “is much the best thing that has genev. Berlin suffered from what I think of as happened in our lifetime.” Turgenev Syndrome. Or perhaps Turgenev About Zionism Berlin had few doubts, and suffered, avant la lettre, from an Isaiah Berlin in one of his letters to Marion Frankfurter he Syndrome. Each man found himself locked in writes about Chaim Wiezmann wanting him the middle between radicals and rebels, bu- to join the Israeli government “and abandon reaucrats and tsars (crowned and uncrowned). all the ludicrous efforts to teach little English Both were chary of offending the young. Writ- boys unnecessary subjects.” He was never se- ing of Turgenev, Berlin might be writing about riously tempted, and late in life wrote to the himself: “audacity was not among his attri- Polish historian of ideas Andrzej Walicki that butes”; he was “by nature cautious, judicious, “I know it was no good my going there, that Deepens our understanding of power frightened of all extremes, liable at critical mo- I would sooner or later, and probably sooner, through a survey of how its dynamics have ments to take evasive action”; and “all that was be torn to pieces by contending parties and been understood from ancient times general, abstract, absolute repelled him.” would be completely frustrated and made to- to the present. At the center of Berlin’s lecture on Turgenev tally impotent.” is the reaction aroused against the novelist by In defense of Israel, he wrote to Karl Mill- the publication of Fathers and Sons in 1862, er, then editor of the London Review of Books, Leo Strauss, and especially by his portrait of the character calling him out for the strong anti-Zionist Philosopher

Bazarov, the new man of 19th-century Rus- pieces he was publishing (and which the jour- EUROPEAN VISTAS sia, the nihilist, who in his ruthless scientism nal, under its new editor, continues to publish). some claimed to be the first Bolshevik. Those He gave advice to Teddy Kollek, then mayor on the right thought Turgenev was glorifying of Jerusalem, on how best to handle visiting Bazarov; those on the left, that he was ridicul- American and English intellectual eminences, ing him. Berlin, in what might again be auto- Robert Lowell among them, showing them

Edited by Antonio Lastra and biography, writes: “It was his irony, his toler- the best of Israel in the hope of turning them Josep Monserrat-Molas ant scepticism, his lack of passion, his ‘velvet into Israel’s defenders. touch,’ above all his determination to avoid Berlin wrote strong letters to Noam Chom- too definite a social or political commitment sky and I.F. Stone arguing with their views on European scholars discuss Leo Strauss that, in the end, alienated both sides…. But, Israel published in the New York Review of as a major figure in the history of philosophy. in the end, he could not bring himself to ac- Books. As he wrote to Mark Bonham Carter cept their [the radicals’] brutal contempt for about Chomsky, “hatred of all American es- art, civilized behavior, for everything that he tablishments governs him, I think, much more held dear in European culture.” than thoughts about Israel as such, or fear of Berlin closes his Romanes lecture by de- a world war triggered off by Israel.” Then he fending those, like Turgenev and like himself, adds: “Besides, despite his often shocking ac- who are caught in the middle, arguing that tions, I wish to preserve my remote friendship wishing “to speak to both sides is often inter- with him.” Why?, one wonders. preted as softness, trimming, opportunism, I used to think that Berlin’s relationship cowardice.” He enlists in defense of Turgenev with Robert Silvers, the editor of the New admirable middle-of-the-roaders of whom this York Review of Books, resembled that of a car- accusation was untrue: it “was not true of Eras- dinal now lost to history who was asked how mus; it was not true of Montaigne; it was not he could serve under so miserable a figure Reflections on principle and prudence true of Spinoza…; it was not true of the best as Pope Pius XII, and who answered, “You in the thoughts and actions of great representatives of the Gironde.” He neglects don’t know what I have prevented.” In 1970, thinkers and statesmen. only to say that it is also not true of himself. as Berlin wrote to Arnaldo Momigliano, he conducted Silvers on a carefully planned tour Communism and Zionism of Israel, including a lengthy meeting with Golda Meir. As with Lowell, it didn’t take, n his anti-communism, berlin was and did nothing to alter the anti-Israel line of stalwart. The Communist question was the New York Review of Books, which remains Available online at www.sunypress.edu never troubling, for as a young boy he had firmly in place in our day. Toward the end of I or call toll-free 877-204-6073 experienced the levelling brutality of Rus- his life, Berlin seemed wobbly even on Israel,

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 79 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

