SUMMER 1987 THE WILSON QUARTER.LY Exceptional Paintings, Prints, Models, Furniture, & Other Special Things. QUESTER TIME COLLECTION Stonington, Connecticut 06378 Telephone (203) 535-3860 "An important and timely message, thoughtfully and persuasively delivered." -Elliot L. Richardson The United States and Latin America Never has the United States been more concerned with Latin America -and never have U.S. policies toward the region been so out of date and out of focus. Abraham E Lowenthal offers a penetrating critique of the Reagan administration's management of Latin-American affairs -and offers concrete alternative proposals. The United States has too long been obsessed with the perceived Marxist-Leninist threat in Central America, and policies have been grounded in attitudes of dominance held over from an earlier age, Lowenthal argues. The primary importance of Latin America to the United States lies not in national security conceived in military terms, but in the region's general impact on the U.S. economy. "A major contribution to the overriding question of the Americas: how to restore hemispheric relations between now and the year 2000." -Carlos Fuentes "Abraham Lowenthal's ability to make complex situations understandable can help all Americans put into proper perspective the flood of current crisis news from and about Latin America.. .A fresh, realistic, and stimulating approach to U.S. foreign policy!' -Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh Available at your bookstore or from Three times more history. We guarantee it. The History Book Club offers one of the largest history collections available. Choose any 3 for $1.00 each. (First price is publishers' list. Boldface is Members' Price.) withTrial Membership AMERICA'S FRS1 BATTLES lilt!tllllSl 5678.$27.95/$17.95 2246.$17.95/$15.50 A2469.$35.00/$23.50 (Counts as 2 d your 3 selections) 1453. ThePerspective Of The World: 15th118th Century (Civilization And Capitalism, Vol.III), by Fernand Braidel. $35.00/$18.50 3 103. The Zimmerman Telegram, by Barbara W. Tuchman.The critically acclaimed tale of war, espionage and dinlomacv. $14.95/!612.95 4408. T~~F~IIOf The Roman Empire: The Military Explanation, by Archer Farill. How the collapse of ~oke'sc army led to its fall. .1i22.50/$17.50 Nogeneral interest book club offers more great history books at more subitanti~lsavings. If you love history, you*l! love the quality, uvings and 'ielection you enjoy as d member of The History Book Club. No matter what area of history you enjoy reading about most, you'll find that The History Book Club offers some of the finest selections being published today, at an average of 30% off publishers' list prices. 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Editor's Comment The United States is so big, so diverse and vigorous in its local politics, that many, if not most, of its citizens' more interesting quarrels never make it onto the national news menu. If a dispute occurs close to home, of course, it may loom large to news managers based in New York or Washington. One example: current feminist efforts to abolish men's clubs in Manhattan and the nation's capital. A hot mayoralty election in Chicago, a debate over secular humanism in Mobile, Alabama, a civil rights march in Forsyth County, Georgia-these, too, arouse interest. But, inevitably, much local political activity is encapsulated in nationwide statistics, e.g., there are now 6,424 black elected officials in America. For four decades, there have been fierce, but nationally obscure, po- litical battles in America's cities and towns over a seemingly mundane matter: fluoridation of the local water supply as a dental health measure. Thanks to the popular referendum, a legacy of the Progressive Era, deci- sions by elected city councils or county boards have been regularly chal- lenged at the polls by antifluoridation activists. In roughly 60 percent of such referendums-in Los Angeles, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in Billings, Montana-the antis have won. Why this is so, and what it tells us about American political behavior, is the subject of our essay on the latest such contest-in San Antonio, Texas (p. 162). THE WILSON QUARTERLY Editor: Peter Braestmp Published in January, March, May, September, and Deputy Editor: Timothy M. James November by the Woodrow Wilson International Centerfor Senior Editor: Steven Lagerfeld Scholars, Smithsonian Institution Building, Washington, Literary Editor: Jay Tolson D.C. 20560. Indexed biennially. Subscriptions: one year, $19; two years, $32; three years, $43. Foreign subscriptions: one Managing Editor: James H. Carman year, $25.50; two wars, $45; three years, $62.50. 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Send chanees of address and all Pedreira, Alycia Vivona; Art Director: Nancy A. subscription correspondencew1th ~ilso"~&erl~ mailing Root; Librarian: Zdenek V. David; Business label to Sulk-enter Service, The Wilson Quarterly, PO. Box Manager: Jon E. Yellin; Circulation Director: Hilde 56161. Bwlder. Colo W22-6161. (Subscriber hot line: Sprung; Circulation Manager: Joseph D. Holbrook; 303-449-9609 or 212-687-0770.) Postmaster: Send all Assistant Circulation Manager: Beverly Goldblum; address changes to P.O. Box 56161, SouIder, Colo. 80301. Editorial Advisers: Michael H. Haltzel, A. E. Dick Advertising Manager: Melissa Worrell, Howard, Michael J. Lacey, Nathalie Mavis Lagerfeld, 600 Maryland Ave. S. W,Suite 430, Washington, D.C. 20024 John W. Lampe, Robert Litwak, Richard M. Morse, (202) 287-3400. Ronald A. Morse, Timothy E Murphy, Peter Reddaway, Richard Seamon, Ann C. Sheffield, Anna Marie Torres, Samuel F. Wells, Jr. U.S.A. newsstand distribution by Eastern News Distributors, Inc., 1130 Cleveland Rd., Sandusky, Ohio 44870. Copyright 0 1987by the Wood-row Wilson International Centerfor Scholars. THE WILSON QUARTERLY is a Microfilm copies are available from University Microfilms registered trademark. International, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Midi. 48106. USPS 346-670 VOL. XI NO. 3 1 Democratic Education Why, When, and How Did the Environment 1 Amy Cutmann Become So Important 'Professor Gutmann's careful to the American People? analysis of various conceptions of the good in education, and her blend of principle and pragmatism in BEAUTY, tackling some of the thorniest issues we address, lift this book into a very HEALTH and special category. Educational issues are hard to tackle effectively; it is easy to depend on cliches or jargon PERMANENCE and hard to make progress in sorting Environmental Politics in the out what is at stake. Amy Gutmann United States, 1955-1985 has succeeded in shedding real light in some very murky corners." Samuel P. Hays - Nannerl 0. Keohane, President Professor Hays answers by tracing Wellesley College the emergence of a greater con- 1 $19.95 at your bookstore or :ern for the environment in post- Princeton University Press World War I1 American society and 41 William Street, Princeton, N) 08540 brings us up-to-date with a chap- ter on "The Reagan Antienviron- mental Revolution." He explores the political contro- versy surrounding environmental affairs, providing an overview which permits the reader to see the historical significance of environ- mental politics as a whole.