Inside
Recommended Reading p. 5 Triennial Council to Meet p. 7 Associates Invite Membership Inquiries p. 7 1985-86 Scholars Named . p. 8 Reporter Visiting 5l?e r^ey
VOLUME 50 a NUMBER THREE a SPRING 1985
DID THE 1984 ELECTION SIGNAL MAJOR PARTY REALIGNMENT?
by Nelson W. Polsby
"leaners" Rarely in American history do we see the responses of (people who Consistently, over the past 30, the sort of earthquake that breaks claim that they don't identify with a 40, or 50 years, the Democratic up a dominant political coalition and party but say they lean toward one or the been the brings to power a new majority that, in other) are distributed, and the degree of party has majority "bandwagon" turn, is sustained over a long series of publicity at the moment. party in this country by elections. When people talk about party But even today, the stability of these virtually any measure, and by realignment, they usually mean some relationships is quite remarkable: on the most measures the Democrats thing like what happened in the 1930s, whole, more Americans identify them when Franklin Roosevelt forged the New selves as Democrats than Republicans, are the majority party in the Deal coalition that still more or dom and about one-third with neither less identify nation today. inates American politics. party. Both parties have lost ground to "neither" Starting with Dwight Eisenhower's vic the category over the years tory in 1952 and continuing after almost the Republicans have lost slightly more shortly. The very next report under the evt^y presidential election since, some "old" same auspices, in January 1985, showed body has proclaimed that the New the Democrats on again. Deal coalition has disappeared and that a top The figures are not much different for Republican majority is emerging. After party registration. to a the election of 1980, with Ronald Rea According Gallup poll in April 1984, 43 percent of the re gan's landslide in the electoral college, spondents said were registered these voices were heard again. Although they Democrats, 30 percent said were somewhat muted after the midterm elec they registered Republicans, and 27 percent tion of 1982 when the Democrats recov said they were independents or declined ered smartly, the proclamations are back to say. After the big registration drives of in full force now, responding to the even the the results to the ABC- bigger landslide that President Reagan fall, according Washington Post poll were 37 percent won in 1984. 26 percent and So I propose to review the evidence on Democrats, Republicans, 32 percent independents. party realignment, beginning with a look voters' (continued on page 2) at expressions ofparty preference (party identification), at their party reg istrations, and at actual voting outcomes. Welcome: 12,100 New Phi Beta Kappa Members With this issue, The Key Reporter with Dwight Nelson W. Polsby Starting welcomes an estimated 12,100 new Eisenhower's victory in 1952, than the Democrats, and the Democrats members of Phi Beta Kappa, se after have lost their big bulge in numbers as lected 234 chapters nationwide. somebody, nearly every by sociated with Watergate. So today party Because enrollment in liberal stud presidential election, has identifications stand about where "old" they ies has been generally declining, Phi proclaimed that the New were in 1940, at the end of Franklin Beta Kappa has been selecting Deal coalition has disappeared Roosevelt's second term. roughly 500 fewer new members Out of the hundreds of polls on each year. and that a Republican majority party identification I have seen, there has been You will receive The Key Reporter is emerging. only one reputable tabulation in which free for as long as you keep us in the Republicans came out ahead of Dem formed ofyour address. We hope you ocrats in party identification: the will read and enjoy this publication. Over the past 40 years when Ameri CBS-New York Times poll published on Readers who wish to comment on cans have been questioned about the November 19, 1984. With the leaners something in this issue or on any party with which they identified, slightly distributed, the results showed 47 per aspect of liberal studies are invited fewer than halfhave said they were Dem cent Republicans, 44 percent Democrats, to write to the editor at 1811 Q St. ocrats and one-third, Republicans. Over and 8 percent independents. This Repub N.W., Washington, DC 20009. the years, the numbers have varied with lican advantage no doubt a bandwagon And when you move, be sure to let effect of the election the way the question is asked, the way disappeared us have vour new address. www.pbk.org ELECTION (continued from page 1) that had first come into existence in New Voters Measures of actual election outcomes 1932.
realignment- include state legislative and gubernato But Carter was a southerner, and, ex Another indicator to the rial seats and congressional seats. Before cept for 1976, southern white voters have watcher is what is happening to new vot the 1984 election, 4,624 ofthe 7,363 state pretty much deserted Democratic presi ers. There are two theories of realign legislators (63 percent) were Democrats. dential candidates. This is the big change ment: The first, which practically no se The Republicans gained about 300 seats in the Democratic coalition. The erosion rious student of the matter believes, is in the elections, leaving the Democrats of the so-called Solid South has been go that wholesale attitude changes take with 59 percent after the Republican ing on for a long time; Strom Thurmond place among voters, who become disen landslide. As Governor Pete du Pont of ran strongly for president in the South as chanted with one party and allow them Delaware put it, "Ofthe 6,243 state legis a third-party candidate in 1948, and selves to be driven into the other. Obvi lative seats contested in 1984, Repub George Wallace has since. ously, some of this movement is going on
