A Journal of Political Thought and Statesmanship

Home , Absurdism, Alex Berenson, Losing Earth, Marty Peretz, Michael Anton, Raj Chetty

VOLUME XIX, NUMBER 4, FALL 2019

William Christopher Voegeli: Caldwell: e Politics Green Is of Race the New Red

Mike Gonzalez: Peter Inventing Skerry: Hispanics Becoming White Mark Helprin: Unfair Harvard Nicholas Eberstadt: Charles Horner: Working Democracy Man Blues in China

Christopher Michael Anton Flannery: Hadley Arkes David James L. Buckley McCullough’s D. Alan Heslop Pioneers Wilfred M. McClay and Jean M. Yarbrough: John J. Remembering DiIulio, Jr.: Michael M. On Marijuana Uhlmann

A Publication of the Claremont Institute PRICE: $6.95 IN CANADA: $8.95 Hillsdale College VAN ANDEL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF STATESMANSHIP

M.A. POLITICS

Ph.D. POLITICS

A First Principles Approach to Graduate Education in Political Philosophy and American Politics

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

Based on the core texts of the Western and American Traditions Offering Competitive Scholarships and Fellowship Stipends For more information or to apply: gradschool.hillsdale.edu | [email protected] | (517) 607-2483

HC_GradSchool_CRB_6-19.indd 1 6/13/19 3:55 PM mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Charles R. Kesler: Trump and Our Political Stalemate: page 5

CORRESPONDENCE: page 6

ESSAYS Michael Anton: The Empire Strikes Back: page 8 Mark Helprin: Pride and Prejudice at Harvard: page 55 What the effort to impeach President Trump is really about. An essay and reminiscence.

William Voegeli: Liberty, Equality, Reality: page 15 Charles Horner: China’s Democratic Future: page 73 Questions we’d rather not ask about race. Would Confucius approve?

Mike Gonzalez: The Invention of Hispanics: page 24 Joseph Epstein: A Philosophe in Full: page 83 What it says about the politics of race. Denis Diderot’s Enlightenment.

Christopher Caldwell: From Saving the Earth to Ruling the World: page 40 Jacob Howland: Odysseus Against the Matriarchy: page 98 The transformation of the environmental movement. A Homeric battle of the sexes.

IN MEMORIAM Michael Martin Uhlmann, 1939–2019: page 66 Tributes from Michael Anton, Hadley Arkes, James L. Buckley, D. Alan Heslop, Wilfred M. McClay, and Jean M. Yarbrough.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS Peter Skerry: Becoming White: page 21 Steven F. Hayward: Practical Wisdom: page 65 Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities, Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, by Eric Kaufmann. by Greg Weiner.

Nicholas Eberstadt: The Future of the Work Ethic: page 30 John J. DiIulio, Jr.: Reefer Madness: page 80 The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and by Isabel Sawhill; and The Once and Future American Worker: Violence, by Alex Berenson. A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, by Oren Cass. J. Eric Wise: Christian Science?: page 87 Christopher Flannery: Land of the Free: page 37 Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the Biological Science, by Edward Feser. American Ideal West, by David McCullough. Carnes Lord: Saving Persuasion: page 91 Daniel Johnson: Eric the Red: page 45 Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric, translated by Robert C. Bartlett. Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History, by Richard J. Evans. Spencer A. Klavan: Twilight of the Gods: page 92 David P. Goldman: Time Out of Joint: page 48 Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, edited by Jan H. Blits; Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the and Antony & Cleopatra, by William Shakespeare, Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich, by Christopher Clark. edited by Jan H. Blits.

Max Eden: Not Worth It: page 62 Robert R. Reilly: Lend Me Your Ears: page 94 Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America, The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music, by Richard K. Vedder. by Robert Philip.

Bradley C.S. Watson: Based on a True Story: page 63 Kyle Smith: Breaking Bad: page 96 Conservatives and the Constitution: Imagining Constitutional Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream: Con Men, Restoration in the Heyday of American Liberalism, by Ken I. Kersch. Gangsters, Drug Lords, and Zombies, by Paul A. Cantor.

SHADOW PLAY Martha Bayles: A Tale of Two Markets: page 103 Hollywood is choosing Chinese profits over American liberties.

PARTHIAN SHOT Mark Helprin: What Iran Sees: page 106

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 3 Cambridge Is Politics Titles on statesmanship and conservative politics uhrTitle Author Title MATT GROSSMANN Red State Blues

Subtitle “In Red State Blues, Matt Grossmann, one of the nation’s most astute political scientists, Back copy challenges fundamental orthodoxy in much of academia and the media. He argues that the Republican revolution that swept took over state after state at the behest of the Koch Brothers, ALEC and other architects of the insurgency was in practice of relatively minor consequence. The conservative movement ran into a brick wall – the electorate’s demand for public services. Grossmann goes against the grain in this wise and illuminating book.” Illustration credit How the Conservative Revolution Designed by Cover designer Stalled in the States Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times Columnist, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism COMING SOON October 2019 | $24.99

‘Conservative Parties and the Birth of Conservatives and the Constitution 'In an engaging review of some Full of insights and information for Democracy is written in ﬁre. It delves examines the post-war conservative 2,500 years of tyranny - drawing on scholars, students, and citizens, this deep into long-forgotten electoral histories movement in the US to shed light a considerable knowledge of Western volume is a guide to understanding to emerge with insights of Tocquevillian on how visions of constitutional history and literature - Waller Newell the constitutional design, purpose, and power, to illuminate not only the past but restoration and redemption were masterfully sorts out tyrannies, ancient institutional practices envisioned by also the present and future.’ mobilized during the heyday of and modern, to remind us how they Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, American liberalism to unite a rise and why they fall - again and and John Jay - the authors of David Frum, The Atlantic fractious and diverse political again.' The Federalist. April 2017 | $29.99 coalition. Victor Davis Hanson, November 2019 | $34.99 May 2019 | $34.99 Stanford University March 2016 | $29.99

Follow us on social media CUP_PoliSci cupacademic CambridgeUniversityPressPolitics mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

from the editor’s desk Trump and Our Political Stalemate by Charles R. Kesler

espite his reputation as a disrupter, donald trump n our era, voters are fickle, never trusting either has not been able to break the political stalemate afflicting party with undivided control for very long, and more or less DAmerica for half a century. Ialternating the parties’ hold on the presidency. Here is the list: Since 1968, neither major political party has been able to com- eight years of Republican Presidents Nixon and Ford, four years of mand an enduring electoral majority. Such stasis is unusual in Democrat Jimmy Carter, 12 years of Reagan and Bush the Elder American politics, if one can call unusual something that has been (R), eight years of Bill Clinton (D), eight of Bush the Younger (R), happening for 50 years. Still, the older pattern, now almost forgot- eight of Barack Obama (D), and three, so far, of Trump. That’s 31 ten though still longed for by strategists of each party, was quite dif- years of GOP presidents, and 20 of Democratic ones—a Republi- ferent. To draw the most striking contrast, in the 72 years between can edge, to be sure; but the more impressive fact is the sustained Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 and Herbert Hoover’s crushing alternation between the parties. In the past half century, the voters loss in 1932, the Republican Party controlled the presidency for all have experimented with undivided government for only 14 years, but 16 years. Only Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson inter- eight under the Democrats and six under the GOP, and never for rupted the GOP’s electoral serenity. longer than four years in a row. (I don’t count the confusing year In turn, the Democrats began their own reign, holding the presi- after the close 2000 election, when George W. Bush had, and then dency from 1932 to 1968, with the exception of Dwight Eisenhow- lost within months, a one-vote Republican margin in the Senate.) er’s two terms in the 1950s. That’s eight years of a Republican chief Mr. Trump succeeded a president of the other party, came into executive to 28 for the Democrats. But Ike had been courted by office with his fellow Republicans in control of both the House and the Democrats before he agreed to run on the GOP ticket, and his Senate, promptly lost that shot at undivided government in his first agenda of “Modern Republicanism” stressed its continuity with New midterm election (in 2018, even as Obama did in his first midterm Deal foreign and domestic policy. So the era seemed even more unin 2010), has faced a torrent of criticism and Resistance doubting his relievedly Democratic than the presidential numbers would suggest. legitimacy and fitness for the office, and now faces a difficult reelec- Add to that the Democratic Party’s lopsided control of Congress tion race. In all of these particulars he fits squarely into the larger in those years—and beyond—and the full picture emerges. In the patterns of post-1968 American politics. 36 years between Franklin Roosevelt’s roaring entrance to, and His nationalism, “populism,” brusque way with subordinates Lyndon Johnson’s meek exit from, the White House, Republicans and allies, addiction to Twitter, love of tariffs, criticism of illegal enjoyed control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Sen- immigrants, disdain for political correctness—these and the sev- ate together for (ta-da) four years (1946-48, 1952-54). The Demo- eral other features that might be said to be distinctive of it have cratic sway over the House that commenced in 1954, by contrast, not, so far, boosted his presidency out of the usual political orbits would last until 1994, an unprecedented 40 years’ control by the or changed the overall trajectory of American politics, at least in its same party. It was a similar story in the Senate, held by Democrats electoral dimension. from 1954 to 1980, when Ronald Reagan helped to pry it from Even in facing impeachment, he confirms another disturbing their grasp. trend of modern politics. In the first 185 or so years of the repub- For most of the century between 1860 and 1968 (the big excep- lic (until 1974), Americans impeached one president. In the past 45 tion is a 20-year period at the end of the 19th century), the dominant years (since 1974), we have impeached or come close to impeaching party enjoyed control simultaneously of the presidency, the Senate, three (Nixon, Clinton, Trump). and the House—“undivided government,” as the political scientists Despite what his detractors and even some of his admirers say, call it. That pattern, a corollary of the stable dominance of a national Donald Trump is a normal president for our times. And so far, at majority party, has gone the way of the dodo since 1968. least, the times are not a-changin’.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Editor: Charles R. Kesler TheClaremont Review of Books Senior Editor: William Voegeli Publication Committee Managing Editor: John B. Kienker Robert Curry Production Editor: Patrick Collins Michael W. Gleba Assistant Editor: Spencer A. Klavan Editorial Assistant: Alex Sanchez-Olvera Kurt A. Keilhacker Contributing Editors: Christopher Caldwell, Thomas D. Klingenstein Christopher Flannery, Joseph Tartakovsky Larry G. Mattson Art Director: Elliott Banfield Robert W. Nelson Publisher: Ryan P. Williams Dianne J. Sehler Publisher (2000–2001): Thomas B. Silver

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 5 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

CORRESPONDENCE

Brexit’s a majority ratio of 4 to 1. In the said. That may hold in check to politics in our time generally— 2017 general election, some 85% some extent the over-ambitious arises from the principles of the Stakes of votes went to parties explic- tax-and-regulate-everything- American Founding, specifically itly and unequivocally promising to-death politician-bureaucrats the principles most famously ar- Christopher Caldwell’s “Why to honor the referendum result running the continent. ticulated in the Declaration of In- Hasn’t Brexit Happened?” (Sum- and to leave the European Union. dependence. BAP, and the other mer 2019) is one of the best ac- Thus, both through the mecha- Pater Eusebius Tenebrarum “talented kids” Anton is worried counts of the shameful blocking nisms of direct democracy and Perchtoldsdorf about, think those principles are of Brexit that I have read. He representative democracy, there Austria the source of the greatest degra- might have made more of the has been a clear expression of the dation of our time. Well, BAP, clear and present danger to de- electorate’s wishes. forgive the yawn. With luck, and mocracy in the U.K. as the result What is happening in the Par- Conservatism, maybe a little help from sympa- of this spoiling action. Caldwell liament today is remarkable: the thetic old fogies like Anton, you rightly notes: “The 17.4 million complete refusal of over half of Young and Old too may grow up and become people who voted to leave the E.U. its members to accept the verdict the patriot you want to be. But were the largest number of Brit- of the electorate. What’s more, What editorial genius to it would be amusing to attend ons who had ever voted for any- on three occasions they have vot- place Steven Hayward’s review the conversation between you thing.” But this is only one part of ed to overturn three supposedly of George Will’s The Conserva- and Will on atheism and Donald the democratic process that has legally binding exit deadlines for tive Sensibility (“Sensibility as Trump! been thwarted. which they had previously voted. Soulcraft,” Summer 2019) right When Parliament passed the In this way, they can simply cir- next to Michael Anton’s review Maureen Berenthal referendum bill in 2015 by a ma- cumvent elections and previous of Bronze Age Mindset (“Are the Austin, TX jority ratio of 10 to 1, David Cam- laws by repeatedly passing new Kids Al(t)right?”). Reading the eron, prime minister at the time, ones as, and when, they please two reviews consecutively cre- promised that the government in a continuous loop. That is not ated a more refreshing cognitive Sticking would carry out the wishes of the democracy: it reeks of legislative dissonance than any I can recall referendum vote. The next year, dictatorship. since reading an article about by Darwin the referendum result was for Marilyn Monroe and Arthur leave, by 52% to 48%. A year later, Sean McGlynn Schlesinger, Jr. David Gelernter’s essay “Giv- in 2017, Parliament passed the Monkton Farleigh George Will in his bow tie ing up Darwin” (Spring 2019) European Union (Notification United Kingdom at 80 telling conservatives one contains numerous misunder- of Withdrawal) Act—the legal last time who they are and how standings of 21st-century evolu- trigger for initiating the formal Christopher Caldwell’s as- to think, sidling up to Bronze tionary biology. process of leaving the European sessment of Brexit is easily the Age Pervert (BAP), the eternally For one thing, there is no single Union by March 29, 2019—by most thoughtful and accurate pimply and angry “kid,” telling definition of species that applies review of the issue I have read to conservatives, like their liberal to all organisms; nature is too didate. Simply excellent. Let me counterparts, to do to themselves verse. What exists in nature are add that, as a continental Euro- the anatomically impossible. But populations of individuals with Please send all pean living in an E.U. member it was the similarities between genes (DNA, or RNA sequences) correspondence to: state, I envy Britain for hav- the young Will and BAP that that influence each individual’s ing had the fortitude to cast off were most interesting. The young characteristics. Typically, individ- Claremont Review of Books Will, like BAP, thought America uals exchange genes to reproduce Attn.: Letters to the Editor the Brussels yoke. At the same new organisms. For our purposes, 1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, time, I fear that with the United “ill-founded.” Not enough virtue! Upland, CA 91786. Kingdom leaving there is no lon- Not enough hierarchy! Like a species is a reproductively iso- ger a strong voice speaking up BAP, he turned to Europe for lated population of organisms— Or via e-mail: in support of individual liberty something more stimulating and i.e., one whose individuals ex- [email protected] and free-market capitalism in hierarchical. change genes to produce fertile Brussels. This cannot be good In the course of a lifetime, and offspring, but which cannot re- We reserve the right to edit for the citizens of the rest of the apparently with the help of the produce with other populations. for length and clarity. European Union. Then again, I Claremont Institute (Hayward Evolution within populations, fervently hope that Ms. Merkel’s says Will quotes Ronald J. Pes- often called “microevolution,” is a Please include your greatest fear will become reality: tritto more than any other schol- matter of changing frequencies of name, address, and namely, that the U.K. will bear in his new book), Will learned genes (more properly, gene vari- telephone number. come a fierce regulatory and tax better. He now sees that Ameri- ants called “alleles”). The intel- competitor at the E.U.’s doorstep, can conservatism—and the right ligent design (I.D.) tracts from “à la Singapore,” as she herself and necessary way to understand which Gelernter draws overlook