for he loathed the conservative Likud govern- “the government, or those in power, have sys- ment of Menachem Begin and contemned the tematically to curry favor with the citizens for occupation of the West Bank. “Now of course,” fear of being thrown out.” The Catholic University he wrote to Kyril Fitzlyon, the British diplo- It is difficult to determine how, precisely, of America Press mat, “[Israel] has an appalling government of Isaiah Berlin judged his own life. He did not religious bigots and nationalist fanatics, and have a high opinion of his writing. In a letter to God knows what will happen.” The old Jewish Noel Annan, he remarks that after his retire- leftist in Berlin, even in regard to Israel, never ment from the presidency of Wolfson College quite died. “I shall spend some time on some very obscure topics in the field of history of ideas—at once Harmless obscure and difficult without scholarly train- ing, pedantic without being precise, general o judge berlin solely, or even without being of interest to anyone outside a chiefly, by his opinions would be re- very narrow circle.” Elsewhere he notes that Tductive. His letters reveal him to be a what he has written will be little more than deeply cultivated man. Music meant a great the stuff of other people’s footnotes. deal to him, and his knowledge of it was con- The fate of England saddened him. In one siderable. Like most serious historians and of his letters he likens the Englishmen visit- social scientists of any quality, he was steeped ing America to Greeks visiting Rome. “Ex- in literature, and sophisticated and subtle in empires are curious places in which to live,” his judgment of it. At another time he might he writes to Shirley Anglesey, “or indeed have been a first-rate literary critic. He pre- flourish.” In his sixties he complained he had ferred Tolstoy over Dostoyevsky, remarking, no one to look up to; in his early eighties he “Tolstoy is always sunlight even in his most asks, “Why must the end of my life be cov- severe and tragic passages—Dostoyevsky is ered in this growing darkness?” His was a re- always night…. It is with relief that I stop markable generation of writers and scholars, reading him, and return to ordinary life.” He included among them Hugh Trevor-Roper, notes the want of poetry in Balzac. He prefers A.J. Ayer, Evelyn Waugh, A.J.P. Taylor, Stu- Proust over James, adding that the former is art Hampshire, Lewis Namier, and Elizabeth Seeking the Truth braver, “and indeed one has to be in French Bowen—the last gasp, really, of an English An Orestes Brownson Anthology which does not allow emotional timorous- aristocratic intellectual tradition that would ness to be translated into such indeterminate be replaced, dismally, by Margaret Drabble Edited by Richard M. Reinsch II vagueness as English.” To his friend Jean and Christopher Hitchens, A.S. Byatt and Paper or eBook $39.95 Floud he writes: “I cannot take more of the Terry Eagleton. He wrote to Stalin’s daughter Bellow-Kazin-Malamud-Roth regional cul- that “the vieille Angleterre, the civilised aristo- ture; it is too claustrophobic, sticky, hideously crats, the marvellous novelists and poets, the self-indulgent.” urbane, cultivated statemen—that England, “Brownson’s clear articulation of The four volumes of letters are also filled believe me, is no more.” Berlin was lucky not first principles in powerful prose with lovely tidbits. Berlin reports Patrick to have lived on to our day, when England ap- Shaw-Stewart saying of Lady Diana Cooper pears to have become the country of Sir Elton provides the men and women of that “she has no heart but her head was in the John and Sir Mick Jagger. our troubled times with a granite right place.” About A.L. Rowse, he writes: To the end of his life Berlin received hon- foundation for grappling with “The thing about Rowse which is not so often orary degrees—evidence, he felt, “that I am similar controversies.” noticed is that underneath the nonsense, the harmless.” Not yet 87, he wrote to Ruth vanity, the ludicrous and dotty and boring Chang, a young American philosophy pro- – Robert Emmet Moffit egotistical layers, he is quite a nasty man— fessor, that he could not care less how he is very cruel to those who do not recognize his remembered: “I do not mind in the least if genius if they are weak and defenceless, and I am completely forgotten—I really mean filled with hatred if they are in any degree that.” Poor Isaiah Berlin, all his life he played formidable: a man who, I think, has some of it safe, gave pleasure to his friends, took care the temperament of genius without a spark of to make no enemies in important quarters, genius, which is quite difficult to live with.” In and would seem to have won all the world’s a brilliant aperçu, he sets out the sonata form rewards, except the feeling of self-satisfac- that after-dinner speeches take: “First light tion that comes with accomplishment and matter, allegro; then grave things which you courageous action. really wish to impart, if any; then, allegro again, jokes, light matter, desire to please the Joseph Epstein is an essayist, short story writer, audience; and in some awful cases a rondo, i.e. and a contributing editor for the Weekly Stan- cuapress.cua.edu you go back to the beginning and start again.” dard. His most recent books are Frozen in Time: In a letter to Arthur Schlesinger, he offers the Twenty Stories (Taylor Trade Publishing) and best short definition of democracy I know: Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays (Axios Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 80 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Linda Bridges Adventures among the Apostrophes Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, by Mary Norris. W.W. Norton & Company, 240 pages, $24.95 (cloth), $15.95 (paper)

ary norris is a veteran copy- on the two different ways of using commas: anatomically correct and made me editor at the New Yorker—which for strictly grammatical purposes, and as an sound like a wet nurse. I muffled the Mis saying a very great deal. The indicator of how the sentence should be spo- last syllables. magazine takes justifiable pride in its styl- ken—almost like musical notation. Bill was ish prose and impeccable proofreading, and decidedly of the musical school.) After graduate school she headed to New no one would remain there long enough to After two brief interregnums (under Rob- York, where her brother had made friends be called “veteran” without being meticulous, ert Gottlieb and Tina Brown), the helm of with Jeanne Fleischmann, the wife of the New knowledgeable, and determined. I find myself the New Yorker has passed into the hands of Yorker’s chairman of the board. She soon met thinking of a wonderful cartoon of some years David Remnick, who is, again, the polar op- the Fleischmanns, and before long had landed ago (not a New Yorker cartoon, though) de- posite of his predecessor. Shawn quietly but a job with the magazine, which she had dis- picting an “eagle-eyed nitpicker, who can spot purposefully worked to keep obscenities out covered several years before. She describes her a wrong-font comma at 30 paces.” of the New Yorker’s pages, whereas Remnick, job in glowing terms, which I imagine will res- In Between You and Me, Norris weaves her Norris tells us, once engaged in a contest with onate with anyone who really loves the craft of analyses of grammar and her (and the New his writers to see who could stuff more in- editing: Yorker’s) preferences in punctuation and spell- stances of “f--k” into a particular issue. ing together with her memoir of growing up One of the things I like about my job is in Cleveland, attending college in New Jersey, he starts her autobiographical that it draws on the entire person: not just getting a master’s degree in English at the account with recollections of her days your knowledge of grammar and punc- University of Vermont, coming to New York, Sas a “foot checker” at the local swim- tuation and usage and foreign languages and landing a job at the New Yorker. She was ming pool (inspecting all prospective swim- and literature but also your experience not in time to work under the legendary, iras- mers for athlete’s foot), as the assistant in a of travel, gardening, shipping, singing, cible founding editor, Harold Ross, but she costume agency, and then as a milk deliverer. plumbing, Catholicism, midwestern- came during the tenure of the equally, though In this last role, she gives us a foreshadow- ism, mozzarella, the A train, New Jersey. oppositely, legendary William Shawn—as ing of her eventual vocation as an analyst and And in turn it feeds you more experience. quiet as Ross was combustible. lover of language, as she recalls her efforts to In the hierarchy of prose goddesses, I am Shawn had the decorum of his grand- decide, in those early days of modern femi- way, way down the list. But what exper- father’s generation. My late employer, Bill nism (the 1970s), what to do while leaving the tise I have acquired I want to pass along. Buckley—who had been on friendly terms milk on the customer’s doorstep. Normally, with Shawn for years, and who would, as one would shout “Milkman!” when making a nd soon, she comes back to the he put it, “tutoyer” anyone he knew at all delivery. vexed question, which she first raised well—fell in with “Mr.” Shawn’s formality Ain describing her milk route, of mascu- and always so addressed him. He gleefully I wasn’t a man, but I didn’t like the word line and feminine designations. After report- recalled a note Shawn once wrote him: “Mr. “lady”—it seemed not feminist—so I ing on several authors’ suggestions for gender- Buckley, I very much fear that you do not wouldn’t holler “Milklady!” and “milk- neutral pronouns, each more fanciful and im- understand the use of the comma.” (Norris maid” was a little too fanciful. I settled probable than the last, she writes: “Pronouns has something to say about that, in a section for “milkwoman,” which was a bit too are deeply embedded in the language, and all