percent." licans lost 58 Republicans now In the House of Representatives, for all the time, as the example ofTrent Lott control only 32 of the 98 state legislative example, after the election of 1960, only 7 indicates. But this is generally thought chambers. Republicans occupied any of the 106 to be swamped by another effect, the mo Before the 1984 elections there were 35 seats allocated to the 11 states of the old bilization of new voters. The New Deal Democratic governors and 15 Republican Confederacy. Most of these were moun got enormous strength from northern governors. After the Reagan landslide, tain Republicans, who came from places black voters who had never voted in the there are 34 Democratic governors and like eastern Kentucky and Tennessee South and hence were new voters, from 16 Republican governors. and western Virginia, where the seces immigrant women who had been granted Between Dwight Eisenhower's initial sion of a century earlier had been un the right to vote in 1920 but never ex election in and 1952 the election of 1984, popular and people had voted Republican ercised it until they had an opportunity 7,392 elections for seats in the House of ever since. There were a few suburban to vote for Al Smith eight years later, and Representatives were held, and the Dem Republican southern seats: as air condi from new voters by virtue of age. ocrats won 4,372 (59 percent) of them. In tioning made the South more habitable recent years, voting for Congress has year round and industry grew, north been more evenly divided than that, but erners migrated southward and settled So there has been realignment the formula for votes seats some as in turning into in Sun Belt suburbs, to retire, in the South, toward the has helped the Democrats. Republicans the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Flor Republican the have been helped in the same way in the ida, and some to work as engineers and party, making Senate, and yet over the same period, insurance and banking paper handlers, South a lot more like the rest of there have been 1,540 contests as and number for Senate in Dallas Atlanta. A fair the country. seats, with 901 Democratic winners (58.5 of these people brought their Republican percent). Even in 1980, when the Repub voting habits with them. licans took control of the Senate for the In time, conservative Democrats So according to this second theory, new first time in 26 years, the votes for Demo learned that you could vote Republican voters are a good population group to cratic senatorial candidates surpassed in federal elections and God would not examine for signs of party realignment. those for Republican candidates by more strike you dead. By 1980, 30 House seats In 1980, this group seems to have divided than 3 million. A similar pattern ap from the old Confederacy were held by about evenly between the parties. For peared in 1982; when all 33 or so Senate Republicans by people like Trent Lott 1984, the numbers for young people, not races are ranked by the margin ofvictory of Pascagoula, Mississippi, who had been quite the same as the numbers for all new of the winners, 13 Democrats appear at legislative aide to his predecessor, a con voters, show a 60-40 split for Reagan very the top of the chart and 9 Republicans servative Democrat, and Newt Gingrich similar to the split in the population at and 1 Democrat at the bottom. In 1984 of suburban Atlanta, originally a good large. People who registered for the first that pattern did not appear, but Demo old boy college professor from New Jer time in 1984 also voted 60 to 40 for Rea crats registered a net gain of 2 seats. sey, of all places. gan, but voters who first registered be It is evident, therefore, that con tween 1980 and 1983 divided evenly in sistently over the past 30, 40, or 50 years, the presidential voting. the Democratic party has been the ma In time, conservative These numbers support realignment a jority party in this country by virtually [southern] Democrats learned little, but not a lot; young voters nor any measure, and by most measures the mally exaggerate rather than merely that you could vote Republican Democrats are the majority party in the mirror trends in the general population. in federal elections and nation today. Comparable figures among new voters by God would not strike you dead. reason of age in 1964, a Democratic land slide year, show the Democrats getting 88 percent of the presidential vote. But Some Changes Have But as Republicans did better, so did liberal Democrats. Although the number Occurred The Presidential Results of southern Republicans in the House This does not mean, however, that quadrupled in 20 years, the number of If the Democrats are doing so well, why there have been no changes over that conservatives stayed the same. In both all this talk of realignment? Perhaps the period. The classic New Deal coalition 1960 and 1980, one-quarter of the south answer is that at the presidential level, consisted of blacks in the North 50 ern Democrats were mainstream Demo they aren't doing so well. Since 1952, years ago, of course, blacks weren't vot crats or and most of liberals, the time Republicans have won six of the nine in the South plus Jews, urban eth voted with the rest of the ing they House presidential elections, and more re nics of all sorts, Catholics, poor people, Democrats. The Republicans replaced cently, they have won four out of the last labor union members and their families, conservative mostly Democrats. So there five. Suppose we view Republican success and southerners. In 1976, each of these has been realignment in the South, to at the presidential level not as a matter of partially groups gave ma ward the Republican overlapping party, making the party realignment but as a phenomenon jorities to Carter, who was elected South a lot more like the rest of of Jimmy the voting defection from a Democratic president by the old New Deal coalition country. norm?
THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org _ -Realignment Argu This seems to fit the Eisenhower vic poll said they voted for Reagan because 2. The Not-Yet not-yet- mentProponents of the tories of 1952 and 1956 tolerably well. he was a conservative. All this fortifies on Ike received years of nonpartisan na the view that it isn't the Republican realignment school of thought focus appear be shift tional publicity as a war hero. Moreover, party's attractiveness to Democrats but public attitudes that to Democrats' just as the new biographical studies reveal, rather the inability to get ing toward the Republican, or maybe he worked hard to maintain his over together that seems to be causing the toward the conservative, part ofthe spec Democrats whelming popularity. But Eisenhower's bulk of the defections from party voting trum, depending on how the Although Mondale landslides didn't greatly help other Re visible at the presidential level. position themselves. publicans get elected. He carried a nar ran a moderate campaign once he was rowly Republican Congress into office on nominated, he did not look like a mod nail down his coattails only once, in 1952, and that Effects of the 1984 Election erate when he was trying to and the poll data majority evaporated after the 1954 on Party Realignment the nomination, election. strongly suggest this image hurt him Observers disagree about the effects of considerably. the 1984 election on the prospects for