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 6 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

CORRESPONDENCE the fact that natural selection isn’t families (e.g., Hominidae in- evolution was gradual, we now uncritically accepts Stephen the only evolutionary force. Bi- cludes both Homo and Pan) and know Darwin was wrong. Spe- Meyer’s out-of-date information ologists have since found micro- on up the taxonomic levels. There ciation can occur in a few years— on Eric Wieschaus and Chris- evolutionary mechanisms in ad- is no real dichotomy between mi- even one reproductive event in the tiane Nüsslein-Volhard’s “Hei- dition to natural selection. These cro- and macroevolution. What case of polyploidy (duplication of delberg screen” of body plan mu- include non-random mating, mu- is perceived as macroevolution is entire chromosome sets in an egg tations in Drosophila melanogaster. tation, genetic drift (statistical human imposition of categories or sperm). Major change can be He then repeats Meyer’s quote of fluctuations in allele frequencies) on what was a spectrum of pop- very rapid in geological time. In Wieschaus saying none of the mu- and gene flow (migration between ulation-level changes over long recent decades, study of mutation tations they studied is “promising populations). Natural selection time periods. Gaps in the fossil rates of biomolecules has allowed as raw materials for macroevolu- combined with genetic shuffling record mean we don’t see the full us to estimate how long-ago evo- tion” because all the mutations explains Gelernter’s “fine-tuning microevolutionary spectrum and lutionary lineages diverged. No- killed the flies before they could of existing species.” make it seem as if some groups where do we see discontinuities reproduce. But—as with many Speciation, then, is the origin suddenly appear. that might mark intervention by I.D. claims—that hasn’t been true of reproductive isolation between Gelernter relies on several an intelligent designer—includ- for decades. “Homeobox” genes, populations. Since Darwin we false I.D. claims about the fossil ing around the time of the Cam- discovered in 1983, are examples have observed the origin of new record, including the “problem” of brian “explosion.” of such genes and regulate devel- species many times in both the lab the Cambrian “explosion.” This Contrary to the authors Ge- opment in most organisms with and the field. We have identified is an argument from incredulity lernter cites, molecular biology nuclei. One well-studied example, many ways it can happen, some of that fails to appreciate the geo- is not “Darwin’s main problem.” bithorax, produces flies with two which don’t involve natural selec- logical perspectives of time and In reality, molecular biology has thorax segments and four wings tion per se. Such speciation mech- fossilization, as well as rates of confirmed evolution and allowed when normally flies have one tho- anisms include processes that may evolution. The “explosion” took us to elaborate on its history and rax and two wings. be genetic, geographic, ecological, around 70 million years. It’s hard mechanisms. I.D. proponents David Gelernter is a well-re- and behavioral. Non-biologists for humans to grasp such time mischaracterize the nature and spected computer scientist and like Gelernter (and some biolo- spans. Seventy million years is 35 frequency of mutations that pro- something of a polymath. Un- gists) often are caught in a false times longer than anatomically duce major evolutionary changes. fortunately, he evidently lacks dichotomy of microevolution ver- modern humans have existed and For example, Gelernter accepts sufficient understanding of biol- sus “macroevolution,” the evolu- 115 times longer than behavior- Douglas Axe’s flawed model of ogy to see most of the flaws in tion of higher taxonomic groups ally modern humans. Given that randomly picking nucleotides to his unreliable I.D. sources, which above the species level. Once two plate tectonics constantly recycles make up a gene from scratch that misunderstand basic population populations no longer interbreed, rock formations, fossils of that produces a 150-amino acid pro- processes, biological classifica- they take separate evolutionary age and older are rare. Fossils of tein. Axe did no experiments, just tion, the fossil record, the nature paths. As differences between soft-bodied forms are rarer still back-of-the-envelope probabilis- of mutations, and the nature of populations accumulate, we clas- and fail to preserve many charac- tic calculations. science. sify them into different genera teristics needed to classify organ- On the genetics of body plans (e.g., Homo, humans; Pan, chim- isms. Although I.D. proponents (basic body architecture like seg- Frank Price panzees), which are grouped into are right that Darwin thought mentation), Gelernter likewise Clinton, NY

Claremont Review of Books, Volume XIX, Number 4, Fall 2019. (Printed in Price: $6.95 per copy; $27.80 for a one-year subscription; $55.60 for a two- the United States on November 27, 2019.) year subscription; $83.40 for a three-year subscription. Add $17 for all foreign subscriptions, including those originating in Canada and Latin America. To Published quarterly by the Claremont Institute for the Study of subscribe, call (909) 981-2200, or contact [email protected]. Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, 1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, Upland, CA 91786. Telephone: (909) 981-2200. Fax: (909) 981-1616. Visit us online at www.claremont.org/crb. Opinions expressed in signed Postmaster send address changes to Claremont Review of Books Address articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors, the Claremont Change, 1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, Upland, CA 91786. Institute, or its board of directors. Nothing in this journal is an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill or influence the election of any can- Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped didate. All contents Copyright © 2019 the Claremont Institute, except envelope; or may be sent via email to: [email protected]. where otherwise noted.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 7 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Claremont review of books Volume XIX, Number 4, Fall 2019

Essay by Michael Anton The Empire Strikes Back

eople capable of feeling shame “deep state” (which is not precisely the same even thirdhand. A phone call, let’s remember, would not have immediately followed thing), along with a few Republicans, have of which we have extensive notes that almost, Pup the Russiagate hoax fiasco with “publicly voiced” many causes for removing the but not quite, constitute a transcript—in another transparently phony—and in “sub- president—a few specific but most madden- other words, whose content everyone in the stance” nearly identical—attempt to remove ingly, yet safely, vague. country can examine for himself. President Trump from office, overturn the From the beginning—that is to say, from That the “telcon” (national security geek- 2016 election, and shower deplorable-Amer- November 9, 2016—impeachment has been a speak for what people are calling the “tran- icans with contempt and hatred. But our rul- cause in search of a trigger, an occasion. The script”) does not support the “publicly voiced” ing elites have no shame. president’s enemies hoped they’d finally hit cause is made plain by two facts. First, you That is not to say, however, that they are pay dirt when an anonymous “whistle blower” can read it yourself and see that it doesn’t say entirely cynical. The means by which they’ve alleged that the president made, or attempted what it is alleged to say. Second, if it did say so far tried to crush the Trump presidency to make, foreign aid to Ukraine contingent what the president’s enemies want it to say, may be nasty and illegitimate, but our over- on that country’s government investigating they could just quote it verbatim, which they lords are 100% convinced of the righteousness his likely 2020 challenger. Or, in other words, never do, instead of deliberately mischaracter- of their cause, and of themselves. Hence they that Trump attempted to “collude” with a for- izing it, which they always do. do not even need recourse to the cliché that eign power to influence an American election. Only two substantive points make the the ends justify the means. The means are Where have we heard that before? It only phone call at all interesting. First, President good because the end is sacred; they cannot took two years, $32 million, 19 lawyers, 40 Trump very plainly wants to get to the bottom countenance even the thought that the means FBI agents and other staff, 2,800 subpoenas, of the entire, still-obscure “election-meddling” might be suspect or (ahem) trumped up. and 500 witnesses for a special counsel to “not story of 2016. That includes not just “deep Near the beginning of his epic history of establish that members of the Trump Cam- state” attempts to prevent his election and to the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides distin- paign conspired or coordinated with the Rus- set him up for removal should the first effort guishes the “publicly voiced” causes of that sian government in its election interference fail, but also allegations of Russian hacking conflict from the war’s “truest cause, though activities,” according to the Mueller Report. against American targets, including the Dem- least in speech.” We may—indeed, must— Yet here we go again? ocratic National Committee. It appears—and subject the “impeachment” coup to the same But let’s drill down a bit. If we are to take the Justice Department apparently agrees— bifurcated analysis. the current “publicly voiced” cause at face val- that some actors within Ukraine may have ue, then we may say that the entire Washing- had something to do with some of this, pos- Collusion? ton establishment, plus most of the country’s sibly colluding (there’s that word again!) with elites, are trying to remove the president from a shady, Democrat-linked tech firm called he democrats, the corporate-left office on the basis of an anonymous individ- CrowdStrike, though we as yet know nothing media (CLM), the permanent bureau- ual’s private opinion of the content of one like the full story. Trump wants to know and Tcracy or “administrative state,” and the phone call he heard about second- or possibly asked the Ukrainian president for his help in