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 82 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

these imposed schemes are doomed: the more of it—you have to roll up your sleeves pens, though if it was an editorial day, when logical they are, the more absurd the idea of and join the ink-stained wretches as we Bill Buckley would be in the office, we had to putting them into practice. Rather than solve name the parts, being careful to define be careful not to use a red pen, his exclusive anything by blending in, the invented pro- them in a way that makes them simpler prerogative.) nouns stand up and wave their arms around instead of more complicated, and see just when they should be disappearing.” how they work together. Bear with me hen norris is writing strictly Nor is using “their” an answer: while I find the little hook that holds about grammar and usage, I am the hood in place and prop it open with Wwith her all the way. But when I I hate to say it, but the colloquial use of this stick. I am going to attempt to di- got to page 102, I thought our rapport was “their”when you mean “his or her”is just agnose one of the most barbaric habits over, as she wrote, “During the Reagan ad- wrong. It may solve the gender problem, in contemporary usage…. Just between ministration everyone knew that Reagan had and there is no doubt that it has taken you and me, I suffer, and the whole body some form of dementia.” No, everyone did not over in the spoken language, but it does of the English language shudders, when, know that—because it wasn’t true. so at the expense of number. An an- say, a shoe salesman trying to gain my I have one other disagreement with Norris. tecedent that is in the singular cannot trust leans forward and says, “Between Early on, she writes, “My fondest hope is that take a plural pronoun. And yet it does, you and I….” just from looking at the title you will learn to all the time—certainly in speech. It’s say fearlessly ‘between you and me’ (not ‘I’), not fair. Why should a lowly common- She then leads us through bright gardens whether or not you actually buy the book and gender plural pronoun trump our sin- of commas, hyphens, apostrophes, and dash- penetrate to the innards of the objective case.” gular feminine and masculine pronouns, es (Emily Dickinson “used dashes for every- I don’t think so. I seriously doubt that anyone our kings and queens and jacks? If we thing, and sometimes for two things at once. who doesn’t know that that pronoun has to be didn’t make such a fuss about the epi- If a different size and style of fork were as- in the objective case will suddenly see the light cene, the masculine pronoun would just signed to each of her various dashes, the table just on reading her title. If such a reader could blend in and disappear: the invisible he. setting would require not just dessert forks bring himself to read her chapter on case, he and fondue forks and those tiny forks used would surely be convinced—but I doubt that As, I might add, it did until, historically for teasing out snails but also tuning forks many people who don’t already care deeply speaking, the day before yesterday, when and pitchforks.”), before concluding with her about grammar would put in the effort. some activists started making a fuss about it. “Ballad of a Pencil Junkie.” This latter was in- But for those who do care, Mary Norris’s spired by the fact that the New Yorker insists unfoldings and embellishments are a true hen we move into the nuts and on presenting its compositors with pristine delight. bolts of grammar—a metaphor many proofs—no cross-outs, and even erasures Twriters on language have used, but have to be done as unsmudgily as possible. Linda Bridges is an editor-at-large at National Norris delves into it and gives it its due: (When I first came toNational Review—in Review and the co-author (with John R. Coyne, the days when we still had those wonderful Jr.) of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. To understand how the language Linotype compositors instead of do-it-your- and the American Conservative Movement works…—to master the mechanics self electronic typesetting—we mostly used (John Wiley & Sons).

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 83 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The Americans–A Fan’s Notes