realignment. to one Suppose we view Republican party According school of thought, ideological revolution The Republican success at the presidential level party, by is brewing and the electorate is moving philosophically , not as a matter ofparty en masse toward the Republicans. Ac defining itself to a second there is ideo be realignment but as a cording school, may actually retarding logical movement, or at least a mobil movement into its ranks. phenomenon of voting ization of nonliberal sentiment on some defection from a Democratic issues, but it is not yet clear that Repub norm? licans will be the sole beneficiaries of the Back in 1982 and 1983, Mondale actu new configuration. According to a third ally beat President Reagan in most ofthe view, stability still outweighs change in public opinion surveys. What happened But how do we explain the Republican the electoral system. in the meantime? The economic news
presidential victories in the elections of 1. The Ideological Revolution Argu improved; we cut our losses and got President 1968, 1972, 1980, and 1984? Evidently ment A recent Washington Post article troops out of Lebanon; the picture taken at it's not so much that Republicans win lined up some survey evidence suggest went to China to get his presidential elections as that Democrats ing that public attitudes are shifting: the Great Wall; and we had a splendid lose them. Richard Nixon was not what Twice as many poll respondents little war with Grenada. Meanwhile people are too Mondale to endure an anybody would call an overwhelmingly worried that getting had unbelievably popular candidate in 1968. The big politi much welfare as worried that peo grueling delegate selection process, with cal events of that miserable year had to ple are getting too little, and this Gary Hart mobilizing Yuppies against voted presi and Jackson his do with the Democratic party's tearing majority 3 to 1 for the him Jesse preempting itself apart on national television, the dent. normal base of support among black vot respondents go hat in in long-drawn-out and incredibly hostile Sixty-two percent of ers. Mondale had to hand, "special" said government done to the labor to primary season, the abrupt and late the had public, unions, withdrawal of President Johnson, two enough or too much to help black interests, to the National Organization of assassinations and the associated riots, people, and these voters were for Women indeed, to anyone who would the police riot at the Chicago Democratic the president 68 to 20 percent. listen to his case. Various glitches in the worried about a Jackson campaign given convention, and so on. Despite all that, More voters were may have Jews Hubert Humphrey almost won the elec Communist takeover in Central an opportunity to reconsider their com were worried about mitment and also have tion. When he lost, the Democratic party America than to Mondale may in its wisdom formed a commission that American involvement in a war mobilized white resistance instituted a series of reforms that have there, and those who were worried to the Democrats. communism supported Rea more or less guaranteed party disunity in about their presidential process gan 70 to 20 percent. nominating over the Democrats premature call these If, time, ever since. It seems to me to also persist in The statistics are revealing: From numbers evidence ofrealignment. Amer defining 1952 to always the icans have not in the past been sym 1968, Republicans, themselves philosophically, cohesive and smaller pathetic to Communist takeovers or to more ideologically shove people out, expenditures. that the they may of the two major parties, defected from welfare I believe indicate that Presi thus to what Republican presidential voting at the numbers more likely contributing appeal has an ideological rate of 10 percent, Democrats, at the rate dent Reagan's some analysts have taken to 1972 Repub component that puts the Democratic of 18 percent. From to 1980, calling dealignment rather popular If that lican defections remained rock steady at party at a disadvantage. than realignment. disadvantage persists over as a new 9 percent, whereas voting defection among time, generation of voters enters the elector Democrats shot up to three times that then realignment could occur. But The Democratic nomination process level. In 1984, the story was almost the ate, no evidence that happened even as now organized one same: Reagan persuaded more than 90 there is it has healthy step Republican backward from the extremes of the Mc- percent of the Republicans to vote for yet except in the South. The itself Govern reforms still provide a rec him, whereas Walter Mondale lost about party, by defining philosophically, may movement ipe for Republicans. a quarter of the Democrats. may actually be retarding electing Actually "wrong" ranks. over the Demo the Democratic can These statistics don't seem to reflect into its If, time, nominating crats also persist in themselves didate one who is not the authentic ideological change in the population; not defining shove people choice ofmost Democrats because ofpe many more people say they are conserva philosophically, they may out of their thus to culiarities of the reformed decision tives today than was the case 15 years ranks, contributing accord what some analysts have taken to process is only one problem. The ago. Only a tiny group 4 percent calling making dealignment rather than realignment. Democrats didn't go down that road this ing to the CBS-New York Times exit
SPRING 1985 www.pbk.org time. The other problem is putting the and by 434 electoral votes, the Democrats "right" winner even the winner gained 2 Senate and 37 House seats. through a public ordeal in such divisive That's what Democratic landslide se circumstances that staff burnout, bad quences look like: when the presidential <\ /cfiolor publicity, and disaffected voters are candidate does well, the party does well. inevitable. Republican sequences follow a differ At any rate, the evidence of negative ent pattern. Eisenhower's great popular ideological drift is beginning to accumu victory in 1956 gave him a net advantage late. Negative ratings began to build up of 384 electoral votes and a 15 percent on Mondale during the campaign. Repub popular vote margin over Adlai Steven licans, not Democrats, as traditionally son. But the Republicans made no net was the case, became the party best able gains in the Senate and had a net loss of 2 to manage prosperity. What, we may well seats in the House. In 1972, Nixon won by A few words 503 electoral votes and 23 percent of the Republicans picked popular vote, yet up about our only 7 seats in the House and Democrats CE The Democratic nomination gained 2 Senate seats. zu editor . . . process even as now organized Reagan's 1984 victory was similar 512 electoral votes and an 18 percent one healthy step backward margin