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 8 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm finding out. To some, Trump’s curiosity about elites to enforce, or not, at their discretion and “right”—to review anything and everything this wild “conspiracy theory” is alone proof in their interests. they wish. Does this sound reasonable to any- of his unfitness. Because, as we all know, the Back to the Ukraine call. The second ques- one not out to get Trump? Would you run complete lack of evidence that anyone in the tion President Trump asked the Ukrainian your business this way? Or would you try to Obama White House, Justice Department, president is another “publicly voiced” cause limit information—especially sensitive infor- FBI, CIA, or Office of the Director of -Na to seek his removal. That question regarded mation—on a “need-to-know” basis? Formally, tional Intelligence colluded with each other, a specific instance of a well-known Washing- the U.S. government insists that it operates with the Democratic Party, with the Clinton ton-insider phenomenon. It is a measure of according to the latter principle, but in real- campaign, or with a foreign spy to tar Trump how insouciantly our elites accept and even ity, everyone in Washington believes himself with the false charge of colluding with Russia welcome the immense corruption of our gov- so important that he becomes indignant when definitively proves that all “conspiracy theo- ernment that they raise not a single eyebrow at not allowed to see what he believes by right he ries” are manufactured fever dreams. the phenomenon that underlay the president’s ought to see. Still, you might think that those railing question: exactly how is it that well-connected Then ask yourself: assuming the presi- loudest about “foreign interference” over the Americans with no particular or relevant skill dent and his team did try to limit access to last three years would also want to know, but of sets can “earn” enormous sums of money for this or other documents, why would they do course we all know what a howler that is. The doing, essentially, nothing? that? Perhaps to prevent illegal and damaging loudest railers are precisely those most respon- We all know how, of course. They’re not, leaks? What could possibly give rise to that sible for, and most involved in, the illicit effort exactly, doing “nothing.” They’re providing concern? I dunno—maybe because this has to spy on and sabotage candidate Trump, set access—in some instances directly, in others been, and continues to be, the most leaked- him up for a non-crime he didn’t commit, abuse prospectively. When a company or bank or against White House and administration in their power to destroy lives, and much else. So, hedge fund or real estate developer or foreign the history of the United States government? no, they don’t want to know—or, more precise- government slides big payments over to some- When one thinks for a second about the ly, they don’t want you to know. The more that one close to someone who might soon be pres- impact this particular document has already becomes known, the more legal—and possibly ident, they know what they’re doing, and they had—the president may well be impeached criminal—jeopardy they may face. know—from experience—that the invest- over it, on the say-so of precisely such a bu- Though I admit to being somewhat puz- ment is sound. Tom Wolfe coined the term reaucrat from whom his team allegedly tried, zled by their evident alarm. Many others have “favor bank” to explain how “the law” really but evidently failed, to withhold it—can one called Russiagate the “biggest political scan- works in the Bronx County criminal justice blame Trump or his team for trying to limit dal in American history” and, Lord knows, system. You do favors expecting to have favors the dissemination of internal documents? A I agree. The amazing thing about it, then, is done in return. There are no written contracts saner response is to wish they had restricted how little accountability there has been. From or enforcement mechanisms, but the system the circle even more. The detail, alleged in what I can tell, two individuals—Peter Strzok “works” because people know it’s in their inter- the press, that the “whistleblower” (more on and Andrew McCabe, the latter on the cusp est to honor it. In modern international poli- him below) heard it from a friend who heard of retirement—were removed from their jobs. tics, to pay someone a few million to do “noth- it from a friend, etc., does not, to say the least, That’s it. No criminal charges or anything else. ing” is to expect to be paid back somehow. The suggest any kind of cover-up. Apparently, the What are these “deep-staters” so worried payees know this, and endeavor to make good, Trump Administration’s practice of informa- about? They run everything and take care of lest they risk future payments. tion dissemination is far closer to the Wash- their own. Even with a president in office who, Understand this plainly: Trump may well ington ideal than to the hyper-secrecy alleged they allege, hates them and routinely abuses be impeached, ostensibly, for asking about this by the president’s enemies. his power, they’ve—as yet—faced no conse- corrupt arrangement. But no one is ever im- “Cover-up” is the latest “publicly voiced” quences at all. peached for engaging in it. Nor can our elites, charge. A member of the National Security Just to (re-)ask one question: who leaked who almost all benefit from this system one Council staff alleges that he attempted to the highly classified details of General Mi- way or another, muster the integrity to do, or include language in the telcon that others in- chael Flynn’s December 2016 phone call with even say, anything against it. sisted on excluding. This is held to be a very the Russian ambassador? That’s a felony. The serious charge. universe of people with access to such sensi- Cover-Up? Here’s what they’re not telling you. The tive information is very small, and the timing document, as noted, is not a transcript; there’s ensures that the crime was committed by a hough currently central to the no stenographer on the line and such calls are very senior member of the Obama Adminis- “publicly voiced” case, this charge is not not recorded. Several people, however, will be tration and/or very senior operative of the na- Tthe only one levelled. It is also insinu- listening and taking notes for the express pur- tional security state. Yet I see no sign official ated that the administration somehow acted pose of creating the telcon. These will include Washington is the least bit interested in this improperly by not making the telcon avail- duty officers in the White House Situation question. Nor, despite the Trump Adminis- able within the government to a wide enough Room, who are not necessarily—and are not tration’s nominally running the federal gov- range of bureaucrats. But that’s preposterous. expected to be—experts on the country being ernment for almost three years (more below Such documents are inherently products of called; rather, they are covering the call simon who really runs it), have I seen indications the executive branch. They may be shown to, ply because it takes place during their shifts. of any action being taken to find answers. I or withheld from, absolutely anyone the presi- These duty officers, with the aid of impressive hope that Attorney General William Barr, dent and his senior staff want. To argue any- but not infallible voice recognition software, Special Counsel John Durham, and Inspector thing else is to presuppose that bureaucrats prepare a first draft of the telcon. Since nei- General Michael Horowitz will reassure me whom the president doesn’t know and likely ther the voice recognition software nor hu- that American law has not become a tool for will never see somehow are entitled—have a man notetakers can catch every word perfect-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 9 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ly, sometimes “Inaudible” appears in brackets. We actually don’t know what language NSC’s top lawyer, who could find no wrong- But ellipses—about which much is currently the country director was prevented from in- doing. The others? Nothing. Is it possible being made—represent not omissions but cluding in the telcon, but we do know—from most of them also saw no wrongdoing? Or natural pauses in the conversation. This is be- those who leaked an anti-Trump account of were too cowed to complain? fore we even get into the thorny issues raised his testimony to the New York Times—that But then the question arises: complain to by sequential translation, which is necessary “[t]he phrases do not fundamentally change whom? Neither the NSC nor its parent orga- for most foreign leader calls. lawmakers’ understanding of the call.” nization, the Executive Office of the Presi- After the first draft of the telcon is prepared, What a marvelous sentence! And how ob- dent (EOP), have a formal whistleblower the duty officer hands it over to the National viously, tautologically, base-coveringly true! process. If one wishes to make a complaint, Security Council’s (NSC’s) executive secretary Those who want to use the call as a basis for one has five options: complain within your (ExecSec), the office responsible for all NSC impeaching Trump are not deterred from do- chain of command, complain to the law- paper flow and records management (among ing so based on this testimony, and those who yers, complain to the White House chief other things). ExecSec then routes the telcon never thought the call amounts to what the of staff, complain to Congress, or complain to specific individuals, whom the national se- Democrats say it does are not now persuaded to the press. Even our country director de- curity advisor has personally authorized to otherwise. The only way, of course, to judge clined four of these five avenues, and all the review it, for their “chop” or edits. The person whose interpretation is right would be to others apparently declined them all. Why? responsible for shepherding the document make public the allegedly excised phrases. But Perhaps someone calculated that the optics through this phase of the process is the “coun- if they were actually helpful for impeachment, would be better—more “disinterested,” less try director,” the NSC staffer who coordinates they already would have been leaked. So don’t nakedly political—if the complaint came policy and handles documents with respect to expect to read them any time soon. from somewhere else, a “patriotic career civil a given country or countries. The country di- But at least the country director was actu- servant just doing his job.” This would also rector will, in almost all cases, have been listen- ally in the NSC chain of command and so had explain the Democrats’ head-spinning bait- ing to the call. He will check the draft telcon some standing to weigh in on the issue. This and-switch about the “whistleblower,” from against his notes and make corrections, even cannot be said of the so-called “whistleblower,” “This brave soul is the federal Frank Serpico as others cross-check against their own notes. of our time” to “Who? Oh, no, we don’t need These will include the relevant senior director to hear from him, move along” in a matter (the country director’s boss) and others, up to The “whistleblower” of nanoseconds. The “whistleblower” was and including the national security advisor. just a tool, witting or not (I’m betting on the The key takeaway here is that the country was just a tool to former) to get something new going after director is the not highest or final authority get something new the ignominious collapse of Russiagate. His on the content of the call. He’s one person usefulness over—indeed, his presence in the who heard it; others may have heard it or going after the drama now counterproductive—we are in- parts of it differently. And the country direc- ignominious collapse structed to forget he ever existed. tor does not have the final say over what the telcon says. He works in a chain of command of Russiagate. Changing Policy? and has superiors. His senior director—who presumably was also on the call—can over- nother, deeper cause for the cur- rule him. If other “equities” such as classifica- who of course is nothing of the sort—not as rent show trial is less “publicly voiced” tion or legal issues are affected, the senior di- defined by law nor in any commonsense un- Athan beclouded with pretentious mis- rector for intelligence programs and the legal derstanding. As to the former, the statute direction, because the president’s enemies advisor can as well. Ultimately the final say is clear: officials qualify for legal protection know that, were they to state it clearly, the falls to the national security advisor—who, if they blow the whistle on activities within American people would scoff in their faces. in almost all cases, would also have been lis- their own organizations and relevant to those Our foreign policy priesthood is 100% certain tening to the call. organizations’ official duties. There is no -pos that the United States must take the side of The person alleging a cover-up, Lieutenant sible way to interpret this particular “whistle” Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. President Colonel Alexander Vindman, was, at the time, as consistent with that standard. By definition, Trump has expressed skepticism about the the country director for Ukraine. But the way the president’s phone call was not conducted wisdom of such a commitment. He wonders he’s being presented—and has presented him- under the auspices of the “whistleblower’s” why the conflict is our problem, when a not- self—is meant to convey a much grander im- “home agency” (reportedly the CIA) nor did inconsiderable number of European countries pression. No less than the “whistleblower,” he it have anything to do with intelligence mat- closer to the issue demand action from us but is being sold as a patriotic, dedicated, impar- ters. Which the Justice Department’s Office do very little themselves. He worries about the tial, non-partisan, career officer simply stand- of Legal Counsel, a sort of federal Nocturnal possibility of the United States getting drawn ing up for what’s right. And he may well be all Council for legal matters, affirmed in an -of into war with Russia. And he’s concerned that, or most of those things; I have no doubt that ficial opinion. given historic corruption in Ukraine, Ameri- he sees himself this way. As to the latter, ask yourself the follow- can aid there may not be well spent. But he is also, unquestionably, a mid-level ing question. As noted, the “whistleblower” Yet despite these eminently reasonable officer in the U.S. Army working a mid-level reportedly wasn’t on the call and never saw misgivings, the president has, for the most staff job at the National Security Council, i.e., the telcon. Given that several—probably at part, gone along with elite opinion in sup- someone who as such has no standing even to least a dozen—others were and did, why porting Ukraine. It’s worth pausing to note serve as the final arbiter of a telcon, much less didn’t one of them lodge a complaint? One— the brazen hypocrisy of Democrats on this make policy or remove a president. our country director—did complain to the point, given that the Obama Administration

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 10 Timely New Works on Crucial Issues

◆ A TIME TO DIE: Monks on the reshold of Eternity Nicolas Diat ehind monastery walls, men of God spend their lives preparing for the passage of death. BBest-selling French author Nicolas Diat set out to nd what their deaths can reveal about the greatest mystery faced by everyone—the end of life. How to die well? To answer questions on preparing for death, Diat travelled to eight European monasteries including Solesmes Abbey and the Grande Chartreuse. His extraordinary interviews reveal that monks have the same fears and sorrows as everyone else. What is exemplary about them is their humility and simplicity. When death approaches, they are like happy children who wait with impatience to open a gi . ey have complete con dence in the mercy of God. TTDP . . . Sewn So cover, $17.95

“I am in nitely thankful to Nicolas Diat for having brought us for a moment before the mystery of death, and I recommend to all the reading of this wonderful book.” — Cardinal Robert Sarah, from the Foreword

◆ WESTERN CULTURE TODAY AND TOMORROW Addressing Fundamental Issues — Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) ell known for his important scholarly contributions to theology and biblical commentary, WRatzinger has also written penetrating observations of our times, revealing here his keen insights about the social and political challenges confronting modern Western societies. He reminds us that Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome were the foundation stones upon which Western civilization was built. eir invaluable contributions form the basis for the Western understanding of human dignity and human rights. is book also includes the new essay by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the clerical sex abuse crisis, which traces the moral disorder to the collapse of faith both inside and outside the Church. WCTTP . . . Sewn So cover, $16.95

“Benedict XVI has long been an acute analyst of the ills that beset the West. His prescription is to rediscover the human dignity implicit in its Christian roots while absorbing the best achievements of the Enlightenment. is book gets the big questions of the 21st century exactly right.” — George Weigel, Author, The Fraglity of Order

Now in paperback! Now in paperback! ◆ THE FRAGILITY OF ORDER — George Weigel ne of America's most prominent public intellectuals brings thirty-five years of expe- Orience in Washington and Rome to bear in analyzing the turbulence that characterizes world politics, American public life, and the Catholic Church in the early twenty- rst century. In these bracing essays, Weigel reads such events as the First World War, the collapse of Communism, and the Obama and Trump presidencies through a distinctive cultural and moral lens, even as he o ers new insights into Pope Francis and his challenging ponti cate. FROP . . . Sewn So cover, $17.95

"Every page in this book shines with moral clarity, and the illumination of history. It proves once again that George Weigel is our Virgil through the dark woods of modernity." — Mary Eberstadt, Senior Research Fellow, Faith and Reason Institute

www.ignatius.com

P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 (800) 651-1531 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

did far less for Ukraine, refusing to provide I became aware of outside influencers the so-called “lethal aid” that Trump, how- promoting a false narrative of Ukraine NIU PRESS ever reluctantly, approved. But apparently inconsistent with the consensus views AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY the latter’s efforts have been insufficiently- ea of the interagency. ger for permanent Washington, which finds SKIS IN THE his lack of enthusiasm and speed outrageous. Now we’re getting somewhere! The “inter- ARTS OF WAR How dare this man question our strategic al- agency” refers to the process through which Translation and liance with Ukraine! various officials from different government Commentary by Here are some relevant—and reveal- departments get together to debate issues, William D. Frank ing—quotations from the country director raise concerns, hammer out differences, try Additional discussed above, from his publicly-released to reach consensus and—when and if they Commentary by E. John B. Allen opening statement before the secret, closed- cannot—crisply and accurately frame their door congressional hearing: remaining disagreements for decision by K. B. E. E. higher-ups. But this last happens less often EIMELEUS [A] strong and independent Ukraine than you might think, and we may say that is critical to U.S. national security in- the whole process is designed to prevent that “This book embraces larger issues, including the terests because Ukraine is a frontline outcome and instead to produce “consensus” history of sport, the history of local ingenuity in state and a bulwark against Russian at the lowest possible level and on up the overcoming the challenges of climate, the history of adapting specialized skills and resources to military aggression. chain. Which it mostly does: what else would use, and the life history of a fascinating figure in the you expect from a bunch of bureaucrats with world of sports.” This may be true, though—nothing against similar backgrounds, educations, careers, and —Bruce W. Menning, University of Kansas author of Ukraine—I don’t think so. The country just outlooks? Hence this “consensus” is often in- Bayonets Before Bullets isn’t that important to us for the same reason distinguishable from “groupthink.” that Canada and Mexico are not that impor- But whether epistemologically unassail- RUSSIAN tant to Russia. But even if I’m wrong about able or complete madness (in the real world, CONSERVATISM that, the above statement is still fundamen- it’s more likely than not to be incoherent PAUL tally an opinion—the opinion of someone not mush), “interagency consensus” is not poli- ROBINSON entitled to make policy. He is surely welcome cy—or at least it’s not supposed to be. It may to state his opinion, when appropriate to do help inform policy, but elected and appointed so as part of his official duties and within the officials—and in a unitary executive, that chain of command, but that’s it as far as his ultimately means the president—alone get opinion goes. Actual policy—the question of to make policy. The presupposition of our whether “a strong and independent Ukraine country director—and his like-minded peers is critical to U.S. national security interests”— in the deep state—is the opposite: policy is is well above his paygrade, properly decided by made in and by the “interagency,” whose de- “With Robinson’s book in hand, readers will be able the president, his cabinet and senior advisors, crees are holy writ that it is illegitimate for the to determine with which current strand of conser- and members of the Senate who advise and president to challenge. Hence: vatism a given politician in Putin’s Russia may be consent on cabinet secretaries and treaties. At affiliated and will also be able to grasp references to earlier Russian conservative thinkers. Robinson’s least, that’s how the parchment on which the The United States and Ukraine are and book will be valuable to lay readers and policymak- charter of our liberties is written says it’s sup- must remain strategic partners, workers alike.” posed to work. ing together to realize the shared vision —Gary Hamburg, Claremont McKenna College of a stable, prosperous, and democratic author of most recently Russia’s Path towards Enlightenment The U.S. government policy communi- Ukraine that is integrated into the Eu- ty’s view is that the election of President ro-Atlantic community. Volodymyr Zelensky and the promise THE KOSHER of reforms to eliminate corruption will But in the immortal words of Jeff Lebowski: CAPONES lock in Ukraine’s Western-leaning tra- “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just like, uh, your A History of jectory, and allow Ukraine to realize its opinion, man.” Actually, more accurately, Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters dream of a vibrant democracy and eco- that’s a perfect distillation of national secu- nomic prosperity. rity groupthink, replete with all the buzz- JOE KRAUS words you’d expect but easy to unravel if What on earth is “[t]he U.S. government only you think about it. In what sense are policy community”? This is not made clear in the United States and Ukraine “strategic the statement, but from the context it would partners”? What interests do we really have appear to be something like the “deep state” in common politically, culturally, economi- we are elsewhere told does not exist except cally, or militarily? To what extent do we re- “An engaging story about the history of Jewish gangsters in Chicago.” in the minds of fevered “conspiracy theo- ally “share” a “vision” or even see the world —Elizabeth Dale, University of Florida, author of rists.” Elite conventional wisdom appears to the same way? And why is it so important The Chicago Trunk Murder have evolved into: “The deep state is not a to us that Ukraine be “integrated into the thing—and thank God it’s there to save our Euro-Atlantic community,” which seems to