hilip and elizabeth jennings are barely extend beyond the latest videogame, ness is a mirthless laugh, like that of a ner- a lovely couple living in a leafy north- have to learn the truth, too? vous adolescent going along with a bully. To Pern Virginia suburb in the 1980s. Like Maybe Weisberg and company decided its credit, The Americansalmost never invites most Americans, they keep busy with work it was time to shake things up. Season 4 saw this response. On the contrary, it typically (running a successful travel agency in D.C.) the death or departure of several major char- portrays the evil deeds committed by Philip and family (raising two teenagers). But unlike acters, and to that extent, the slate has been and Elizabeth as just that: evil. And over most Americans, they also find time to engage wiped clean. Maybe there’s a plan to sustain time, the show has made the victims of those in espionage for the “evil empire,” as President The Americans’s best qualities while carrying deeds—an African-American housekeeper Reagan called the Soviet Union in 1983. In- it through the end of the Cold War. But in and her son, a Korean-American couple who deed, the couple has been groomed for this case there isn’t, here are some suggestions befriend Elizabeth, a nerdy FBI techie—ever job since the 1960s, when the KGB first re- from a fan. more sympathetic. cruited two young Russians—Mischa from Indeed, the most appealing thing about Tobolsk and Nadezhda from Smolensk—to The Americans is its steady moral compass. become “illegals,” or deep-cover spies, in the Discussed in this essay: Early in Season 1, Stan () United States. blackmails Nina (Annet Mahendru), a beau- The Americans, created by . The Americans has been renewed for a tiful young Soviet embassy attaché, into DreamWorks Television fifth and sixth season, a welcome prospect spying for him. Nina says, “You Americans for admiring fans like me, but a daunting think everything is white and black. With us one for its creator, Joe Weisberg, and his Keep the Moral Compass it’s all gray.” She is right about the American team. I say this because Season 4 ended in a tendency to see every conflict as a morality way that went beyond the usual cliffhanger ne of the least attractive cli- play between virtuous white hats and vicious to portend a drastic change in the story’s ba- chés of today’s popular culture is black hats. But The Americans doesn’t go to sic premise. With their cover blown and the Oan unseemly relish for scenes that the other extreme of wallowing in 50 shades FBI closing in, Philip and Elizabeth were last in real life would be shocking, horrifying, of gray. On the contrary, it reckons seriously seen grabbing their children and preparing or cruel. There is such a scene in the second with each character’s particular struggle to to flee. episode of Season 3: a young woman whom do what is right and to bear the guilt of do- Where will they go? More important, Philip () has been develop- ing wrong. where will The Americans go, if it is in fact ing as an asset is strangled in a hotel room, abandoning the setting that has served it so and the only way to dispose of her body is Keep Weaving Those Webs of Deception well? The Jennings family on the lam would to carry it out in a suitcase. Elizabeth (Keri be very different from the Jennings fam- Russell) arrives with a suitcase large enough eception is the great theme of ily living their bizarre double life across the to contain the body if it were folded into a fe- all spy fiction, but the genius ofThe street from neighbor Stan Beeman, who tal position. But instead of doing that, Philip DAmericans is to blend it with another also happens to work for the FBI Counter- and Elizabeth place the nude corpse on a great theme: marital fidelity. We see this in intelligence Division. What will happen to plastic sheet and proceed to break all four of the very first episode, which begins with Eliz- daughter Paige, who in Season 3 discovers its limbs—slowly, deliberately, and (worse) abeth posing as a hooker to extract informa- her parents’ terrible secret and, unable to audibly. tion from an FBI agent. Not only are she and bear it alone, shares it with the pastor of her For many viewers and (especially) critics, Philip in a marriage arranged by the KGB, church? Will son Henry, whose horizons the approved response to such gruesome- they are also expected to use sex as part of

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 84 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm their work. This causes a strain, as does Phil- sian foreign intelligence agency isn’t doing its saying, “What we do, it’s for something great- ip’s thoughts of defecting, which Elizabeth ve- job very well.” er than ourselves. Kate always said, the work, hemently rejects. the cause, it’s for something greater.” As Season 1 unfolds, however, the couple Keep the Russians Real grows closer. One factor, shown in flashback, Keep the Americans Real is that during their training Elizabeth was was delighted that the americans raped by a brutal instructor. That same man opted to fill their Russian roles with na- o repeat, the euphemisms used by is now trying to defect to the United States, “I tives,” writes journalist Olga Khazan. the Soviets in the 1980s resonate all and the Jenningses are ordered to stop him. Not just in flashbacks but in numerous scenes Ttoo well with a certain naïve American In the course of holding him captive in their inside the Soviet embassy, the Russian charac- idealism. Trying to reconcile herself to Paige’s garage, Elizabeth tells Philip about the rape, ters speak real Russian, not English with fake membership in a liberal activist church, Eliza- and he summarily kills the offender. Hus- Russian accents. Americans don’t like to read beth tells Philip, “Paige is like me. She wants band and wife also admit to past affairs, and subtitles, but without the language and round- to make a difference. She’s just doing it in the by the end of Season 1 they are deceiving each ed humanity of these characters, the show wrong place.” other less—and everyone else more. would lose much of its grit and authenticity. This same naïveté takes a satirical turn “Everyone else” starts with their children, Equally authentic, however, is the way when Stan’s wife, Sandra, ropes him into Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Elizabeth justifies her “cause.” The Americans joining EST (a “human potential movement” Sellati), and extends to neighbors (especially is set in the early 1980s, when liberal opinion popular in the 1970s and ’80s), so he can Stan), employees, colleagues, and friends. in the West tended to equate the imperfec- learn to be more “honest and open.” Of course, But the only ones who grow suspicious are tions of the United States with those of the when Stan tells Sandra he likes EST, she ac- Paige and Stan. Curious about her parents’ Soviet Union. The Kremlin encouraged this cuses him of not being honest and open. So odd hours, Paige starts asking questions and “myth of moral equivalence,” as Jeane Kirkpat- he mans up and says, “It’s total bullshit”—at learns their secret. As for Stan, three years rick called it in a 1984 essay. which point she slams the door in his face. undercover with a white supremacist group As Kirkpatrick wrote, the propaganda of Not surprisingly, Philip is as drawn to EST have given him sensitive antennae. But when Nazi Germany “forthrightly, frankly, em- as Elizabeth is repelled by it. But as it turns he suggests to his wife, Sandra (Susan Mis- braced principles of leadership, obedience and out, a Soviet spy can only get so much out of ner), that Philip seems “a little off,” she tells hierarchy as alternatives to the hated basic EST. In Season 3 Sandra runs into Philip him to relax and enjoy living in a “boring sub- values of democracy,” while Soviet propagan- at a training session and eagerly explains to urb” full of “boring people.” da took a subtler approach. Rather than “at- him that EST is about “really knowing other There’s a rich vein of humor in these layers tack our basic values forthrightly,” the Soviets people and letting them know you.” But when of deception. For example, Philip and Eliza- mounted “a radical critique of our societies she suggests that the two of them “tell each beth have just returned from a dangerous and institutions by expropriating our lan- other everything,” Philip demurs—no doubt job when they hear a voice at the door: “FBI, guage, our values.” because he has just killed Gene, the nerdy te- open up!” They are terrified until they real- This describes Elizabeth to a T. When she chie in Stan’s office. ize it’s Stan with a pizza. On another occasion, sniffs disapproval at Philip’s new Camaro, he With its shallow slogans about “taking to- Elizabeth is startled to see Paige wearing a red says, “Don’t you enjoy any of this?” Her reply, tal responsibility for your life,” EST serves as bra, and Paige says, “Mom, things are differ- that “five miles from here people are poor,” a comic foil to the deep moral quandaries fac- ent from when you grew up! People are freer!” could have come from any American con- ing the major characters. It also reveals the gulf And when Matthew, Stan’s son, tells Paige cerned about inequality. As for the presumed between the optimistic, trusting ways of the about his father’s FBI job, she comments sar- virtues of the Soviet system, they were long Americans and the pessimistic, suspicious ways castically on her parents’ “exciting” work as forgotten by the 1980s. So concerning the of the Russians. travel agents. actual nature of her “cause,” Elizabeth waxes But this does not mean the Americans are Such is the standard complaint of ado- vague and euphemistic. For example, in Sea- portrayed as fools. On the contrary, as both lescence: one’s parents are hopelessly uncool, son 2 she consoles Jared (Owen Campbell), the Russians and Americans struggle to re- unsexy, and unhip. Hearing this complaint the son of another spy couple who have been deem themselves, there are hints that the lodged against Philip and Elizabeth brings brutally murdered (along with Jared’s sister), Americans have the advantage, precisely be- a pleasant frisson of hope to the parents and by saying, “Your parents believed in some- cause they are more trusting and less cynical other adults watching—that one day the thing better than themselves…to make the than the Russians. This is not driven home in younger generation will understand that we world a better place.” any ideological way; as in any good fiction, it old folks are way cooler, sexier, and hipper Because these sentiments sound so ear- emerges from the characters themselves. But than they ever imagined. nestly American, the viewer might wonder it also seems to matter what sort of ideologi- As it happens, the actual spy ring that in- about bias. Is The Americans pushing moral cal air they breathe. spired The Americans was not very cool, sexy, equivalence with the Soviet Union? No, it is This advantage shows up in a powerful se- or hip. To begin with, it was formed in the trying to do something harder: show the hu- quence in Season 3. Philip and Elizabeth have post-Soviet era (about which more below). It manity of both sides without losing track of broken into a factory to plant a bug in the FBI’s was also somewhat laughable. Of the dozen the essential difference. “mail robot,” and because it is late at night, they or so agents arrested in 2010 and 2015, Russia Forgive the spoiler, but at the end of Sea- don’t expect to find anyone there. But in the expert Kimberly Marten observes: “What is son 2 we learn that Jared himself killed his office Elizabeth comes across Betty, the elderly interesting…is how little these accused Rus- family, at the urging of his KGB handler Kate. widow of the factory owner, doing accounts. sian spies are accomplishing. Either the FBI is In a bitter echo of Elizabeth’s euphemisms, In a moving performance by veteran ac- just getting the low-hanging fruit, or the Rus- the dying Jared justifies his horrific crime by tress Lois Smith, Betty takes Elizabeth for