in the popular vote yet the from the extremes of the Democrats picked up 2 Senate seats and reforms still McGovern may had a net loss of only 14 seats in the provide a recipe for electing House. In 1980, when Reagan's personal margin Repub Republicans. was only 10 percent, the In a review of Joseph Epstein's new book, licans gained 12 Senate seats (most of Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Jonathan "Three them by very close margins) and 23 Writing. Yardley says, cheersenthusiastic and grateful ones House seats. But this was not a realign for Joseph Epstein He is. for me, a 'special ask, could the American people be ment, or even much of a mandate, as we telling one whose prose style I admire us when perceive Ronald Reagan as discovered at the midterm election when they . appear without reservation , . His essays a leader on of net strong top his job? I believe the Democrats bounced back with a most frequently in The American Scholar, that such a response reflects the harmo gain of 26 House seats. Commentary, and 77?e New Criterion in the of which he is seem most nious front that Republicans were able to International quiescence, sometimes first, editor, they " at home (Washington Post. February produce in the president's behalf and, known as peace, and an economic upturn, 20,1985) even more, the cacaphony of the Demo also known as prosperity, seem to be good home" Indeed, Joe Epstein has been "at cratic nomination process, in which the for incumbents incumbent presidents in the pages of fhe Scholar for almost 10 eventual nominee was buffeted around and incumbent members of Congress years Under the name Aristides, his writing and made to look weak. alike. In 1984, these two conditions brings sociological observation and litera together graceful 3. The No-Realignment Position helped the president, a Republican, re ture in a witty and manner Epsteins considerable talents, Arguments for the third, the no-realign main in office and they helped the Demo combined with an outstanding editorial ment, school of thought, include these: crats retain control of the House. And board, have made the Scholar more widely The 1984 election was not an unusual also seem to have delayed the party they read than any other quarterly |0urnal in its election. Over the past 50 years we have realignment that at least some political field had 14 presidential elections, 10 of which analysts have awaited since 1952. A years subscription to the Scholar is have been part of what could be called a just $15 ($14 if you include payment with issue "landslide In the first election your order). Join us for the latest lust complete and return the form below in the sequence, a candidate gets elected start Nelson W. is professor political sci and looking forward to many president. The second time around, he Polsby of pleasurable hours of in the year ence at the of California, Berkeley. reading a personal triumph. That University wins resounding ahead! His recent books include Consequences of happened to Roosevelt in 1936; to Eisen Party Reform. Political Innovation in Amer hower in 1956; to Johnson, in standing ica, and. with Aaron Wildavsky, Presidential for in 1964; to Nixon in 1972; an version Kennedy, Elections. This article is abridged of r and to Reagan in 1984. Seen in this light, one of the talks he gave this year as a Phi Beta 1984 does not seem so unusual. Kappa Visiting Scholar. It is also interesting to note that when American Sdtplaf these landslide sequences happen to Department 3 Democrats, big things usually happen U.S. HISTORIAN JOINS 1811 Q Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009 further down the ticket. That's a little BOOK COMMITTEE at of hard to see in 1936, because the time Please enter subscription to the Scholar Richard N. Current has recently been ap my held 69 ofthe for the term checked below. the election, the Democrats pointed to the Book Committee to recommend
96 Senate seats and 322 of the 435 House books in U.S. history. Current is the author or D 1 year $15 ($14 payment with order) seats, in part because ofthe results ofthe coauthor of 20 books, among them Lincoln the Q 3 years $36 ($33 payment with order) President: Last midterm election of 1934, which was the Full Measure, which was Add $3.00 per year for Canadian and awarded a Bancroft Prize. He midterm election in the 20th cen has taught at only foreign postage; please allow 6-8 weeks the universities of Illinois (Urbana-Cham- tury in which the president's party for delivery of first issue paignl, Wisconsin (Madisoni, and North Caro seats. Even so, in the picked up 1936, ? Payment enclosed ? Please bill me lina (Greensborol. He has also served as Democrats won 1 1 more House seats and Harmsworth Professor at the University of Name . 6 more Senate seats to go with Roose Oxford and as a Fulbright Lecturer at the electoral votes velt's advantage of 515 universities of Munich and Chile (Santiago). Address _ margin. In and a 25 percent popular vote He holds degrees from Oberlin College, the Gold- City -State . 1964, when Johnson beat Barry Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and -Zip. popular vote the of Wisconsin. water by 23 percent in the University
THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org light- pretentious, shrewd, imaginative, now hearted, now intense in feeling. recommended the book committee reading by After Innocence: Visions of the Fall in Modern Literature. Terrv Often. Pittsburgh humanities FREDERICK J. ROBERT B. CROSSON, HEILMAN, Univ., 1982. $19.95. ROBERT P. SONKOWSKY, LAWRENCE WILLSON Using a Blakean view of the Fall as a fortu social sciences EARL W. COUNT, RICHARD N. CURRENT, LEONARD W. DOOB, nate escape into experience and knowledge, ANDREW GYORGY, MADELINE R. ROBINTON, Often finds this pattern in fiction by Lewis VICTORIA SCHUCK, ANNA J. SCHWARTZ Carroll, James, Conrad, Hesse, Golding, and natural sciences RONALD GEBALLE, RUSSELL B. STEVENS Dickey, and in plays by Miller and Albee. The Edenic parallels are not always convincing. The writing, though not elegant, is brisk and lucid. FREDERICK J. CROSSON The Thread of Life. Richard Wollheim. Har vard Univ., 1984. $20. Milton's Eye. Diane Kelsey McColley. Illi Time and Narrative. Paul Ricoeur. Chicago An unusual work by a philosopher who has nois Univ., 1983. $17.50. Univ., 1984. $25. previously written on art and on Freud and McColley brilliantly and persuasively rein This first volume of a two-volume study who here addresses what it means to be a terprets Eve as an independent and intelligent pairs the author's earlier Rule of Metaphor, person. He focuses not on the person or the life woman, and undermines romantic readings of which showed how metaphor creates a new but on the process: what is it to lead a life of a Milton's poem as an unintended celebration of semantic dimension and discloses unsus person? In so doing he criticizes and escapes profitable disobedience. McColley writes with pected meanings in the world, with an analy from the rather dessicated analyses of re great learning and amiability, and her style is sis of how the plot of narrative temporalizes lational theories of personhood and incor admirably open and unaffected. and finds in history. Ricoeur draws porates the range of concerns with which our meaning Joseph Conrad: A Chronicle. Zdzislaw Naj- on Augustine and Aristotle and on theories of personal lives struggle, with our future, with der. Tr. by Halina Carroll-Najder. Rutgers, historiography and of human action to weave moral values, with knowing ourselves. The 1983. $30; paper, $14.95. a detailed argument for the of fundamental perspective is psychoanalytic rich, centrality Conrad Under Familial Eyes. Ed. by Zdzis narrative to history (contra the Annates and naturalistic and seems to me to leave law Najder. Tr. by Halina Carroll-Najder. school). A grand and lacunae, but the manner and substance are truly encompassing Cambridge Univ., 1983. $37.50. work. thoughtful and original. Najder's long biography holds the reader throughout. Using new materials, Najder cor Objectivity and Cultural Divergence. Ed. Spinoza on Nature. James Collins. Southern rects earlier biographers, identifies Conrad as by S. C. Brown. Cambridge Univ., 1984. Illinois Univ., 1984. $32. a manic-depressive, points out his roman $12.95. If in one sense Spinoza reduced everything, ticizing tendencies (in fiction and auto A series of papers concerned with (1) the including God, to nature, in another he raised biography), evaluates his works, and gives difficulties for cross-cultural study in the everything to the level of nature, the encom fine portraits ofmany friends and associates of social sciences from the need to under whole within which all else was to be arising passing Conrad. stand alien cultures as they understand them understood. Collins construes the whole of the The materials collected in Conrad Under selves and (2) the philosophical problems of Spinozan writing from this perspective, show Familial Eyes (many translated for the first objectivity and relativism. Sociobiology, com how it leads from resolving the Cartesian ing time) appeal to the general reader as well as parative religion, and anthropology exemplify circle by the Cartesian notion of substance to the scholar. They clarify Conrad's Polish back the former; issues of the nature of science and the assimilation of scriptural criticism and ground (excerpts from his uncle's memoirs, of ethical objectivity, the latter. The writing is scientific discovery. Not easy reading, but a letters by his parents, legal documents) and clear, the ideas are stimulating, and the topic magisterial interpretation. shed light on his later life in England (remi is important for our self-understanding. niscences by Polish visitors and essays by Pol ish critics). Religion and Politics in the Modern ROBERT B. HEILMAN World. Ed. by Peter H. Merkl and Ninian Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller. Smart. New York Univ., 1983. $30. The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Judith Thurman. St. Martin's, 1983. Paper, The relationship between nationalism and Century: The Religion of Rabelais. Lucien $9.95. religion is as potent today in many parts ofthe Febvre. Tr. by Beatrice Gottlieb. Harvard, Thurman's excellent biography, massive world as it ever was, and this collection of 1982. $35. but never heavy, traces the interplay of an essays reminds us that we cannot discount its Febvre's 1942 book shows that Rabelais and unusual life and an unusual art. Born into a significance if we hope to understand our glo his contemporaries did not and could not antic Danish family of somewhat Buddenbrooksian bal neighbors. Pakistan, Israel, Poland, and ipate modern skepticism and unbelief. Febvre's cast, Karen Blixen married a baron, ran a Northern Ireland are some of the instances erudition is immense, and his style unceas coffee farm in Kenya, and produced her first examined here. The authors also attempt to ingly clear and lively an almost unique join book at age 49. trace some more general theoretical perspec ing of scholarship, freshness, and vivacity. tives on the linkage between religion and na Plays. Marguerite Yourcenar. Tr. from the tionhood. Informative and thought-provoking. French by Dori Katz. Performing Arts Journal The Wider Sea: A Life of John Ruskin. Publications, 1984. $18.95; paper, $7.95. A Glimpse of Sion's Glory. Philip F. Gura. John Dixon Hunt. Viking, 1982. $25. A full-length play on Fascist Italy and three Wesleyan Univ., 1984. $29.95. Hunt presents Ruskin almost day by day one-acts reinterpreting the Electra and Min
crawling" Perry Miller's New England Mind ac with "cruel, pace and prose. But otaur stories and an Andersen fairy tale share quainted us with the dominant Puritan ortho gradually there emerges a fascinating picture liveliness, originality, and a persistent sense doxy of the 17th century and its influence on of a strange genius precocious and priggish of the modes of self-interest, often uncon the revolutionary ethos of the northern col child, polymath, mineralogist, botanist, weird scious, that ironically shape both historical onies. Gura qualifies and enriches our under husband, original art and social critic, driven and mythical situations. standing through this discussion of the role of educator, reformer, Utopian, and finally the radical groups spawned by the emphasis madman. The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Gustave on the inner light of the Spirit. Anabaptists, Flaubert. Tr. by Kitty Mrosovskv. Penguin, Levellers, Antinomians, and other splinter 1983. $4.95. congregations thrived on the primacy of the Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Jour Flaubert worked for 25 years on this story of Harvard- individual's religious experience over tra nals. Ed. by Leslie A. Marchand. a saint's life, which he made a picturesque. dition and ecclesiastical authority, and rad Belknap, 1982. $17.50. and often grotesque, portrayal of many philo icalized the issue of democratic reform of the Marchand has skimmed the cream off 12 sophic and religious figures and their ideas. established religiosity. A careful, enlight rich volumes of correspondence and journals The fluent translation is accompanied by volu roots of the American a great letter-writer and diarist candid minous notes and a ening study of the by long introduction on the experience. about self and others, witty, unaffected, un sources, context, and criticism of the fiction.