CORNELLPRESS.CORNELL.EDU democracy!” get more fragile and fractured every year,

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 12 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm a process that accelerates the larger it be- democracy [is] a set of progressive out- The key to understanding how this comes? Finally, try listening to that sentence comes that democracies tend to choose, works is to see that most political scan- through Russian ears. You don’t have to be a and may even have chosen at some time dals, sooner or later, are transformed Putin sycophant to grasp its alarming char- in the past. If a progressive law or judi- into legal dramas. As legal dramas, acter. “Integration into the Euro-Atlantic cial ruling or executive order coincides scandals become understood in non- community” sounds to Moscow like “extend with the “values” of experts, a kind of partisan terms. The way in which they anti-Russian Western alliance to 2,300 kilo- mystical ratification results, and the are resolved can have decisive political meters of my southwestern border.” Would a outcome is what the builders of the impacts, but those in charge of resolv- neoliberal NatSec geek tolerate similar lan- European Union call an acquis—some- ing them are the “neutral” prosecutors, guage from Russia about Canada or Mexico? thing permanent, unassailable, and judges, and bureaucrats who make up Russia may be a bad actor in many ways, but constitutional-seeming. [“What Is Pop- the permanent (and unelected) govern- to take up a cause that’s not really important ulism?” Fall 2018] ment, not the people’s elected represen- to us but that Moscow considers a threat to a tatives. To resort to scandal in this way vital organ is pointless folly. Aid to Ukraine has been decided! Debate is thus a tacit admission that the scan- Yet this is the “U.S. government policy over! No more votes and no changes! That dalmongers no longer believe they are community consensus” that we’re supposed would be “undemocratic”! able to win politically. To paraphrase to follow uncritically and impeach a president Clausewitz, scandal provides the occa- for questioning. Do the American people feel Challenging the Consensus sion for politics by other means. any such urgency to arm, finance, and otherwise yoke themselves to Ukraine? Not that he man who best sees right It is no accident or coincidence that the they necessarily feel any ill will toward Kiev. through this thinking is, of course, only three presidents who have fundamental- But with a broken immigration system, po- TProfessor John Marini. Because I have ly challenged the administrative state—and rous southern border, wage stagnation, rising spoken at length of his thought in the CRB questioned its song sheet, the “U.S. govern- health care costs, declining living standards (“Draining the Swamp,” Winter 2018/19), I ment policy community consensus”—have and lifespans, and nearly two decades of war here offer the barest summary of the most rele- been dogged by “scandal” and threatened from which they have, to say the least, not vant points. Beginning in the late 19th century with impeachment: Richard Nixon by Water- much benefited, isaid to Ukraine on anyone’s and intensifying in the mid-1960s, elites inside gate, Ronald Reagan by Iran Contra, and now top ten list? Top 100? As blogger Steve Sailer and outside our government have centralized Trump. (Whatever you think of Bill Clinton’s put it: authority in a “fourth branch,” the executive impeachment, it was emphatically not driv- branch’s agencies and bureaucracies. Marini en or supported by the administrative state, [J]ust wait until the public realizes that refers to those institutions, the people in them, which protected him at every turn.) Trump this brouhaha is about the president de- and their governing philosophy and methods would likely take this as small consolation, laying foreign aid payments to Ukraine. as “the administrative state.” Administrative but it’s a measure of how much he’s feared that There’s nothing more sacred in the eyes state rule is fundamentally anti-democratic his enemies are running this play against him of American voters than our national and anti-constitutional, intended to be rule by now, rather than simply trying to defeat him duty to pay foreign aid promptly. “expert consensus.” next year. Which more than suggests they The experts don’t like to be challenged— doubt they can. If this isn’t proof positive that the “deep state” especially by non-expert voters or the politi- Simply based on what we know so far, is real, then what would be? Here we have cians they elect to limit administrative state the whole thing looks engineered, like those an unelected cabal trying to take down the power. Here, finally, we come to the “truest “lawfare” cases in which clever lawyers and elected president, ostensibly over an issue cause, though least in speech” of the impeach- activists find sympathetic plaintiffs, carefully that the American people have never voted on ment freight train: the administrative state is choose friendly venues, and file lawsuits not and don’t care about but which the “the U.S. striking back at a mortal threat. As Marini to redress specific, genuine injustices but to government policy community” insists is so explained in a recent speech, force changes in policy—anti-democratically, important that a democratic election must be it goes without saying. That’s the real reason overturned for its sake. Actually, to the ex- Many great scandals arise not as a nobody with firsthand knowledge came for- tent that the American people have voted on means of exposing corruption, but as a ward but left it to a distant “whistleblower” this issue, in electing a man who very clearly means of attacking political foes while to get this train started: because those driv- promised to reduce American commitments obscuring the political differences that ing it understand that, by pitching the matter abroad, they voted against the “U.S. govern- are at issue. This is especially likely to out to an agency covered by a whistleblower ment policy community consensus.” occur in the aftermath of elections that statute, with a formal whistleblower process, Yet the “interagency” somehow believes threaten the authority of an established they could begin the transformation of this that its decrees are democracy and that order. In such circumstances, scandal inherently political process into a technical, it’s somehow “undemocratic” to question provides a way for defenders of the sta- legal matter. This supposition only gains sup- them. This is how it’s possible for so many tus quo to undermine the legitimacy of port from reports of “collusion” (what else can of Trump’s enemies to impugn him as an en- those who have been elected on a plat- one call it?) between the “whistleblower” and emy of “democracy,” sanctify their patently form of challenging the status quo—di- Democratic congressional staff. The parade of undemocratic attempts to unseat him, and luting, as a consequence, the authority witnesses in secret testimony also looks care- portray themselves as democracy’s saviors. As of the electorate. fully orchestrated. Christopher Caldwell put it recently in these The secrecy has partly ended—but only pages, according to this understanding And the chaser: after the Democrats gathered its fruits and

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 13 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

shaped them into a “narrative” to spoon-feed his family a purely private matter, of no con- • Second, deplorable-Americans will to the public. The playbook is the same one ceivable import or interest to the public af- revolt at the ballot box and punish that failed with the Russia hoax: selectively fairs of the United States? That’s what you the elites in a series of elections that leak to create a fog, a miasma of vaguely nega- have to insist on to maintain that the request put in power serious statesmen intent tive-sounding “facts” or allegations that seem was improper. That’s the line we can expect on rooting out corruption and rees- ominous but also too complex and in-the- the Democrat-CLM axis to flog, shamelessly tablishing democratic accountability. weeds for ordinary folk to follow. Then pub- and aggressively. But will a majority of Amer- • Or, third, deplorable-Americans’ licly “confirm” those leaks as the authoritative icans buy it? Especially since career officials attempt to set their government account of the “scandal.” None of the actual at the Department of Justice already deter- aright via ballots will not avail, as facts adds up to any actual wrongdoing, but mined, and anti-Trump witnesses appearing it has not so often in the past; they the hope is that regular people won’t notice before Representative Adam Schiff’s secret will realize that it has not, conclude and won’t listen to those who do. Leave it to star chamber reluctantly conceded, that noth- that it never will, and resolve by any us experts: we know wrongdoing when we ing Trump did or is alleged to have done was means necessary to get out from see it! If the actual specifics of what we’re al- technically, you know, illegal. under the thumbs of people who leging don’t actually appear to you to amount It’s both infuriating and amusing to read so obviously hate them and wish to to “treason, bribery, [or] other high crimes the intellectual Left, led by the New York rule them without their consent. and misdemeanors,” as the Constitution’s Ar- Times, pivot from Project 1619—that racist, ticle II, section 4 requires, that’s only because white supremacist founding!—to founders- Only one of these possibilities is healthy for you’re not an expert. as-paragons-of-democratic-integrity, whose the continued survival of republican govern- wise Constitution reserved impeachment just ment as currently constituted. Three Possible Outcomes for such dire but foreseeable emergencies. Oh, and let’s also be clear about something Impeachment, we are often reminded, is a else: if the Republicans “collude” with this sham he worst charge thus far alleged political, not a legal, measure. That’s true to and force the removal of a president whose ap- against President Trump is that he the letter of the Constitution of course, but proval rating within his party hovers north of Tattempted to make $400 million in not to the way “impeachment” is being used 90%, and whose voters scarcely understand— aid to Ukraine contingent on that country’s now. If Trump’s enemies had sufficient politi- much less agree with—the “case” against him, government investigating possible corruption cal strength—which means the support of the they will destroy the party forever. I don’t often by the Bidens. This is the much hoped for people—they would have already impeached make predictions, because I’m not good at it, “smoking gun,” the “quid pro quo”—as if the him. As it is, they’ve held but one narrowly but this one is easy. They will have removed all foreign policy of any country in history has procedural vote and are hinting that another doubt that they are anything but ruling class ever been borne aloft on the gentle vapors of may not happen until next year. apparatchiks, adjuncts, and flunkies of the ad- pure altruism. They need—and they know they need— ministrative state from which they take orders. The central question would appear to be the intervening time to further the trans- And let none of them dare gaslight us with this: suppose that charge were abundantly formation of this fundamentally political as- the trite dismissal that Trump’s removal would substantiated by witnesses and documents— sault into a legal matter, and to find, assert, not overturn the 2016 election results because as it is not by the telcon—would that be suf- or manufacture some technical violation of the president’s replacement was also elected. ficient to convince a majority of Americans, the law. At the end of the day, “high crimes Trump’s intraparty enemies hate him, and wish and a supermajority of senators, that Trump and misdemeanors” means whatever you can to be rid of him, precisely because he is not one should be removed from office? In the latter get 218 representatives and 67 senators to of them, because he stands for, and represents, case, possibly—Republican senators tend to vote for. So long as the phrase is understood something fundamentally different. Getting be wobbly, and many want Trump gone for politically, the latter threshold—at least—is rid of him is, for them, a way to get back to reasons that have nothing to do with this out of reach. The hope is that forcing the business as usual. But there is no going back. specific allegation, which merely offers a con- public to accept a legal understanding will A few of them in safely anti-Trump states or venient excuse. bring both within reach. districts may survive the president’s removal But in the former case, I don’t see it. Es- And it might. It worked against Nixon. It but the vast majority will not. A new party— pecially since a) no aid was actually withheld; almost worked against Reagan. But let’s be a Trumpian populist-nationalist party—will b) no investigation was actually launched; clear: if it works this time, there are only three arise from the Republican Party’s ashes. More c) the American people don’t care about possible outcomes: blue collar in economic orientation and less in Ukraine and would probably prefer to get hock to coastal and financial elites, it will do their $400 million back; and d) they would • First, deplorable-Americans will a better job of attracting Democrats and in- inevitably ask: so were, in fact, Joe Biden and meekly accept President Trump’s dependents—possibly pointing the way to the his son on the take from a foreign govern- removal, in which case the country first real national majority coalition since the ment? And if it looks like they might have as a self-governing republic will be Reagan era. And that new party will not wel- been, why, exactly, was it improper for the finished; the elite coup will have come the traitors, who will have to make do president to ask about it? succeeded, their grip on power ce- with contributorships on CNN and MSNBC. Trump’s enemies’ answer to the last ques- mented. With all due respect to the Assuming any slots are available. tion is: because the president was asking a vice president, this is not the way— foreign government to investigate a political these are not the people on the Michael Anton is a lecturer in politics and re- opponent for purely personal gain. Really? Is backs of whom—he should wish search fellow at Hillsdale College, a senior fellow potential corruption by a former vice presi- to enter the Oval Office. And I am of the Claremont Institute, and a former nation- dent—and potential future president—and confident he will not. al security official in the Trump Administration.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 14 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by William Voegeli Liberty, Equality, Reality