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 85

Divergent Paths Strangers in Our Midst The Discovery of Chance Dante The Academy and the Judiciary The Political Philosophy of The Life and Thought of The Story of His Life Richard A. Posner Immigration Alexander Herzen Marco Santagata David Miller Aileen M. Kelly TranslaTed by richard dixon “A valuable contribution to debates over the future of federal courts “A cool dissection of some of the main “[A] gripping biography of a tragic “Santagata, thoroughly steeped in the and law schools alike . . . Posner is, moral issues surrounding immigration if courageous life . . . [The] hidden politics and genealogies of the period, as always, uniformly sensible and and worth reading for its introductory strands in Herzen’s thought, gives the best account I have ever read frequently brilliant.” chapter alone. Moreover, unlike painstakingly uncovered here by of Dante in his historical context . . . — Kermit Roosevelt, many progressive intellectuals, Miller Aileen Kelly, provide yet another You will never read an account clearer New York Times Book Review gives due weight to the rights and compelling reason we should read the than Santagata’s.” $29.95 preferences of existing citizens and melancholy old Russian again.” —A. N. Wilson, The Spectator does not believe an immigrant has an — Michael Ignatieff, Belknap Press | $35.00 automatic right to enter a country . . . New York Times Book Review Full of balanced judgments.” $39.95 —David Goodhart, Evening Standard $35.00

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS www.hup.harvard.edu blog: harvardpress.typepad.com tel: 800.405.1619

Redeeming the Great Emily Dickinson’s Poems Emancipator As She Preserved Them Allen C. Guelzo Emily Dickinson ediTed by crisTanne Miller “Lincoln scholar Guelzo explores race in America as an element of African- “Closer than previous editions to American history as affected by Dickinson’s wishes, priorities and Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation personality, Emily Dickinson’s Poems: Declaration . . . A clear, concise look at As She Preserved Them calls for no one aspect of Lincoln, the man and the redundant plays, films, novels or president.” warbling. What remains is lightning —Kirkus Reviews bolts of language akin to the Nathan I. Huggins Lectures | $22.95 trouvailles of Arthur Rimbaud and other powerful magicians of verse.” —Benjamin Ivry, Literary Review Belknap Press | $39.95 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