SPRING 1985 www.pbk.org research ROBERT P. SONKOWSKY pagan methods. Before Constantine became a reader to the complexity of scientific mass media Christian, stories ofmiracles seem to MacMul and the risks of depending on Oedipus: The Ancient Legend and Its len to be most effective in recruiting converts; alone for information. Later Analogues. Lowell Edmunds. Johns after that, the yearning for financial security Hopkins, 1985. $26.50. Crusaders for Fitness: The History of seems central. Even though direct testimony Antigones: How the Antigone Legend Has American Health Reformers. James C. is he deduces for understandably lacking, it, Whorton. 1982. Endured in Western Literature, Art, and Princeton, $19.50; paper, example, from tax breaks for Christians. He Thought. George Steiner. 1984. $9.95. Oxford, also sees a role for intimidation, forceful co $19.95. If nothing else, Whorton provides in this ercion, and Christian powers of per uniquely volume a welcome antidote to the current Here are two gifts to the growing number of suasion derived from a monotheism that re "natural." national hysteria for things As a us who study Classical traditions. Both books duced other gods to mere demons. His style is biomedical he with just inspect members of the same legendary fam historian, examines, generally lively and occasionally indulges in perhaps the most famous from antiquity, enough light-hearted running commentary, ily, colloquialism. salty the from 1830 onward which a but the approaches are diametrically and in century during Edmunds' structively different. approach is succession of health reforms were vigorously promoted their adherents. Not that all that of a Classicist applying folkloristic tech The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to by the fads from Graham through niques to the legend. Steiner's is, of course, Homer's Iliad. Seth L. Schein. California crackers, veg that of the creative critic, one of the world's Univ., 1984. $22. etarian diets and body building, to bicycling most noted. A clear summary of relevant scholarship were wholly without value. Indeed, many had About four-fifths of the first book is a col and criticism on Homer's Iliad and an in a certain merit, but it was the unswerving and lection of medieval and modern folk stories, tegrated, balanced exposition, in its own right, enthusiastic belief of their promoters that which are analogous to the ancient legend of of the artistry with which the poet handles the near-total salvation lay in pursuit of this or Oedipus, from Europe, the Near East, Africa, essential moral issues of the poem. This very that special program that lent an atmosphere the Carolines, the Antilles, and Puerto Rico. readable account will give any pursuer of of absurdity to the whole episode. The reader will benefit from reading the an Homer, whether in Greek on in translation, a Control: cient versions ofthe legend, and especially the useful framework for understanding the The Myth of Population Family, Man- analogues, before reading the introduction, values that define the heroic and social worlds Caste, and Class in an Indian Village. which is an analysis of the legend itself con ofAchilles, Hector, and those bound with them mood Mamdani. Monthly Review, 1972. $7.50. ceived in the abstract and manifesting itselfas in life and death, and for appreciating Homer's One small village in one country during one a set of motifs dealing with the child offolklore artistic focus upon the inextricably linked period can hardly be generalized to the per who overcomes all obstacles to achieve great beauty and sorrow of those lives and deaths. vasive issue of population pressures and con ness as a villain (e.g., Judas) or a hero (e.g.. trol, and the author makes no such pretense. Pope Gregory!. Edmunds contrasts this folk At the same time, this account makes a com loristic description of the narrative with the pelling case for rethinking some of the con RUSSELL B. STEVENS place of Oedipus in Freud, Propp, and Levi- cepts and policies that have pervaded accepted Strauss, showing how each made use ofcertain Pluto's Republic. Peter Medawar. Oxford, dogma in this critical matter for some time. aspects of the legend to support his own 1982. $25. The exposition projects a commendable sense thought, as Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube: An of authenticity. had done before him. Autobiography. S. E. Luria. Harper & Row, Steiner's treatment of the Antigone-Creon 1984. $17.95. The Dose Makes the Poison: A Plain- tale focuses chiefly on the issues of society and Alexander Fleming: The Man and the Language Guide to Toxicology. M. Alice the individual that occur in literature, art, and Myth. Gwyn Macfarlane. Harvard, 1984. $20. Ottoboni. Vincente Books, Berkeley, 1984. life. All that Edmunds steers clear of the Although these three volumes are hardly of $15.95; paper, $9.95. literary, philosophical, and mythological a kind each merits attention for its own Early on in this relatively slender volume, toxicology," Steiner encompasses, tracing and interpreting sake there remains, I think, a strong ration the author speaks of "news-media Sophocles' successive transformations of An ale for grouping them. For each in its own way a phenomenon of which there has been vastly tigone in the minds of Hegel. Holderlin, Kier contributes to furthering informed and in too much in the recent decade or two. Would readers' kegaard, Anouilh, Brecht, Cocteau, and many quiring understanding of the way that all who contribute to the strident accusa others. Whereas Edmunds sees the limited scientists go about their business and few tions and counteraccusations so common in number of analogues to the Oedipus tale as intellectual pursuits are more critically recent years would take to heart the basic calling into question claims for its "worldwide needed today. message Dr. Ottoboni sets forth that abso
occurrence" and for the universality of the Medawar has provided, in his usual lively lutes are rare, and that few substances are Oedipus complex, Steiner emphasizes the uni prose, a variety of essays, some new, some either wholly dangerous or wholly benign. As versal vitality ofthe Antigone tale, suggesting reprinted from earlier sources, on science in she calmly and persuasively points out, it all that its power lives even in our own minds, relation to other human activities. Anyone depends on amount, on timing, on sensitiv syntax, and behavior. He has watched others who has been brought up on the highly mis ity, and so on. A thoroughly useful and timely and himself interpreting the Sophoclean text leading notions of the scientific method, as book. and its interpretations, and sets forth his pro extolled in the usual classroom and textbook vocative ideas in a prose so rich and supple treatments, will do well to read Medawar Fifth Anniversary Issue, Science 84, vol. 5, that the reader feels encouraged to grasp con thoughtfully and thereby come to a clearer no. 9 (Nov. '84) Ed. by Allen L. Hammond. tinuities between literature and life and to understanding of what it is all about. Amer. Assoc, for Advan. of Science, $2. strive for transcendent realms them. work as an beyond Luria's is, titled, autobiography. Virtually all the space in this anniversary Thus it tells, in the main, how one successful issue of the periodical initiated by the AAAS scientist came to do what he did and think as about 5 years ago is devoted to vignettes under Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. he does. It is necessary and instructive to be the general title "20 Discoveries That Shaped Lives." MacMullen. 1984. reminded that science non- 100-400. Ramsay Yale, is done by real people, Our Few persons, scientists or with all the $18. diversity, strengths, and weak scientists, can fail to be thrilled by this ex This is a new and analysis of the nesses that this fact implies. refreshing The story is position of the near-incredible diversity of the question of Christian and old and important why frankly told convincing, although his problems and the products of human ingenu succeeded in the Roman Empire and on ity early commentary the political arena is perhaps ity and endeavor. triumphed over other cults. MacMullen stead of little significance to the basic message. fastly examines the evidence, which he admits Finally, the biography of Fleming, which, ANDREW GYORGY is meager, from historical, rather than theo despite the blurbs on the dust cover, is gener logical, perspectives. Both the description of ally sympathetic, makes available in sub Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Poli approach and his prose style show high stantial an his detail account that for the most tics and History Since 1917. Stephen F. Co sensitivity to difficulties and possible preju part is unknown. The contrast between the hen. Oxford, 1985. $17.95. dices. From the records he posits a mixture of popular legend of penicillin's discovery and This brilliantly written book presents a "revisionist" motives for the ordinary religious conversion, the full of this remarkable compound story truly recasting of our Western similarities and between Christian should awaken even the most old- showing uninformed stereotypes and forcefully attacks the
THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org fashioned perceptions of the Soviet Union and Phi Beta Kappa Associates Invite Membership Inquiries other Communist countries. This reviewer was particularly impressed by the author's Ifyou were asked what John D. Rocke non Landon, an Indianapolis banker, and skillful, even respectful, demolition of the so- feller, Jr., Sylvia Porter, Charles Evans Dave Hennen Morris, former ambassa called Totalitarian which has been Model, the Hughes, Marjorie Hope Nicolson, and dor to Belgium. Twelve others took part beginning point of all Sovietologists since Richard Lugar have in common, you in the organizational meeting. The first World War II. Emphatically recommended for would no doubt take account of the fact of what was to become a series of notable the Soviet specialist, but probably of great that the question was asked in The annual dinner-meetings took place in interest to the general reading public as well. Key Reporter and answer correctly: member December 1940 in New York City, at The Warsaw Pact: Alliance in Transition? ship in Phi Beta Kappa. Beyond that, which time 80 founder members were Ed. by David Holloway and Jane M. O. Sharp. however, you might not know that they elected and the group was addressed by 1984. $29.95. Cornell, all were or are members of a special group Count Carlo Sforza on "The Challenge to the most up-to-date Democracy." Certainly and compre known as the Phi Beta Kappa Associates. The New York Times of De hensive review of the Warsaw organiza Treaty The are not known cember observed that "the "must" Associates widely 20, 1940, tion, this book is reading for interested among the general membership of the group plans to point out by precept and scholars in the field, not to mention the De Society because they conduct their busi example that genuine devotion to public fense Department, which could particularly Relations." high cultural benefit from Part II: "Intra-Pact ness unostentatiously. Nevertheless, service should accompany ideals." have played and continue to an and intellectual The Associates The essays by Malcolm Mackintosh, Christo they play pher D. Jones, and Stephen Larrabee are espe important role in the life of Phi Beta have never lost sight of this intention. cially noteworthy. Kappa. Founded in 1940, the Associates pledged themselves to build an organ A Distinguished Group The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era. Ed. by ization whose chief purpose would be to Erik P. Hoffmann and Robin F. Laird. Aldine, provide a living endowment for the So The membership at the start included 1984. $49.95. ciety, and this they have done. leaders in business and the professions This important tome covers many areas of "polity" among them Allan Nevins, the distin Soviet life and that usually remain Associates' guished historian; Eugene Meyer, pub unexplored by Kremlinologists. More a gen The Plan of Washington Owen D. eral reference work than a textbook or case lisher the Post; study, this book will be a valuable addition to Their plan from the outset was straight Young, honorary chairman of the Gen the bookshelf of the Soviet expert. This re forward: 200 members were to be en eral Electric Company; and Roscoe viewer liked the thoughtful es of Harvard Law particularly rolled, each one committing himself or Pound, former dean the says Richard Robin F. by Lowenthal, Laird, herselfto an annual contribution of $100 School. Other eminent Americans who Feshbach, and Blair Ruble. Murray for a period of 10 years. At the end of that joined the Associates at the time of the "regular" or include Lin Soviet in Eastern Europe. Ed. period, a member would be founding subsequently Policy by "life" coln Eli Bernard Sarah Meiklejohn Terry. Yale, 1984. $27.50. come a member, making way for Filene, Lilly, Baruch, Mrs. Dwight Claude This superbly edited book is the latest and the admission of another regular mem Whitney Morrow, Samuel R. and James R. probably most valuable contribution to the ber. Thus approximately $20,000 a year Pepper, Pierce, mushrooming literature on East-West rela would be contributed to Phi Beta Kappa Schlesinger. tions and conflict areas. Several chapters help by the regular members. These funds, In 1940, Phi Beta Kappa's endowment to set the stage for a better of understanding then the equivalent ofthe annual income was $290,000. With the help of the Asso current Soviet-satellite economic, political, ciates' on approximately $500,000, were to be regular and substantial contri social, and military relationships. This impor used as directed the Trustees of the the endowment now stands at tant book will appeal to both the informed by butions, Phi Beta Kappa Foundation. This plan $4 million. In a na public and specialists in East European poli approximately 1942, was put effect and tics. This reviewer appreciated the into in 1940 has been tional Phi Beta Kappa Lectureship, spon especially Associates' chapters by John C. Campbell, Andrzej Kor- the basis ofthe operation ever sored by the Associates, was inaugurated bonski, Paul Marer, and A. Ross Johnson. since. Many life members have continued to bring noted speakers to Phi Beta Kappa to contribute to Phi Beta Kappa even chapters and associations throughout the The Kremlin and the Prague Spring. after their pledges were fully met. country. Funds provided by the Associates Karen Dawisha. California Univ., 1984. The original proponents of this gener have also helped support the highly suc $34.50. McKin- ous-spirited proposal were Hugh cessful Visiting Scholar Program. This beautifully documented book artfully combines several analytical chapters with a detailed chronology of the two-phased "rape of 34th Triennial Council to Meet Expanding Membership Czechoslovakia." Unlike other books on this In Baltimore, Oct. 31-Nov. 3 original plan the topic (Valenta and Co. ), this book concentrates The for Associates, on the Soviet perspective of the crisis pre The 34th triennial Council of the which has worked so effectively, has re cipitated by the desperate efforts of a satellite United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa will cently been modified to extend the group's to tear itself away from Moscow.^The book is meet in Baltimore, Maryland, October reach and increase its contributions. The recommended to specialists in East warmly 31-November 3, 1985. Headquarters for regular membership limit of 200 has European politics and Soviet forljgn policy. the meeting will be the Hyatt Regency been raised to 300, and the annual con Hotel, located on the city's attractive In tribution has been increased to $200. To The Right Hand ofPower: The Memoirs of ner Harbor. achieve the new an American Diplomat. U. Alexis Johnson, help membership goal, chapters and with Jef Olivarius McAllister. Prentice-Hall, Most associations have seven regional vice presidents have been 1984. $24.95. selected or are now selecting their dele appointed. They will help identify candi This book will contribute immensely to Amer gates to the Council. The United Chap dates for membership and assure the or
readers' ican knowledge of the short-term ters requests that the names of delegates ganization a geographically representa (strategic) problems (tactical) and long-term not yet reported to the Washington office tive composition. and satisfactions of the U.S. Foreign Service. be sent in immediately. Plans are proceeding under the en Each of Ambassador Johnson's brilliant stop Members of Phi Beta Kappa who are ergetic direction of President Stanley A. career from Czechoslovakia to Thailand is not not designated chapter or association Frankel, who will be pleased to receive only explored in detail but put into the proper delegates but who wish to attend on an inquiries. Letters be context of "time and A fascinating life membership may unofficial should analyzed professional basis request infor addressed to him care of the United marvelously both for mation the colleagues and for the general public. from Washington office. Chapters office in Washington, D.C.