enyans appear to be very, very “a half-dozen national-class Swedish runners.” body structure. Scientists’ examinations have good at running long distances. In Saltin held competitions in the Rift Val- shown that, as a group, the Kalenjin have un- K1988, Kenya’s Ibrahim Hussein won ley, home of the Kalenjin tribe that produces usually long, slender legs. The pendulum ef- the Boston Marathon, making him that com- most of Kenya’s best runners despite account- fect of running with thick calves and ankles petition’s first men’s champion from Africa. ing for less than one eighth of its population. is particularly disadvantageous over long dis- Kenyans have gone on to win 21 of the 31 The results saw “the Swedish 800-meter to tances. By contrast, the “running economy” races since Hussein’s breakthrough while also 10,000-meter specialists...soundly beaten by enjoyed by those with slim lower legs is opti- dominating the women’s competition, win- hundreds of 15- to 17-year-old Kenyan boys.” mal for taking faster, longer strides than other ning 12 of this century’s 20 races. For Burfoot and Saltin, Kenyan suprem- runners do when using the same amount of And it’s not just Boston. Kenyan men acy in long-distance running represents the oxygen. have finished first in 15 of the past 21 Berlin “perfect combination of genetic endowment Saltin’s research, as summarized by Bur- Marathons. Kenyans have also won seven of with environmental and cultural influences.” foot, showed these same forces operating at the 24 Olympic medals awarded in the men’s Kalenjin culture emphasizes stoicism and ag- the cellular level as well. Compared to Swed- marathon since 1988, and five of those for the gression, Burfoot writes, qualities that help ish runners, for example, Kenyans’ quadri- women’s marathon. runners train and compete. The Kalenjin in- ceps had “more blood-carrying capillaries In other words, a country comprising two- habit a part of Kenya more than a mile above surrounding the muscle fibers and more mito- thirds of 1% of the world’s population has sea level. This thin atmosphere develops the chondria within the fibers (the mitochondria come to dominate marathon racing in the 30 body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently, an are the energy-producing ‘engine’ of the mus- years since getting serious about international enormous advantage when running distances. cle).” These attributes gave the Kenyan run- competition. Nor is this talent confined to But, Burfoot points out, the Himalayas ners Saltin tested the ability to burn oxygen a handful of exceptional athletes. Ambrose and Andes are also elevated, yet Tibetans and with “incredible efficiency,” along with “high “Amby” Burfoot, an American who won the Peruvians don’t dominate marathon races. fatigue resistance.” 1968 Boston Marathon, wrote in Runner’s Part of the Kalenjin advantage appears to be Knowing all this, we can only be puzzled World in 1992 about Bengt Saltin, a Swed- innate. In The Sports Gene (2013), David Ep- by one reviewer’s judgment that Skin Deep: ish physiologist who traveled to Kenya with stein accounts for this advantage in terms of Journeys in the Divisive Science of Race “demol-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 15 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ishes the idea of genetic explanations for any differences play a role in Kenyans’ running chological dispositions are distributed across region’s sporting achievements.” The review success is, in fact, a grudging acknowledg- the human race in any way other than evenly scoffs: “Some have speculated that Kenyans ment that the idea is almost certainly true, or randomly. might have, on average, longer, thinner legs so that the only remaining question con- In Skin Deep, Evans pivots from one chap- than other people, or differences in heart and cerns the importance of inherited biological ter on athletic ability, which judges it to be muscle function.” To the contrary, Skin Deep’s factors relative to other causes. For example, somewhat heritable, to nine chapters on intel- author Gavin Evans shows that “Such claims Skin Deep offers one scientist’s opinion that lectual ability. In them, he argues that intel- for athletic prowess are lazy biological essen- we can “say with reasonable confidence that so- ligence is much harder to define and measure tialism, heavily doped with racism.” cial and economic factors are the primary fac- than physical ability, and that no evidence has The review, which appeared in the July 2019 tors driving the success of Kenyan distance yet emerged proving the existence of signifi- issue of Nature magazine, was written by An- running” (emphasis added). Evans subse- cant innate cognitive differences among racial gela Saini, author of another recent book on quently stipulates that his argument “doesn’t or ethnic groups. Ultimately, while conceding the same subject: Superior: The Return of Race imply that genetics plays no role at the popu- that such evidence may yet be discovered, Ev- Science. Both writers are journalists based in lation level.” ans aligns himself with what he considers the England. Saini’s enthusiastic review reflects “clear majority of geneticists and other scien- the belief that Skin Deep buttresses her book’s Slow-twitch muscle fibres, longer legs tists” who believe “that the evolutionary fac- thesis, which is that there are no important bi- and lighter bones provide a significant tors acting against population differences in ological differences among sub-groups of the advantage, and these are in higher sup- cognition are far stronger than those favour- human race, however defined, and that those ing them.” who think such differences do or might exist As shown by her review’s misrepresenta- are either saps or bigots. Books discussed in this essay: tion of Skin Deep’s argument, Saini is more Strangely, Saini’s brief book review makes reluctant than Evans to acknowledge any inher purposes clearer than they become at any The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of herited differences among population groups. point in the pages of Superior. “Racist ‘science’ Extraordinary Athletic Performance, If there really are some genetically transmit- [is just] a way of rationalizing long-standing by David Epstein. Current, ted differences among ethnic or regional sub- prejudices, to prop up a particular vision of so- 352 pages, $28 (cloth), $18 (paper) sets of the human race, then there might be ciety as racists would like it to be,” she writes others. Her response is to deny everything in Nature. “Racists don’t care if their data are Skin Deep: Journeys in the Divisive rather than concede anything. But when this weak and theories shoddy. They need only Science of Race, by Gavin Evans. strategy culminates in ascribing awareness of the thinnest veneer of scientific respectability Oneworld, 384 pages, $27.95 Kenyans’ running prowess to “lazy biologi- to convince the unwitting.” A world “in thrall cal essentialism,” Saini inadvertently affirms to far-right politics and ethnic nationalism Superior: The Return of Race Science, one of Superior’s targets, blogger Steve Sailer, demands vigilance,” the sort of vigilance ani- by Angela Saini. Beacon Press, who says that the definition of racism has ex- mated by books like Skin Deep (and, implicitly, 256 pages, $26.95 panded to include the “high crime of Noticing Superior), which can help the public “become Things.” less susceptible to manipulation by hardened Who We Are and How We Got Here: Like all books with a clear agenda, Supe- racists with political agendas.” Therefore, “We Ancient DNA and the New Science rior works to convince readers that the au- must guard science against abuse and reinforce of the Human Past, by David Reich. thor’s point of view is correct. The book’s the essential unity of the human species.” Pantheon, 368 pages, $28.95 most interesting, awkward, and melodra- Unfortunately, the “essential unity of the matic passages, however, find Saini strug- human species,” noble concept though it may gling to convince herself. In the book, unlike be, is a cosmic or moral axiom rather than a ply in Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco in her review of Skin Deep, she yields some scientific principle. Guarding science against than in, say, Samoa, Nigeria and Jamai- ground, acknowledging that there are “super- abuse begins with making empirical observa- ca. And when these long legs and light ficial” biological differences among populations accurately and reporting them scrupu- bones combine with high altitude and tion groups. Superior offers examples—skin lously, even when the data cast doubt on our a running-to-school lifestyle, potential color, and susceptibility or imperviousness most cherished beliefs and aspirations. No kicks in. to certain diseases—but never defines what intellectually honest writer would say, “Some makes a trait superficial, or what differenti- have speculated that Kenyans might have, on For most of the millennia during which ates traits in that category from significant average, longer, thinner legs than other peo- homo sapiens have existed as a distinct spe- ones. ple,” any more than she would say, “Some have cies, inheritable capacities related to physi- Yet even this modest, vague concession speculated that Pygmies might be, on average, cal strength and endurance were crucial ends up distressing Saini. She notes that the shorter than other people.” These are verifi- to whether individuals survived and social Bajau people of Southeast Asia have “evolved able facts, not tendentious conjecture. groups flourished. But over recent centuries, an extraordinary ability to hold their breath humans’ cognitive abilities have grown more underwater for long periods of time” after Inconvenient Truths important, relative to physical ones, for indi- centuries of diving to hunt fish. The Bajaus’ vidual and group success. Accordingly, Skin unusually large spleens, which help sustain t’s a fair indication of saini’s reli- Deep and Superior are concerned with think- the blood’s oxygen levels, appear to be “a mea- ability that she cannot even be trusted ing, not running. Both books’ overriding pur- surable genetic difference between them and Ito summarize an ally accurately. Evans’s pose is to discredit and denounce all sugges- others, sharpened over many generations by “demolition” of the proposition that innate tions that heritable cognitive abilities and psy- living in an unusual environment.”

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 16 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

That thought occasions an interior mono- that they should have realized it was essen- asking questions whose answers might give logue, raising “a question we don’t like to ask tial to “reinforce that we were all the same comfort to racists opposing an ever more out loud.” Is it possible, she wonders, “for a underneath.” Responsible scientists, aware equal, inclusive world. group of people, isolated enough by time, of the history of racist thought and the ex- For Reich, the fact that such anti-intel- space, or culture, to adapt to their particular istence of racist publicists who will seize lectualism is well-intentioned—he, too, op- environment or circumstances in different any scrap of evidence to validate their ma- poses what he calls “hateful ideas and old ways? That they could evolve certain charac- lign project, will and must “resist the urge to racist canards”—makes it more dangerous, teristics or abilities, that they might differ in group people at all.” not less. As an intellectual matter, Who We their innate capacities?” Seeking reassurance, Are declares that the “indefensibility” of the Saini interviews “India’s leading population Sacrilege and Censorship orthodoxy about a genetically undifferenti- geneticist,” Kumarasamy Thangaraj. “‘Could ated human race is becoming “obvious at there be psychological differences between avin evans trusts, basically, almost every turn.” As scientists use the lat- population groups?’ I asked Thangaraj, ten- that honest, competent scientific in- est tools of genetic analysis more extensively, tatively. I go further. ‘Differences in cognitive Gvestigation will vindicate the unity it becomes harder to “deny the existence of abilities?’” The scientist does not allay her of the human species. Saini, less sanguine, substantial average genetic differences across fears. “‘That kind of thing is not known yet,’ can’t decide whether race science is intellec- populations” or to assume that these differ- he replied. ‘But I’m sure that everything has tually bad or morally bad. If the former, its ences cannot extend to “cognitive and behav- [a] genetic basis.’” weak evidence and arguments will discredit ioral traits.” She is even more distressed by her inter- its conclusions, which means race science is As a political matter, the “well-meaning view with another prominent geneticist, Har- deplorable but ultimately too absurd to be a people who deny the possibility of substan- vard Medical School’s David Reich. “I know problem. But at some points in Superior, she’s tial biological differences among human that Reich is not a racist,” she writes, which less convinced that wisdom and decency are populations are digging themselves into an only makes it harder for her to believe what destined to triumph, and leans toward the indefensible position.” Scientists somewhere he tells her: after 70,000 years apart from one position that scientists must simply stop in the world will use the latest tools to pursue another, adapting to very different environ- ments, Europeans and Africans may turn out to have (in Saini’s summary of Reich’s views) “more than superficial average differences,... possibly even cognitive and psychological ones.” Such thoughts, she writes, are ones “I never expected to hear from a respected mainstream geneticist.” Saini, like Evans, has to account for Reich due to his widely discussed book, written for laymen, Who We Are and How We Got Here (2018). What she lauds as the essential unity of the human species, Reich describes as “an orthodoxy that the biological differences among human populations are so modest that they should in practice be ignored.” This con- Photo © DMadeo, image license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. sensus, forged by 20th-century anthropolo- Copyright holder has no endorsement of the content of this ad. Image cropped. gists and geneticists, came to regard race as a pernicious concept, integral to eugenics and Nazism, but also a meaningless one. No one, that is, could identify the boundaries between racial groups, and scientists asserted with Join acclaimed scholars Robert P. George, Candace Vogler, Christopher Tollefsen, David increasing confidence that the genetic varia- Corey, Ryan T. Anderson, R. J. Snell and Anna Moreland and others in Princeton to study tion within any given group was much greater the moral foundations of a free society. than the variation between groups. It is common in these circles to eschew the term “race” Moral Life and the Classical Tradition Introduction to College Life altogether in favor of the more clinical “popu- For rising high school juniors and seniors For incoming college freshmen lation group.” Natural Law and Public Affairs(Spring Seminar) Thomistic Seminar Saini follows this convention, but worries For advanced undergraduate and graduate students For graduate students in philosophy and that it won’t suffice. Even scientists who used related fields the right language about population groups, First Principles and were clearly anti-racist, continued to For advanced undergraduate and SUMMER pursue research that was “all about finding graduate students SEMINARS out how people differed.” Better that they 2020 should have treated the question as settled and closed: “the genetic variation between us Princeton | www.winst.org/summer was already known to be trivial.” Better still

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 17 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm questions about group differences, however mittee to which these claims must be credits such theories, however. The only way strongly defenders of the crumbling ortho- submitted and authorized. to satisfy both imperatives would be for re- doxy may object. When the answers further view boards to approve only those research undermine that orthodoxy, supporters of If translated from bureaucratese into Latin, projects that support the anti-racist cause, as racist canards will claim vindication—both Stevens’s proposal would pair nicely with the he understands it, or for them to retroactively as having been right, and as having been the Inquisition’s condemnation of Galileo for disapprove projects, and prevent the publica- only participants in the debate who honored heresy. tion of their findings, if the results end up be- the scientific imperative to follow the evi- Nor is she alone in opposing open inquiry. ing inimical to that cause. dence where it leads. Linguist Noam Chomsky (of course) argued Saini herself favors impeding the spread of Some who oppose scientific investigation in Language and Problems of Knowledge (1987) harmful rhetoric and research through pres- of differences among population groups are that while “people differ in their biologically sure on big internet firms. In 2019 she wrote, not content to denounce; they want to sup- determined qualities...discovery of a correla- also in Scientific American, that because “rac- press. Who We Are cites Northwestern Uni- tion between some of these qualities is of no ists exist at all levels of society, including in versity political scientist Jacqueline Stevens, scientific interest and of no social significance, academia, science, media and politics,” the who has called on the federal government’s except to racists, sexists and the like.” Thus, public must “recognize hatred dressed up as National Institutes of Health to, in her investigating group differences is pointless scholarship and learn how to marginalize it, words: and harmful, since it assumes that “the answer and be assiduous in squeezing out pseudosci- to the question makes a difference,” which it ence from public debate.” She hastens to re- issue a regulation prohibiting its staff does not—except, again, “to racists, sexists assure that this obvious free speech issue “is or grantees...from publishing in any and the like.” not a free speech issue; it’s about improving form—including internal documents Journalist John Horgan wrote in a 2013 ar- the quality and accuracy of information that or citations to other studies—claims ticle for Scientific American that research uni- people see online, and thereby creating a fair- about genetics associated with vari- versities’ institutional review boards, which er, kinder society.” ables of race, ethnicity, nationality, or must approve projects involving human sub- any other category of population that jects, “should reject proposed research that Keeping Our Heads is observed or imagined as heritable un- will promote racial theories of intelligence, less statistically significant disparities because the harm of such research—which he anti-racist project’s epistemo- between groups exist and description of fosters racism even if not motivated by rac- logical rules are impossible to formu- these will yield clear benefits for public ism—far outweighs any alleged benefits.”T late in a way that renders them either health, as deemed by a standing com- Horgan is enthused about research that dis- coherent or benign. That the truth will set

ESSENTIAL AMERICAN ESSAYS FROM TWO NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORS

Two vital new collections with deeply personal perspectives discuss the importance of political and civic education, the need for civil discourse, the meaning that “Justice Gorsuch has written a temperate “This is Krauthammer in full, or very sustains our beliefs—and the book, with civility shown to all. nearly so. It is a book that says constantly renewed responsibility Such fairness, though, does not reduce This is what he believed. This is who he of each American to keep the the fervor with which he urges that we was. As such, it is invaluable.” JAY NORDLINGER, republic strong. keep this country a republic.” NATIONAL REVIEW NATIONAL REVIEW