a burglar and tries to save herself by engag- The turning point comes in Season 2, when ing her in conversation. Betty’s ploy works Philip overcomes Martha’s ethical qualms to the extent that her life story gets under about stealing a top secret file by making Elizabeth’s skin. But eventually Betty realizes her listen to a tape that has been doctored to that Elizabeth is not a burglar but something sound as though Gaad, Stan, and other men much worse. Rather than kill Betty outright, in the office were making fun of her appear- in the Elizabeth forces her to overdose on her heart ance. When she bursts into tears, Philip com- medicine, and while she is taking the pills, forts her by saying, “The world is an ugly place, there’s a moment of truth between them: full of nasty brutish people.” She accepts his next issue comfort and professes her love for him, at Betty: “Are you doing this by yourself?” which point he abruptly takes his leave, clearly mortified by the realization thathe is one of Elizabeth: “No, with my husband.” those nasty brutish people. In Season 3 Martha’s fate begins its inexo- CRB Fall 2016 Betty: “Why?” rable approach. First Gaad discovers the bug she has planted in his office. This leads to an Elizabeth: “To make the world a better internal investigation by someone who is ob- place.” viously not Clark/Philip. Suddenly doubting her husband’s bona fides, Martha tells him Daniel J. Mahoney Betty: “You think doing this to me will that she met the investigator. “Who are you?” Self-Rule in Europe make the world a better place?” she asks Philip. and America He responds with more lies, different ones Elizabeth: “Sorry, but I do.” tailored to this new situation. That works for Christopher Caldwell a while, but as Martha’s suspicions grow, he Immigration’s Betty: “That’s what evil people tell them- switches to what she contemptuously calls “a Winners & Losers selves when they’re doing evil.” version of the truth that’s not very true.” Then he removes his Clark disguise and asks her to Watching Betty die is almost the only time we trust him even though he cannot tell her the Brian Domitrovic see Elizabeth in tears. whole truth. Eventually, he confesses to hav- The U.S. Economy ing killed the techie Gene. Keep the Difference Between As the FBI close in, Philip takes Martha to Jeremy Rabkin Truth and Lies a shabby KGB safe house to await exfiltration Our Republican Constitution to the Soviet Union. At this stage the question he world is full of cynics, post- of truth is front and center, because Martha is John J. Pitney, Jr. modernists, and tyrants who will tell languishing for lack of it. Meeting her in the The Nixon Revolution Tyou there is no such thing as truth, safe house is the Jenningses’ handler, a senior only “narratives” constructed by the powerful KGB officer named Gabriel (Frank Langella). Angelo M. Codevilla to perpetuate their power. This is not the per- A grizzled veteran with a kindly manner, Ga- Douglas MacArthur spective of The Americans. Indeed, every one briel now deploys that kindly manner to take of its major characters, including those most Martha prisoner while reassuring her that she Bradley C.S. Watson entangled in lies, is shown at some point to is not being taken prisoner. hunger for the truth. There are many exam- Then Elizabeth shows up, doling out the Conservatives on Campus ples, but perhaps the most compelling is Mar- same phony reassurance. Martha is having tha (Alison Wright), secretary to Frank Gaad none of it. She tries to escape but then, fear- Justin Dyer (Richard Thomas), the special agent in charge ing the FBI more, allows herself to be brought Natural Law and of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. back to the safe house. At this point Martha Positive Law Martha is a lonely woman approaching her feels like the last human being on earth af- forties, whose only real attachment is to her ter the bodysnatchers have taken over. And John Ellis parents living in another state. This makes though Philip is the one most responsible for Goethe’s Genius her an easy mark for Philip, who, disguised her plight, she is desperate to see him because as a kindly geek named Clark, pretends to be she believes he is still human. Mark Heberle conducting an internal investigation of the And so he is. Martha asks him his real The English Language Bureau. By stages “Clark” extracts more and name, and he tells her: Mischa. She asks more information from Martha, first by woo- him will she have to spend the rest of her life ing her and then by marrying her. in Russia, and he says yes. Finally she asks For most of her time onscreen, Martha him if he will be joining her in Russia, and comes off as too emotionally needy for her against the express orders of Gabriel and the Subscribe today. own good. But she is also warm-hearted and KGB, he says no. They will never see each totally undeserving of the fate Philip has set other again. www.claremont.org/subscribe for her. It is fascinating to watch this storyline This is an extraordinary moment, because develop from mild satire to Greek tragedy. Martha’s reaction is not what you’d expect af-

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 87 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

ter so many hyper-emotional scenes with her This is not yet the case in America, but the nomination away from Bernie Sanders beloved “Clark.” She throws her head back, we are suffering an erosion of trust in our and give it to Hillary Clinton. But no Ameri- smiling through her tears, and her whole body institutions—and even more crucially, in can should shrug at the danger posed by straightens as though suffused with sudden each other. At least, this is what the survey this Russian meddling. According to Shawn strength. There’s no great mystery about the data suggest. According to one major study Henry, a 20-year veteran of the FBI’s cyber- source of this strength. When Elizabeth and conducted in 2010-12 and published in the security division, Russia’s recent efforts to Gabriel criticize Philip for removing his Clark journal Psychological Science, only 33% of penetrate American politics are marked by “a disguise, he shoots back, “She needed—” The Americans reported that they trusted other high degree of capability and some very, very line is left hanging, but the meaning is clear: people, down from 46% in 1972-74. This is sophisticated technology.” she needed the truth. still higher than many other countries, but Does this danger include trying to under- if the data reflect reality, the shift does not mine the election? For an answer, we need Keep the Story Relevant to Today bode well. only glance at what the Putin regime has been In this respect it may be worth noting, doing to undermine democracy in Europe. he americans doesn’t make a big again, that the Russian spy ring that inspired And the danger looks less like old-fashioned deal of it, but one reason Martha be- The Americans was rounded up in 2010. Why espionage than like postmodern mischief: not Thaves nobly at the end is because she is did Weisberg take a story from the post-Cold just cyber-attacks but also major efforts to use an American. Elizabeth calls Martha “simple” War era and place it back in the Reagan years? media, think tanks, political parties, and oth- because she is so trusting. But as Philip cor- “A modern day [setting] didn’t seem like a er organs of opinion in Europe to disinform, rects her, Martha “was actually very compli- good idea,” he has said. “People were both disorient, and disrupt. cated. People underestimated her.” shocked and simultaneously shrugged at the Americans don’t need Russians to under- The same could be said of Americans in [2010] scandal because it didn’t seem like we mine our democracy right now; we are quite general. Despite everything, America is still a were really enemies with Russia anymore.” capable of doing that ourselves. But given place where it is not crazy to trust other peo- What would Weisberg say today, with the Vladimir Putin’s current ideology of virulent ple. This is a rare and wonderful thing, as I Russian government doing its best to influ- anti-Americanism and our own unsettled learned from friends who were Soviet émigrés ence the American presidential election? At state, it would be foolish of Russia not to try, in the 1970s. As they explained, the USSR the time of this writing, some Republicans at least, to exacerbate our problems. Let us was an incubator of close friendship, because are shrugging at the WikiLeaks posting of hope that, along with being hugely entertain- you could not trust anyone outside the circle emails showing the leadership of the Demo- ing, The Americans keeps reminding us that of light on your kitchen table. cratic National Committee trying to wrest we still have the strength to push back.