SPRING 1985 www.pbk.org 13 VISITING SCHOLARS NAMED FOR 1985-86 United States: Source Readings; The Land 1880-1901; andHum- Phi Beta Kappa's Visiting Scholar Pro Strasbourg in Transition, 1648-1789; ofContrasts, bug: The Art ofP.T. Barnum. gram, now going into its 29th year, will Europe, 1780-1830; and the forthcoming send 13 Scholars to campuses around the Murder and Politics: From Tyrannicide Holmes professor of country in 1985-86 to meet students and to Terrorism. Eleanor Norton, part class Georgetown University Law Center. faculty informally, to take in Roland Mushat Frye, Schelling Profes law, Employment room and to give public lec Norton headed the Equal discussions, sor ofEnglish Literature, Emeritus, Uni Commission from 1977 to tures. In 198485, visits were scheduled on Opportunity versity of Pennsylvania. Writer Eng for 104 Phi Beta Kappa three- 1981 and was a senior fellow at the Ur chapters, lish literature, theology, and art, he is of fourths of the institutions. ban Institute. She is coauthor Sex Dis requesting the author of, among other books, The Scholar panel for 1985- crimination and the Law: Causes and Visiting Shakespeare: The Art of the Dramatist; 86 consists of the persons: Remedies. following Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts: in Epic Ken David Baker, professor of music, In Iconographic Tradition the Edmund D. Pellegrino, director, Georgetown diana University. Chairman of the jazz Poems; and The Renaissance Hamlet: Is nedy Institute of Ethics, Carroll Professor of department, Baker has appeared as a sues and Responses in 1600. University, and John performer (trombone and cello) with Stan Medicine and Medical Humanities, Kenton, Lionel Hampton, the George Rus Georgetown University Medical Center. of and the sell Sextet, and many other groups. His He is the author Humanism musical compositions include jazz and Physician and coauthor of several other orchestral works, sonatas, concerti, books. string quartets, and trios. His publica Howard R. Pollio, Distinguished Serv tions include Techniques for Improvisa ice Professor in Psychology, University of tion and The Black Composer Speaks. Tennessee, Knoxville. First editor in Walter Berns, Olin Distinguished chief of Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, Scholar in Constitutional and Legal Stud David M. Gates, professor ofbotany and he is the author or coauthor of The Struc ies, American Enterprise Institute for director of the Biological Station, Uni tural Basis of Word Association, Learn member of of served on Symbolic Public Policy Research. A the versity Michigan. He has the ing, The Psychology of Activity, National Council on the Humanities, he National Science Board and as chairman and a number of other books. is the author of The First Amendment of the environmental studies board, Na Theodore T. Puck, director, Eleanor and the Future of American Democracy; tional Academy of Sciences-National Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research, For Capital Punishment: Crime and the of Engineering. His publica Academy Denver. He is also research professor in the Death and In tions include Man and His Environment: Morality of Penalty; the Department of Biochemistry, Bio Defense Liberal Democracy. Perspectives Biophysical of Climate; of physics, and Genetics at the University Ecology; and and Ecology. Garrett Birkhoff, George Putnam Pro Energy of Colorado Medical Center as well as fessor Emeritus ofPure and Applied Math Erich S. Gruen, professor of history, professor in the Department of Medicine ematics, Harvard University. A member University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. Among at the University of Colorado Health of the National Academy of Sciences, he his publications in ancient history are Sciences Center. is the author of Hydrodynamics and Lat Imperialism in the Roman Republic, The Marvin E. Wolfgang, professor ofsociol tice and is noted for his research Roman The Last Generation Theory Republic, of ogy and law, University ofPennsylvania. in fluid nuclear reactor the the Roman Republic, and The Hellenistic mechanics, Wolfgang is director of the university's numerical and modern World and the Rome. ory, analysis, Coming of Center for Studies in Criminology and algebra. Neil Harris, professor of history, Uni Criminal Law, president ofthe American Franklin L. Ford, McLean Professor of versity ofChicago. Former director of the Academy of Political and Social Science, Ancient and Modern History, Harvard university's National Humanities Insti and director of the Pennsylvania Prison University. Former dean of the Faculty tute and current chairman of the Smith Society. His publications include The of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of sonian Council, he is the author of The Subculture of Violence, Crime and Cul Robe and Sword: The Regrouping of the Artist in American Society: The Forma ture, Crime and Justice, Criminology French Aristocracy after Louis XIV; tive Years, 1 790-1860; The History ofthe Index, and Evaluating Criminology .
REPORTER _Q_ THE KEY Nonprofit Org. PHI BETA KAPPA Reporter U.S. POSTAGE BSfyel^ey *BM 1811 Street, N.W. Q PAID Washington, DC 20009 PERMIT No 5353 volume 50 number three 1985 spring Address Correction Requested Riverdale, MD Return Postage Guaranteed Editor: Priscilla S. Taylor
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