CROWN FORUM AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 18 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm you free is a precept shared by the Gospel that most, or any, of geneticists’ discoveries and the Enlightenment. But it’s a perverse will prove inimical to the political hopes he distortion to conclude that any finding about shares with Saini and Evans. how the world works that doesn’t set you free, In any case, it is clear that the question that complicates or fails to advance your pre- of whether population groups have inher- ferred political cause, is not and cannot be ited differences in cognitive ability would be true. hard to answer even if it were not politically By the same token, the standard that incendiary. For one thing, to isolate inter- Proposition X must be false if Bad People en- group differences based in biology from those dorse it is no way to run a laboratory. James caused by culture and circumstance is a formi- VOL 8 NO 3, SUMMER 2019 Watson, a founder of modern genetics as dable challenge. Furthermore, intelligence is co-discoverer of DNA’s role in transmitting harder to define, measure, and compare than, biological information, has become a pariah say, the ability to run 26.2 miles. Evans goes Republican in his old age (he’s 91) by blurting out views so far as to suggest that we stop using the on group differences in abrasive ways. His word “intelligence” altogether, an innovative Institutionalism for a greatest-hits album, compiled on the blog but not totally surprising way to criminalize “Government of of computational biologist Lior Pachter, is noticing. Laws”: The Polybian distressingly robust. Watson accommodates Second, even if anti-racists’ fears about Political Science of modern sensibilities solely by virtue of be- future biological findings are realized, it’s an John Adams ing an equal-opportunity offender: “When- unforced error to catastrophize this pros- Ben Peterson ever you interview fat people, you feel bad, pect. “The logical consequence of insisting because you know you’re not going to hire that IQ gaps between races are biologically Communications and them.” “[The] historic curse of the Irish...is determined is that nothing in human society Empire: George not alcohol, it’s not stupidity...it’s ignorance.” can really be changed,” Saini writes, absurdly. “Anyone who would hire an ecologist is out of An egalitarianism so frail that it can be shat- Washington’s Farewell his mind.” Address Insult-comic persona aside, when edited Michael S. Kochin by himself or others, Watson poses ques- The mistake is tions that should provoke thought, not anger. to think the discovery The Vices of Our “There is no firm reason to anticipate that the Virtues: Tocqueville and intellectual capacities of peoples geographi- of significant the Constitution of the cally separated in their evolution should prove American Dream to have evolved identically,” Watson wrote in dissimilarities would Steven Bilakovics his memoir, Avoid Boring People (2007). “Our justify a caste system. wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not James Bradley Thayer be enough to make it so.” tered by persuasive evidence that population and the Presumption of Though in a 2019 article for Stat, science groups have inherited differences in socially Constitutionality: A journalist Sharon Begley lists this contention consequential attributes is deeply flawed. It Strange Posthumous as just another of Watson’s “odious” views, a stood in need of revision long before scien- Career strident adjective is not a refutation. Nor does tists began examining group differences. As Matthew J. Franck it dispatch Watson’s null hypothesis. “Writ- psychology professor Steven Pinker pointed ing now,” Reich says in , “I shud- out in (2002), population Who We Are The Blank Slate Justice Finch: The der to think of Watson...behind my shoulder,” groups’ essential similarity “is a factual a prudent concern in light of how the older question that could turn out one way or the Complicated Law and man’s career and reputation have crashed. Yet other.” The mistake is to think that the dis- Politics of Harper Lee’s if there is a firm reason to think geographi- covery of significant dissimilarities would THOUGHT POLITICAL AMERICAN A Journal of Ideas, Institutions, and Culture Atticus and Scout cally isolated population groups have evolved justify a caste system, as the most fanatical Matthew Van Hook identically, either by chance or necessity, Who racists believe, or would render castes irre- We Are supplies nothing that reveals it and sistible or immovable, as the most fanatical Book Reviews good reasons to doubt it. anti-racists think. In light of these considerations, we can READ AT bit.ly/2tYs5LI make two observations about the “inde- Egalitarianism Without Absurdism fensible position,” as Reich calls it, being taken by those “who deny the possibility of e should make our theories— substantial biological differences among hu- political and moral, as well as sci- man populations.” First, people who think Wentific—fit the facts, not demand they’re winning a debate rarely try to shut that the facts fit our theories. People are equal it down or keep it secret. Reich opposes the in some ways and unequal in others, which anti-racists’ anti-science defeatism, in part, means that any egalitarianism that we can on the grounds that it’s too early to assume both admire and implement will give same-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 19 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ness and difference the respect each deserves. clear that the origins are, to some significant and institutions, to be a little more open with Suppose that between two individuals, X is extent, innate rather than environmental. our hearts and maybe also with our borders.” more intelligent (or musical, athletic, physi- Civic and social egalitarianism still demands But how much more would be enough more? cally attractive, etc.) than Y. Suppose, fur- that all members of A and B enjoy equal Everything about the theory, practice, and ther, that this inequality cannot be wholly rights and respect, but also accepts that dif- spirit of modern egalitarianism tells us that explained by environmental differences such ferent proportions of A and B will end up Saini’s “little more” is going to end up being a as upbringing or education, and might be re- as geneticists, shortstops, etc. “The right great deal more, and for a very long time. duced but cannot be eliminated by equalizing way to deal with the inevitable discovery of Along the same lines, what does ending such factors. substantial differences across populations,” discrimination consist of? Not the elimina- Nothing in this scenario supports the con- Reich counsels, is to accord “everyone equal tion of all disparities, we’ll be told, just the clusion that X and Y should be other than rights despite differences that exist among bad ones, the unfair ones. In practice, this civic and moral equals. In a well-governed individuals.” The important thing is to “cel- means that any particular disparity is pre- republic they will obey the same laws, enjoy ebrate every person and every population as sumed guilty until proven innocent of result- the same rights, and shoulder the same obli- an extraordinary realization of our human ing from discrimination, defined expansively gations. As Thomas Jefferson wrote near the genius and to give each person every chance to encompass such unspecifiable concepts conclusion of his presidency, “Because Sir to succeed, regardless of the particular aver- as unconscious, implicit, and structural bias. Isaac Newton was superior to others in un- age combination of genetic propensities he or Since, for example, racism informs the lazy derstanding, he was not therefore lord of the she happens to display.” biological essentialism that ascribes innate person or property of others.” In a successful I once wrote a book that asked what it running ability to Kenyans, we cannot de- society animated by the republican spirit, X would mean for a nation’s welfare state to be a clare victory against discrimination until that and Y will join fellow citizens who honor and completed endeavor, to acquire all the resourc- golden day when Kenyans and Samoans are encourage one another, each concerned that es and authority it could possibly use to achieve proportionally represented among marathon all others fulfill their potential. In his 1992 its objectives. The answer turned out to be that winners. speech to the Republican National Conven- there is no answer, that the welfare state’s ul- To spell out the implications of Saini’s tion, Ronald Reagan said, “[W]e are all equal timate purpose is to facilitate (and necessitate) anti-racism is to demonstrate that it’s as in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is the welfare state’s perpetual expansion. ominous as it is ludicrous—an egalitarian- not enough; we must be equal in the eyes of Now that identity politics has come to be ism that strangles liberty, fraternity, and each other.” Egalitarianism rightly under- the salient feature of modern American lib- fairness. The saner, safer path is the one laid stood does not object, however, if X but not eralism, it’s time to update my older question. out by David Reich: “If we aspire to treat all Y becomes a geneticist (or a pianist, shortstop, What, exactly, are 21st-century identitarians individuals with respect regardless of the ex- or fashion model), provided that Y’s lesser trying to accomplish? What would it mean to traordinary differences that exist among in- talents were still given a fair opportunity to achieve the equality they are demanding, and dividuals within a population, it should not manifest themselves. how will we know they’ve succeeded? be so much more of an effort to accommo- Suppose, similarly, that members of As with the welfare state, the goal’s only date the smaller but still significant average Group A turn out to be more likely than definable feature is that it recedes constantly. differences across populations.” those in Group B to possess some socially Ending racism requires “more equitable edu- consequential aptitude. Inquiries into the cation and healthcare,” Saini writes, and a William Voegeli is senior editor of the Clare- cause of the disparity make it increasingly commitment “to end discrimination in work mont Review of Books.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 20 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Peter Skerry Becoming White Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities, by Eric Kaufmann. Harry N. Abrams Press, 624 pages, $35

eaders of crb will find much to and multiculturalism have finally found po- that in an era of unprecedented white demo- like in Whiteshift, a refreshingly origi- litical voice in the person of their president, graphic decline it is absolutely vital for it to Rnal, even bold, analysis of the impact Donald Trump. Readers will find here an in- have a democratic outlet.” of immigration and demographic change on sightful and genuinely fair-minded effort to Lest there be any confusion, Kaufmann the United States as well as the United King- understand and explain the anxieties over im- is no white nationalist; he’s not even a guilty dom, Canada, and other Western democra- migration that have been driving Brexit and white conservative! And his argument is ut- cies. Its author, Eric Kaufmann, comes to this propelled Trump to the White House. And terly prudential, not principled. He concludes subject from a genuinely—dare I say it?—di- though Kaufmann is prepared to call out rac- that “[p]ermitting freer expression of the ma- verse, even cosmopolitan, personal history. ism when he sees it, unlike most academics he jority group’s sense of cultural loss…is, in the As the book jacket explains, he was born in is sparing in his judgments and refuses simply long run, probably less dangerous than re- Hong Kong but raised in Vancouver, British to dismiss explicitly negative characteriza- pressing [it].” Columbia, and spent eight years in Tokyo. In tions of immigrants as “racist.” Kaufmann places the blame for our pre- recent years he has been teaching politics at dicament squarely at the feet of those whom Birkbeck College at the University of London. nstead, he painstakingly argues he refers to as “left-modernists,” whose histo- And as he mentions while developing his ar- that the causes of the current populist ry he traces back not to the Progressives, nor gument, in addition to his eastern European Iresurgence are primarily cultural, not eco- to labor activists and working-class socialists, Jewish roots, he has both Asian and Hispanic nomic. As he asserts: “Cultural grievances are but to artists and intellectuals such as Mabel blood relations living in the United States. So, the main engine behind the right-wing popu- Dodge Luhan and Randolph Bourne. First it seems fair to say that Kaufmann has some lism we see today and will continue to be im- dissected by historian Christopher Lasch, skin in this game. portant during the coming century of white these “new radicals” launched a cultural revo- But this is no self-indulgent excavation of decline. This in-group attachment is not racist lution from the salons of Greenwich Village one individual’s identity under the guise of unless it leads to antipathy towards outgroups back at the beginning of the 20th century. scholarship. Quite the contrary. Kaufmann or racial puritanism.” Kaufmann grounds this And as Kaufmann rightly notes, the pluralism displays an uncommon openness to the many perspective in historical sources as well as espoused by these progenitors of today’s mul- non-cosmopolitans on both sides of the At- analysis of demographic and survey data and ticulturalists led to their embracing selected, lantic. As he puts it: “Because cosmopolitan- even findings from his own focus groups. And exotic aspects of immigrant subcultures while ism is de rigeur in the mobile, elite circles as he further argues: “If politics in the West disparaging and rejecting “a desiccated puri- where power often resides, its values can is ever to return to normal rather than be- tanical Americanism.” As he puts it, “Sixties crystallize into coercive norms.” He is espe- coming even more polarized, white interests multiculturalism was a more strident, ambi- cially attentive to those in the United States will need to be discussed…. Not only is white tious and large-scale application of Bourne’s whose anxieties and anger over immigration group self-interest legitimate, but I maintain double-standard of applauding the Jew who

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 21 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

‘sticks to his faith’ while urging the WASP markers are less likely to be affected.” It will charges of racism, xenophobia and pan- to leave his culture behind and become a cos- also involve a broadening of what constitutes dering to the far right. mopolitan.” And so today, we must endure white culture. “‘asymmetrical multiculturalism,’ whereby mi- He goes on to make explicit what is implicit eaders looking for the politi- nority identities are lauded while white major- in this scenario: that the much-maligned no- cal ideas and principles undergirding ity ones are denigrated.” tion of assimilation—to the new “white ma- RKaufmann’s new “cultural contract” jority” culture—will be the order of the day. might be disappointed. Although he makes rom kaufmann’s perspective, it Similarly embedded in his perspective is a it clear that he subscribes to classical liberal should be no surprise that large num- critique of civic nationalism. Echoing Samuel values, his preoccupation with group identi- Fbers of Americans who identify as Huntington, Kaufmann argues that in an era ties and subcultures means that he is at ease white—repeatedly reminded that they are of ideological struggle such as the Cold War, with the formation and articulation of group part of an ever-shrinking segment soon to be civic nationalism may have been adequate. interests in social and political life. Indeed, it a minority in a “majority-minority society”— But in today’s environment, especially with is safe to assume that Kaufmann would be have long felt demeaned and threatened. the rise of the populist right, it is “insufficient.” perfectly comfortable with, and indeed sup- Eventually they began to react and push back. He elaborates: portive of, the ethnically inflected, patronage- But he goes further, and points out that many based machine politics that characterized of these minorities, especially Hispanics and Civic nationalism, it was hoped, would state and local affairs in much of America up Asians, either identify racially as white or provide the ethnic majority with the until the mid-20th century. embrace mainstream American values. Then, reassurance it needed to stop fretting In the same vein, he acknowledges his too, they are intermarrying with whites in about immigration. But this logic only acquiescence to contemporary identity poli- ever increasing numbers. The outcome of works if the majority’s concern is of tics—at least when defined narrowly as the these combined demographic and cultural a piece with that of the state: namely pursuit of group interests. He disapproves trends will be that “today’s white majorities political order, shared values and the when “immigrants’ normal desires to defend evolve seamlessly and gradually into mixed- smooth running of the economy. What their interests are decried as ‘identity politics.’” race majorities that take on white myths and happens if the conservative section of Indeed, he parts “company with those on symbols.” This is what Kaufmann means by the majority is in fact exercised by the the right who believe group sentiments are a “whiteshift.” And while there will continue to loss of its ethnic identity or of challeng- problem and we should simply identify as in- be plenty of “unmixed whites,” he also makes es to ethno-traditions of nationhood? dividuals.” After all, he regards those mobiliz- clear that this process “will involve a change Civic nationalism provides no answer to ing today around their white identity as act- in the physical appearance of the median this deeper existential anxiety beyond ing out of “collective memory” and responding Westerner…though linguistic and religious its reflex to block such questions with to “cultural markers like appearance, religion

CClaremontlaremont ReviewReview ofof BBooksooks FFREEREE 22020017 C Calendaralendar Subscribe to two or more years of the Subscribe, renew a subscription, or Claremont Review of Books and receive a free 2017give cal ean giftdar subscriptionfeaturing the to d rtheawings of ClaremontCRB Ar tReview Directo ofr E Bookslliott Ba andnfiel dreceive. a free 2020 calendar featuring the drawings of CRBUNL OArtCK Director THIS SPEC ElliottIAL O FBanfield.FER WITH PROMOCODE CRB-2YEAR-CAL VISIT www.claremontreviewofbooks.org/calendar VISIT to get your calendar today. www.claremont.org/freecalendar