Carolina Academic Press • 700 Kent Street, Durham, NC, 27701 • 800.489.7486

Corporate Citizen? To Form a More Perfect Union An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State An Anthology of American Values and the Debate on Income and Wealth Disparity Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Stetson University College of Law Phillip A. Hubbart, Judge, Third District Court of Appeals of FL (ret.), editor Dennis Dalton, Emeritus, Columbia University, editor 2016, 312 pp, ISBN 978-1-63284-726-3, paper, $47.00 Charles Edelstein, Judge (ret.), editor

Over time, corporations have engaged in an aggressive campaign Forthcoming August 2016, 248 pp, ISBN 978-1-61163-891-2, paper to dramatically enlarge their political and commercial speech and religious rights through strategic litigation and extensive lobbying. To Form a More Perfect Union addresses critical issues relevant to the approaching 2016 At the same time, many large firms have sought to limit their social U.S. presidential election and beyond. It deals with a central political and economic issue that responsibilities. For the most part, courts have willingly followed is at the core of the political debate in this country: the growing gap between the rich and corporations down this path. But interestingly, corporations are poor and the erosion of the middle class — as well as the growing political and ideological meeting resistance from many quarters including from customers, divisions that are tearing this country apart. In this book, we present a broad cross section of investors, and lawmakers. Corporate Citizen? explores this resistance economic and political thought on this subject: including the conservative market approach, and offers reforms to support these new understandings of the the liberal governmental intervention approach, the voices of the ancient Greeks, the great corporation in contemporary society. philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries and public figures of America past and present.

Gendered Law in American History Understanding Islamic Law (Shari’a) Richard Chused, New York Law School Second Edition Wendy Williams, Emeritus, Georgetown University Law Center Raj Bhala, University of Kansas School of Law Forthcoming July 2016, 1250 pp, ISBN 978-1-61163-673-4, casebound, $150.00 Forthcoming July 2016, 1454 pp, ISBN 978-1-6328-4950-2, casebound, $105.00 Gendered Law in American History is a remarkable compendium The demand for a textbook like Understanding Islamic Law among law students and legal of over thirty years of research and teaching in the field. It explores an practitioners in America and throughout the English-speaking world is large and growing. array of social, cultural, and legal arenas from the turn of the nine- Islamic Law is not merely a “hot topic.” It is a major trend that is an increasingly mainstream teenth to the middle of the twentieth centuries, including concepts fixture in the legal landscape. No background or previous study of the religion, history, or of citizenship at the founding of the republic, the development of law of Islam is presumed, so the book’s eleven interdisciplinary chapters are invaluable in married women’s property laws, divorce, child custody, temperance, making the subject accessible. The Second Edition includes Arabic terms, in English, with suffrage, domestic and racial violence before and after the Civil War, diacritical marks to assist in pronunciation; a Glossary of Arabic Terms; recent developments protective labor legislation, and the use of legal history testimony in such as the burkha bans in several countries; and expanded coverage of Islamic finance. legal disputes. This book is an invaluable reference tool.

Save 20% when you use the discount code SUMMER16 until December 1, 2016. For more information and to order these titles, please visit www.cap-press.com.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 88 FROM THE FOUNDERS TO POPE FRANCIS

The Founders and the Bible Debating the Unlocking the Wealth of By Carl J. Richard Obama Presidency Indian Nations “Carl Richard’s lucid and judicious book will Edited by Steven E. Schier Edited by Terry L. Anderson prove an indispensable resource.” “Whether your politi cs are right, left , or center, “The authors provide convincing proof that, —Wilfred M. McClay, University of Oklahoma each essay in this well balanced collecti on will as in the past, property rights and trade are capture your interest.” the keys to unlocking the future wealth of New in Paper —James E. Campbell, author, Indian nati ons.” Heart of the Nation Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America —James Huff man, Lewis & Clark Law School Volunteering and America’s Civic Spirit Contributi ons by Alan I. Abramowitz, Andrew By John M. Bridgeland E. Busch, Peter Juul, Lawrence Korb, William G. “John Bridgeland is a nati onal civic asset and a Mayer, Ruth O’Brien, John J. Pitney, Jr., Danielle Towards an Imperfect Union model public servant.” Pletka, Daniel E. Ponder, Steven E. Schier, A Conservative Case for the EU By Dalibor Rohac —Robert Putnam, Raymond Tatalovich, and John Kenneth White. “There is a conservati ve, freedom-based case The Politics of for the European Union, and this book is the very best place to fi nd it.” Navigating the Contested Spectrum In Our Hands —Tyler Cowen, George Mason University A Plan to Replace the Welfare State By John J. Pitney, Jr. Revised and Updated Edition “A fascinati ng read. Highly recommended.” By Charles Murray —CHOICE “In a world of ti mid prevaricators and The Roots of Pope Francis’s world-weary complacency, thank God for Social and Political Thought Charles Murray.” The Professions and Civic Life Edited by Gary J. Schmitt From Argentina to the Vatican —Andrew Sullivan By Thomas R. Rourke “Anyone who cares about America’s nati onal civic health—and that should be everyone— “Fascinati ng in every way.” Supremely Partisan ought to read this book.” —Thomas Massaro, SJ, Jesuit School of How Raw Politics Tips the Scales in the —David E. Campbell, University of Theology of Santa Clara University, Berkeley United States Supreme Court Notre Dame By James D. Zirin - Foreword by Kermit Roosevelt “A vivid, no-holds-barred portrait of the politi cizati on of the Supreme Court.” —Joseph A. Califano, Jr. www.rowman.com | 800-462-6420 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Taking Terrorism Seriously