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 22 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

and cultural traditions” that bind them to are the economic interests of intellectuals, slow ethnic change is a legitimate expression the group. Such whites are, he insists, “[l]ike academics, and other such knowledge work- of the ethnic majority’s cultural interest.” As African Americans…[and] are not primarily ers whose incomes and lifestyles render them he puts it: “Ideally, desires for cultural pro- attached to their group as a tool to get more particularly reliant on plentiful unskilled tection should be openly aired, in a respect- stuff.” workers. Certainly their unacknowledged de- ful way, by members of majority groups who pendence on such manpower must contribute identify strongly with their ethnicity, without hether one agrees or disagrees to the intensity with which such privileged drawing the charge of racism.” with Kaufmann’s perspective, it is members of our society heap abuse on their Wstrikingly honest, original, and in- fellow citizens not in a position to view im- et how exactly his technocratic sightful. Yet its single-minded preoccupation migrants as retainers. ideal comports with the messy realities with demographic, cultural, and ideological Nor does Kaufmann pay any attention Yof intergroup cultural comparison and forces is limiting. For example, when discuss- to the fiscal strains—above and beyond the competition remains disturbingly unclear. ing the causes of immigration restriction in taxes they pay—that immigrants place on What is clear, at least to this observer, is that the U.S. in the years after World War I, he services, especially at the local and state lev- while Hispanics and Asians might find such argues that “cultural loss” was a critical factor, els. Yet each of these factors has helped to fuel a regime worth considering, African Ameri- and then points out that restrictionists nev- the now-inescapable disaffection with immi- cans almost certainly would not. Not for a ertheless “felt obliged to fabricate economic grants. Finally, he neglects the important role moment do I envision them ceding to other and security rationales” for their efforts. Yet that immigrants and their offspring play in groups in America, especially recently arrived given the wave of bombings and general lobbying Congress to keep the gates open for immigrants, something equal to their claims strikes across the nation involving immigrant their relatives. And this speaks more generally on the political community. Not without justi- anarchists and socialists in the years immedi- to the scant attention he pays to the politics of fication would African Americans feel threat- ately following the First World War, it is dif- immigration policymaking. ened and indeed left behind by having their ficult to understand what kind of “fabrication” “cultural interests”—not to mention their eco- Kaufmann has in mind here. Indeed, 1919 evertheless, kaufmann is hard- nomic and political interests—placed on a par was one of the most tumultuous and violent ly oblivious of the need to rethink with newcomers who never experienced the years in U.S. peacetime history. Nhow we make immigration policy. depredations of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Moreover, there is considerable evidence, He begins with a call for “an accommodation unresolved legacy of that history. overlooked in Whiteshift, that immigration between the freely expressed preferences of I can only surmise that the wide scope of restriction in that era was fueled in no small cultural conservatives and liberals in which Kaufmann’s analysis, which includes not only degree by the increasing competition expe- each tries to understand the other.” Not sur- the U.S. but Canada, the U.K., and western rienced by workers, many of them earlier prisingly, the arbiter of such accommodation Europe, contributed to his neglect of the immigrants, with more recent arrivals. As would necessarily be the government. Yet cu- unique and enduring implications of “the economic historians Timothy Hatton and riously, he has in mind a rather technocratic first new nation” having accommodated slav- Jeffrey Williamson have demonstrated, in process relying on “an evidence-based ap- ery, however ambivalently. Another problem that era expanded immigrant networks and proach which takes all dimensions of inequal- is the sheer scope and ambitiousness of this the increased speed of steamship travel made ity into account and favours ‘nudge’-style rem- 600-page volume, overflowing with survey it easier, quicker, and cheaper to cross the edies.” “It would then fall to the government,” data, statistics, and charts that, the reader is Atlantic. And as the number of immigrants he elaborates, “to reach an open, transparent reminded, are further elaborated on at the au- increased, their education and literacy levels accommodation between competing forces…. thor’s website. Even the attentive reader can declined. The result was increased labor mar- The discussion over immigration rates should get lost in the details. Then, too, tighter edit- ket competition between the latest arrivals be no more controversial than the debate over ing might have saved the author from frequent from southern and eastern Europe and those tax rates”! bloopers—including his assertions that John who had preceded them, as well as with na- It boggles the mind to contemplate what Dewey was “[o]riginally a Congregationalist tive workers. This was hardly a “fabricated Kaufmann means when he makes such a minister,” that Nathan Glazer rejected mul- rationale” for restriction. claim about such an obviously and inherently ticulturalism in We Are All Multiculturalists Turning to the contemporary period, contentious issue. He does, however, highlight Now (1997), that the writer Michael Lind was Kaufmann’s single-minded focus on the role that he is assuming that the adulation of mi- an editor at the Public Interest, and that “the of “left-modernist” intellectuals in shaping nority identities and the denigration of white last [American] troops didn’t leave Afghani- how we think about immigrants and immi- majority identity characteristic of “asymmet- stan until 2014.” gration neglects the role of other actors and rical multiculturalism” would be eliminated But these must be considered relatively forces. Here again, the role of economic in- in favor of more even-handed treatment. And minor flaws in an ambitious, admirable, and terests in today’s debates gets ignored. To the result would be open bargaining among largely successful effort to reorient a debate be sure, the implications of this particular equals. More specifically, he proposes that im- that has roiled politics not only in America oversight are minimal since there is not much migration policy be based on a points system but in other Western democracies. And that, evidence of economic competition between “to reconcile the interests of society’s cultural as Eric Kaufmann rightly insists, will contin- immigrants and American workers today, stakeholders” and “balance the competing in- ue to do so in the coming decades. though there is some. But there certainly are terests of its cultural constituencies, weighted powerful business interests pushing for high by size.” Peter Skerry teaches political science at Boston levels of immigration—whether legal or, if What is remarkable here is Kaufmann’s College and is a fellow of the Institute for Ad- need be, illegal—to which Kaufmann pays explicit acceptance of the legitimacy of “white vanced Studies in Culture at the University of no attention whatsoever. Similarly neglected interests” and the notion that “the desire to Virginia.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 23 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Mike Gonzalez The Invention of Hispanics

merica’s surging politics of vic- zation at the time—the patriotic, pro-assim- origin story. Among the persuaders-in-chief timhood and identitarian division did ilationist League of United Latin American was Paul Ylvisaker, head of the Public Affairs Anot emerge organically or inevitably, Citizens (LULAC)—complained that de- Program at New York’s wealthy Ford Foun- as many believe. Nor are these practices the classifying Mexicans as white had been an at- dation during the 1950s and ’60s. Though result of irrepressible demands by minorities tempt to “discriminate between the Mexicans little-known today, he wielded great power for recognition, or for redress of past wrongs, themselves and other members of the white and influence to advance a particular vision of as we are constantly told. Those explanations race, when in truth and fact we are not only a social justice inspired partly by socialism and are myths, spread by the activists, intellectu- part and parcel but as well the sum and sub- its politics of resentment. Ylvisaker hoped, as als, and philanthropists who set out deliber- stance of the white race.” Tracing their an- he later put it in a 1991 essay, “The Future of ately, beginning at mid-century, to redefine cestry in part to the Spanish who conquered Hispanic Nonprofits,” that Mexican Ameri- our country. Their goal was mass mobiliza- South and Central America, they regarded cans could be organized into a “united front.” tion for political ends, and one of their earliest themselves as offshoots of white Europeans. That concept, formulated in 1922 by the Co- targets was the Mexican-American communi- Such views may surprise readers today, but mintern, implied a union of disparate groups ty. These activists strived purposefully to turn this was the way many Mexican Americans saw on the Left into what the Comintern’s 4th Americans of this community (who mostly re- their race until mid-century. They had the law World Congress called “a common struggle to sided in the Southwestern states) against their on their side: a federal district court ruled in defend the immediate, basic interests of the countrymen, teaching them first to see them- In Re Ricardo Rodríguez (1896) that Mexican working class against the bourgeoisie.” selves as a racial minority and then to think of Americans were to be considered white for the Ylvisaker, who saw philanthropy as “the themselves as the core of a pan-ethnic victim purposes of citizenship concerns. And so as passing gear” of social change, set off to find group of “Hispanics”—a fabricated term with late as 1947, the judge in another federal case out if something similar was possible with no basis in ethnicity, culture, or race. (Mendez v. Westminster) ruled that segregat- Mexican Americans. In 1968, he poured This transformation took effort—because ing Mexican-American students in remedial $2.2 million in seed funding into the Mexi- many Mexican Americans had traditionally schools in Orange County was unconstitution- can American Legal Defense and Educational seen themselves as white. When the 1930 al because it represented social disadvantage, Fund (MALDEF), a national advocacy con- Census classified “Mexican American” as a not racial discrimination. At that time Mexi- glomerate whose headquarters still buzz with race, leaders of the community protested ve- can Americans were as white before the law as activity in Los Angeles today. hemently and had the classification changed they were in their own estimation. He built on foundations laid by the orga- back to white in the very next census. The Half a century later, many Mexican Amer- nizing guru Saul Alinsky, who had begun the most prominent Mexican-American organi- icans had been persuaded of a very different effort to consolidate the Mexican-American

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 24 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

vote during Ed Roybal’s 1949 L.A. City Coun- stay north of the Rio Grande after the 1846- 1890s on. Mexican Americans concluded that cil election. Roybal, an army veteran and dis- 48 Mexican-American War. They occupied a “the needs and interests of American citizens tant descendant of New Mexico’s Spanish set- territory much like many others that America simply had to take precedence over the prob- tlers, was one of many Democrats at the time obtained either through purchase or at the lems faced by the growing Mexican immi- whose success in local politics owed much to point of a sword. Like the Dutch of New York, grant population,” according to the U.C. San Alinsky’s organizing tactics. Alinsky’s groups or the Cajuns and Spanish of the Louisiana Diego social scientist David G. Gutiérrez in also trained men like Herman Gallegos, Ju- Purchase, Mexican Americans freely inter- his book Walls and Mirrors (1995). For most lian Samora, and Ernesto Galarza—Chicano community leaders, “Mexican Americans Movement intellectuals who used Ylvisaker’s were in fact Americans and therefore should Ford Foundation money (starting with a one- Books discussed in this essay: make every effort to assimilate into the Amer- year grant of $630,000) to found the interest ican social and cultural mainstream.” group La Raza in 1968. Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Two organizations stood out for their sup- What all these radicals sought—and were Minority, by Peter Skerry. port of assimilation. One was LULAC, cre- quite successful at eventually achieving—was Free Press, 463 pages, $29.95 ated in 1929 to help Latinos improve their to analogize the experience of black Ameri- lot through education and employment; by cans to that of Latinos. The term La Raza, Making Hispanics: How Activists, the early 1940s, LULAC had 80 chapters literally “the race,” by itself epitomized this Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a in several states. The other was the Mexican process of racialization. Ylvisaker was direct New American, by G. Cristina Mora. American Movement (MAM) and its month- on this point. In 1964 he handed UCLA re- The University of Chicago Press, ly newspaper, La Voz Mexicana (the Mexican searchers the then-goodly sum of $647,999 256 pages, $30 (paper) Voice), which ran between 1938 and 1944. A for a deep survey of Mexican Americans in MAM editorial in the Voice declared: “If you the Southwest. One of the things he wanted Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, desire to remain here, if your future is here, this survey to find out was in what respect the Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics you must become a citizen, an American.” Mexican-American experience was compa- of Ethnicity, by David G. Gutiérrez. Continued immigration made this pro- rable to that of “Negroes today.” University of California Press, cess harder. Eminent social scientist George Peter Skerry, a political scientist at Bos- 321 pages, $31.95 I. Sánchez of the University of Texas told the ton College, discussed this movement in his New York Times in 1951 that illegal immigra- 1993 book, Mexican Americans: The Ambiva- Generations of Exclusion: tion in large numbers could transform “the lent Minority. The idea, Skerry wrote, was to Mexican Americans, Assimilation, Spanish-speaking people of the Southwest convince people that “like blacks, Mexican and Race, by Edward E. Telles from an ethnic group which might be assimi- Americans comprise a racial minority group. and Vilma Ortiz. Russell Sage lated with reasonable facility into what I call This abstraction poses no problems for the Foundation, 416 pages, $34.95 (paper) a culturally indigestible peninsula of Mexico.” ideologically oriented Chicano activists who After World War II, however, activists see the world in such terms.” Becoming Mexican American: started to become very critical of such assimi- The process would only work if Mexican Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in lationist tendencies. Roybal’s election cam- Americans “accepted a disadvantaged minor- Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945, paign drew attention to the criticisms, as did ity status,” as sociologist G. Cristina Mora by George J. Sánchez. Oxford the 1948 presidential run of Henry Wallace, of U.C. Berkeley put it in her study, Making University Press, 400 pages, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s former vice president. Hispanics (2014). But Mexican Americans $35 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) Wallace often spoke to crowds in Spanish themselves left no doubt that they did not while on government business. Scholar Ken- feel like members of a collectively oppressed The Mexican-American People: neth C. Burt does not exaggerate when he minority at all. As Skerry noted, “[the] race The Nation’s Second Largest Minority, writes in U.C. Berkeley’s Public Affairs Report idea is somewhat at odds with the experience by Leo Grebler, Joan W. Moore, and of 2002 that these races were “a turning point of Mexican Americans, over half of whom Ralph C. Guzman. Free Press, in American politics.” They opened a new era designate themselves racially as white.” Even 950 pages, out-of-print of identitarianism for those who wished to win in the early 1970s, according to Mora, many the Mexican-American vote. At the same time, Mexican-American leaders retained the view The Rise of Victimhood Culture: sympathetic groups emerged like the Commu- that “persons of Latin American descent were Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, nity Service Organization (CSO), financed by quite diverse and would eventually assimilate and the New Culture Wars, Alinsky and supervised by one of his top lieu- and identify as white.” And yet “Spanish/His- by Bradley Campbell and tenants, Fred Ross, from 1947 onward. What panic/Latino” is now a well-established ethnic Jason Manning. Palgrave Macmillan, the CSO wanted was votes, and thus the politi- category in the U.S. Census, and many who 308 pages, $34.99 (paper) cization of a Mexican-American bloc. select it have been taught to see themselves as Ross, dubbed “Red Ross” by his critics, a victmized underclass. How did this happen? feared Mexican Americans lacked “civic orga- married with the Scottish, Irish, Scots-Irish, nization that could provide a base for people Assimilation and Its Discontents and German Americans who populated the to work on their own problems and to coop- Southwest. erate with other groups that shared similar ssimilation has been a goal of Well into the 1960s, a desire to be absorbed goals.” Other activist organizations agreed Mexican Americans for most of their into the great American melting pot made with him. Ross’s initiative soon began to pay Ahistory. One hundred fifteen thou- many Mexican Americans suspicious of con- dividends, however. The CSO registered sand or so former citizens of Mexico chose to tinued immigration, which was high from the 15,000 new voters for the Wallace campaign,