t the beginning of the insurgency in iraq, i was in my and that finally we will assert our rights as a nation and accept the local old-guy barbershop when someone said, gravely, “We blood, toil, tears, and sweat necessary to fight with adequate force Alost another boy in Iraq.” But it didn’t take long for the climb- and resolution. ing fatality counts to go unremarked, as in all wars when death be- comes familiar and people are inured to casualties, no matter how onsider the israeli approach to terrorism. with 170 high. miles of open coastline and 632 miles of land borders on the Though statesmen may suffer for their decisions,they are inured Cimmediate other side of which are Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, to calculation. Surveying populations of tens or hundreds of millions, and, at further remove, the militaries of traditional enemies, and they are obliged to put things in ruthless perspective, which is why 1.2 billion “unsympathetic” Muslims—Israel has managed since its in the morning they can send soldiers to cemeteries and sailors to founding to survive and diminish wave after wave of terrorism, de- graves in the sea, and then play golf in the afternoon. They cannot spite a population of 6.4 million Jews, 1.8 million potentially hostile but view planeloads of flag-draped caskets from abroad in the context Arabs, and a GDP of only $305 billion. With great oceans east and of, for example, the roughly 2.5 million Americans who die every west, and a southern border that could and should be made impervi- year (some 43,000 by suicide), or the 14,000 or so murders per an- ous, we, a nation of 330 million with a GDP of $18.2 trillion, can num. Forced to “think big,” they often reach counter-intuitive conclu- certainly do as well or better. sions, and they know the public’s attention span to be measured in Israel controls immigration, and would not admit tens of thou- microns—which is why for decades most Western governments have sands of often angry, traumatized young men from Syria. Nor should tolerated a modus vivendi with terrorism. we. Our borders and coasts should be meticulously controlled. Every A hundred here, a hundred there, every six months or so, among piece of cargo and every airline passenger in the U.S. or headed for 67 million Frenchmen? In America, among hundreds of millions, a it should be thoroughly inspected—including physically—and every dozen here, fifty there, even 3,000—an almostde minimis fraction of shipping container effectively scanned for nukes at sea or in foreign the death toll. Using this logic, the Left believes in its heart of hearts ports. All this would be very expensive, and worth it. that the reaction (war, expenditure, airport lines, surveillance) to an A large proportion of our citizens, like those of Israel and Switzer- imagined threat is the real problem. What they see instead are tens land, should be armed and trained. Mass attacks in Israel tend to of millions of Americans starved to death by millionaires and billion- fizzle when the crowd shoots back. You would hardly believe it, but aires, armies of racist police combing the streets for innocent young such a provision is actually in the U.S. Constitution. Speaking of black men to slaughter, and, of course, the cause of the over-hyped which, constitutional rights should not be afforded to those who take terrorism itself, global warming. up arms against the United States. And Americans—who broadcast George W. Bush deserves credit, if not for the conduct of the Sec- nude pictures of themselves and entrust their records and intimacies ond Gulf War at least for his intuitive understanding that, just as to Google and Facebook—should not recoil at things like govern- with a family, an attack on a nation from without (not to mention ment collection of telephonic metadata, which the telephone compa- terrorist access to weapons of mass destruction) is of far greater mo- nies collect anyway. ment than dissension within. For world-citizen Obama, there is no Finally, and paramountly, the military must be rescued from its without or within, other than that the object is “to fundamentally long decline, so that it can sufficiently deter Russia and China (a -ca transform” the deplorable within to the virtuous without. pacity diminished every day) and so that it can punish terrorists and One would hope that most Americans would eventually realize the regimes that shelter them: at long range, at close range, decisively, that a nation which refuses effective defense and just retaliation without nation-building, if necessary again and again—and with the will sooner or later cease to exist, that we will no longer grow accus- ferocity and resolve of old. In terms of capacity, our cup runneth over. tomed to atrocities perpetrated against our country and the West, As with many things, it is just a matter of will.

Claremont Review of Books w Summer 2016 Page 90 Claremont InstItute Recovering the American Idea

T ON INS M T I E T R U

A T L E

C

W

S

E H

H T O U L R D T T H E S E

Constitution Day Celebration Saturday, September 17, 2016 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Chapman University Kennedy Hall 237AB 1 University Drive Orange, CA 92866

The Claremont Institute invites you to celebrate Constitution Day with Dr. John Eastman and our Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. We will be commemorating the 229th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution with panel discussions and keynote speeches addressing some of the most press- ing threats to our constitutional system. We will also honor the recipient of this year’s Ronald Reagan Juris- prudence Award, Judge Alice Batchelder, during the private luncheon.

• General tickets | $50 • Student tickets | $10 • CLE Credit tickets | $100

Please go to claremont.org/cday to purchase tickets and see a full schedule of the day’s events. New from University of Toronto Press

Economics in the Twenty- First Century Our Battle for the Human A Critical Perspective Spirit by Robert Chernomas and Ian Scientific Knowing, Technical Doing, and Hudson Daily Living Economics in the Twenty-First Century by Willem H. Vanderburg demonstrates what is missing from mainstream economics, why it matters, This book probes into what is happening and how the discipline can better to human life in the beginning of the address the key concerns of our era. 21st century and how technological thinking has influenced our lives.

Manufacturing Phobias The Political Production of Fear in Theory and Practice The Slow Professor edited by Hisham Ramadan and Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Jeff Shantz Academy Manufacturing Phobias demonstrates by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber how economic and political elites The Slow Professor counters the mobilize fears of terrorism, crime, corporatization of higher education migration, invasion, and infection to and shows how the slow approach to twist political and and academic practice can alleviate stress advance their own agendas. while improving teaching, research, and collegiality.

North/South The Great European Divide by Ricardo J. Quinones On Civic Republicanism A fascinating combination of cultural Ancient Lessons for Global Politics and intellectual history, philosophy, edited by Geoffrey C. Kellow and and comparative literature, this book Neven Leddy presents the history of the division of European society and culture along a On Civic Republicanism explores how the North/South axis. ancient concepts of republicanism and civic virtue influence modern questions about political engagement and identity.

utppublishing.com