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 25 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm especially in places like L.A.’s Boyle Heights. America felt uncomfortably like disowning political scientist Samuel Huntington re- In that same article from the Public Affairs Re- Mexico. minded us that “Millions of immigrants and port, Burt calls Boyle Heights “a cauldron of Indeed, one of the sustaining creeds of their children achieved wealth, power, and leftist political activity” where residents were U.S. politics since the founding has been that status in American society precisely because “radicalized by events in their home countries America’s republican form of government and they assimilated themselves into the prevail- (including the Russian Revolution and the the culture that support it are superior to oth- ing culture.” Mexican Revolution).” ers. Why else would millions of settlers and Mexico has a history of feudalism and a Within a decade, there had emerged what immigrants over hundreds of years be drawn tradition that de-emphasizes private prop- sociologists Edward Telles and Vilma Ortiz so steadily to America? Seeking to explain erty. Its ejido system consisted of communally described in their book Generations of Ex- America’s distinctive attraction, the social sci- owned lands that were tilled by individuals, clusion (2008) as “an explicitly nonwhite ra- entist Louis Hartz in his classic Liberal Tra- but to which those individuals had no title. cial identity...which provided fertile ground dition in America (1955) noted (not without Americans desiring the assimilation of Mexi- for progressive political activism, including some consternation) that America lacked a can Americans into the national polity might the Chicano movement.” Carmen Samora, feudal tradition, and that this made the U.S. encourage the retention of, say, strong family daughter of La Raza’s Julian Samora, argued uniquely impervious to both socialism and units that transmit a robust work ethic to new in her 2011 doctoral thesis for the University reactionary conservatism. Both those move- generations. At the same time, they would of New Mexico that “The CSO effectively ments thrived in Continental Europe and its be loath to see them import other mores that politicized the community of Mexican immi- colonial offshoot, Latin America, where they would weaken America’s attachment to pri- grants and Mexican Americans in Los Ange- had experienced feudalism. American liberal- vate property and civic spirit. les after WWII.” ism, by contrast, bred an individualistic ethos So when the activist-scholar Ernesto To the CSO and its new wave of activists, and an attachment to natural rights and pri- Galarza complained in his 1973 essay “Alviso” assimilation as embraced by older groups vate property. that assimilation made Mexicans in America such as LULAC implied a degrading con- In other words, a distinctive set of beliefs, lose their collectivist traditions, so that “[b]y cession that Mexican culture was inferior. customs, and habits supported the American the beginning of the 20th century these tra- “Americanization came to embody the An- political system. If the Cajun, the Dutch, the ditions had been replaced by a characteristic glo majority’s attitudes,” wrote George J. Spanish—and the Mexicans—were to be al- version of [W]estern, individualistic society,” Sánchez, a professor of American studies lowed into the councils of government, they he was definitely on to something. That was at the University of Southern California, in would have to adopt these mores and aban- the idea. Becoming Mexican American (1993). For the don some of their own. It is hard to argue Galarza cut his political teeth during new generation of activists, identifying with that this formula has failed. Writing in 2004, the Wallace and Roybal campaigns. Both New in Paperback New from KANSAS Reconsidering Judicial The Political Constitution Repugnant Laws Finality The Case against Judicial Judicial Review of Acts of Why the Supreme Court Is Not the Supremacy Congress from the Founding to Last Word on the Constitution Greg Weiner the Present Louis Fisher “The Political Constitution Keith E. Whittington “Louis Fisher’s most argues that legal “Any book by Keith recent book provides theorists from across the Whittington is an a characteristically ideological spectrum important book, and thorough and thought- too often prefer the this one is no excep- ful argument for the authority of unelected tion. Facts matter, and shared nature of judges to the messiness this book provides constitutional inter- of democracy. Greg them. From now on, pretation. In heated Weiner calls upon no discussion of the political times, judges to leave space practice of judicial Reconsidering Judicial for democratic deliber- review can ignore its Finality serves as a ation on constitutional empirical findings. valuable reminder that American constitution- questions and urges elected officials and Simply a must-read for alism is and has been a collective effort fueled ordinary citizens to take responsibility for this any serious student of our Constitution and not only by the Supreme Court but also by the difficult but essential work.”—James H. Read, how it actually works.”—Randy E. Barnett, political branches and, more often than typi- author of Majority Rule versus Consensus: The director of the Georgetown Center for the cally understood, by the people themselves.” Political Thought of John C. Calhoun Constitution —Louis J. Virelli III, author of Disqualifying 224 pages, Cloth $29.95 432 pages, 13 illustrations, Cloth $39.95 the High Court: Supreme Court Recusal and the Ebook editions available from your favorite ebook retailer. Constitution 288 pages, Cloth $45.00 University Press of Kansas Phone 785-864-4155 • Fax 785-864-4586 • www.kansaspress.ku.edu

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 26 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

candidates attracted support from radical end America’s value system. President Lyndon elements, including Communists and com- B. Johnson’s press secretary, Bill Moyers, re- New Books munity organizers who increasingly saw counted years later (1978) in the New Perspec- Mexican Americans as a potential source of tives Quarterly that he would send LBJ essays by from TEXAS A&M political power—if only they would consent Marcuse on how the Great Society “requires to being organized around feelings of racial the transformation of power structures stand- grievance. ing in the way of its fulfillment.” It is hard to believe that Johnson read Marcuse’s abstruse Playing the Race Card writing, but obviously those around him did. Which brings us to the economic incen- he activists who fomented such tives. Activists saw a pot of gold when John- grievances had two weapons at their son decided in the mid-1960s that the gov- Tdisposal: ideology, and the economic ernment was going to spend lots of money on incentives that government and private actors the Great Society. Benefits such as quotas in soon began offering to members of groups government contracts, electoral redistricting, who claimed to be as oppressed as blacks had and affirmative action would eventually be been. dangled as the wages of minoritization. To be On the ideological front, the activists had able to tell a tale of oppression and discrimi- realized that the vehicle for radical change nation would help get intended beneficiaries would not be the workingman, but the iden- anything from a Small Business Administra- tity group. They were influenced by European tion loan to a spot in the incoming class at WAR NARRATIVES Shaping Beliefs, Blurring Truths in the Middle East Communist thinker Antonio Gramsci, who Princeton. CALEB S. CAGE in the 1930s had a transformative epiphany: The husband and wife duo of Frances Cage, a veteran of the war in Iraq, presents a Marx had promised that the working class Fox Piven (a prominent socialist) and Rich- tightly packed and provocative series of connected essays on the many competing narratives—both would overthrow the bourgeoisie, but the ard Cloward (then a professor at Columbia fiction and nonfiction—that are used to explain working class had been astonishingly bad recent conflicts, how those narratives are perceived at achieving revolution. He and others later, through preexisting social, political, and literary The Hispanic category lenses, and how they often fall short. particularly the German-American Colum- 152 pp. Bib. Index. $35.00 cloth bia University Professor Herbert Marcuse, was an amalgam of agreed that it was nearly impossible to instill into the proletariat the feelings of resentment disparate ethnic groups that would conduce to mass organization. with precious little in Man can aspire to improve his economic condition, after all. What he cannot change is his common. race or sex. These weren’t just theories: Marcuse took University) sounded almost giddy when they a personal hand. He directly shaped the wrote in the Nation in 1966, “Whereas Amer- worldview of the future Black Panther An- ica’s poor have not been moved in any number gela Davis, to whom he taught philosophy by radical political ideologies, they have some- at Brandeis. His exhortations to destroy the times been moved by their economic interests.” patriarchal family were repeated nearly verba- Cloward was no mere bystander. His research tim by the feminist theorist Kate Millet, with in 1960 with his fellow professor Lloyd Ohlin whom Marcuse held a famous “Dialogue on had led to the idea of creating local neighbor- Feminism and Socialism” at U.C. San Diego hood organizations to organize and radicalize in 1975. “All liberation depends on the con- minorities. That study was then used by the HUNTER LIGGETT sciousness of servitude,” wrote Marcuse in Ford Foundation to justify its “Gray Areas” A Soldier’s General his 1964 book, One-Dimensional Man. The project, an initiative that got the ball rolling MICHAEL E. SHAY This first biography of Liggett follows the full life of working class, however, had no interest in with grants to community organizing groups a doggedly hard-working soldier whose leadership such self-realization. “[T]hey find their soul in Boston, Philadelpiha, Oakland, New Ha- style contrasted and sometimes conflicted with in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, ven, and Washington, D.C. When Johnson the military culture of his time. Shay adds a new and nuanced perspective on the importance of kitchen equipment,” Marcuse despaired. The launched his Great Society, a major source of military leadership in the era of the First World War. vanguard of the revolution therefore had to inspiration was Gray Areas. It was founded 224 pp. 20 b&w photos. 4 maps. Bib. Index. $40.00 cloth come from “the substratum of the outcasts and funded by Paul Ylvisaker. and outsiders, the exploited and persecuted of — NEW IN PAPERBACK — HELL UNDER THE RISING SUN other races and other colors.” Broadening the Horizons Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma-Thailand Thus, whatever their individual aspirations, Death Railway KELLY E. CRAGER Mexican Americans (and later Hispanics) had t remained a problem, however, that 216 pp. 18 b&w photos., 2 maps. $24.95 paper to begin accepting their new status as substra- most Mexican Americans simply did not tum outcasts. The critical theorists saw the Ithink they had suffered oppression akin TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS division of the country as a propitious oppor- to that of blacks. This actually became clear 800.826.8911 Fax: 888.617.2421 tunity to create a “counter-hegemony” and up- in Ylvisaker’s 1966 Ford Foundation-funded www.tamupress.com

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 27 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mega-study, which revealed a deep ambiva- vidious, structural discrimination, much less ALGORA PUBLISHING lence on the topic. Based on interviews with racial animus. They owned their own failures, 1,550 residents of Los Angeles and San An- which—their experience told them—were Nonplussed by World Events? tonio, the findings were published by UCLA remediable through individual conduct, not researchers Leo Grebler, Joan Moore, and mass mobilization. Their touchstones were WHO SAVED THE REDWOODS ? Ralph Guzman under the title The Mexican- individualism, personal responsibility, family, The UnsUng heroines of The 1920s Who foUghT for oUr redWood American People: The Nation’s Second Largest solidarity, and independence—all cherished foresTs Minority. by most Americans at the time, but anathema Laura and James Wasserman As the title suggests, the study was designed to the activists. 234 pages $21.95 to prove that Mexican Americans constituted The study openly admitted that reclas- Powerful lumber interests stood a racial minority whose grievances raised (or sification as a collective entity serves the in the way of the first campaigns to save the redwood trees of lowered) it to victimhood and therefore en- “purposes of enabling one to see the group’s California, but they were boldly opposed and pushed titled it to benefits. The new leaders that had problems in the perspective of the problems back. This history of the early 1900s recalls the emerged from the L.A. cauldron “were begin- of other groups.” The aim was to show “that Progressive Era crusades of women and men who prevailed against great odds, protecting the best of ning to recognize that the ‘national minority’ Mexican Americans share with Negroes the California’s northern redwood forests. definition would ease rather than aggravate disadvantages of poverty, economic insecurity THE US SUPREME COURT AND the group’s problems,” wrote the researchers. and discrimination.” The same thing, however, RELIGIOUS OVERREACH “The concrete gains that would result from a could have been said in the late 1960s of the Scott Rutledge joint classification with other disadvantaged Scots-Irish in Appalachia or Italian Ameri- 156 pages $19.95 national minorities were increasingly seen as cans in the Bronx. But these experiences were The Supreme Court is no longer more than offsetting a possible loss.” not on the same level as the crushing and legal a strictly legal institution, if it ever was one; thus the impassioned But even the study’s authors admitted that discrimination that African Americans had political struggles when a new the narrative was flawed. “Prejudice has been faced on a daily basis. That is why the survey Justice is appointed. Moreover, a loaded topic of conversation in any Mexican- respondents emphasized “the distinctiveness the Court now claims a role as an originator of new laws and policies. Lawyer Scott Rutledge explores American community,” they wrote. “Indeed, of Mexican Americans” from blacks and “the the troubling situation through a careful selection merely calling Mexican-Americans a ‘minor- difference in the problems faced by the two and assessment of a dozen highly controversial cases. ity’ and implying that the population is the groups.” The UCLA researchers came out victim of prejudice and discrimination has pessimistic: Mexican Americans were “not yet THE NEW COMMONWEALTH caused irritation among many who prefer to easy to merge with the other large minorities from BUreaUcraTic corporaTism To socialisT capiTalism believe themselves indistinguishable [from] in political coalition.” white Americans.... [T]here are light-skinned With the help of the Ford Foundation, Claudiu A. Secara 296 pages $24.95 Mexican-Americans who have never experi- however, that would soon change. The cru- As the US piles on layers of enced the faintest...discrimination in public cial breakthrough came in the 1970s, when it bureacracy, and antagonizes allies facilities, and many with ambiguous sur- dawned on the leaders of radical groups that in Europe and Asia, Russia has shed its empire and shifted some power to its regions names have also escaped the experiences of “Mexican American” was too limited as a ra- while courting neighbors with mutually profitable part- the more conspicuous members of the group.” cial category. That community’s concentration nerships. How far-reaching might the changes be? Even worse, there was also “the inescapable in the Southwest meant that its issues would The author “analyzes worldwide political and economic developments of the past decades, particu- fact that...even comparatively dark-skinned not get the national attention activists wanted. larly in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Mexicans...could get service even in the most Thereafter, militants from La Raza, MALDEF, and the potential for a reinvigorated Russia. Secara suggests that, by compromising the old communist discriminatory parts of Texas,” according to and other organizations put pressure on the orthodoxy as well as the new casino capitalism, the report. These experiences, so different Census Bureau to create a Hispanic identity Russia will find its way back to 'socialist capitalism' from those of blacks in the South or even for the 1980 Census—in order, as Mora puts — through which the country can become the dominant power in a Eurasian commonwealth within a parts of the North, had produced it, “to persuade them to classify ‘Hispanics’ as new world order.” — Booklist review distinct from whites.” a long and bitter controversy among The Hispanic category was a Franken- THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM NOBODY ASKED FOR middle-class Mexican Americans about stein’s monster, an amalgam of disparate eth- Robert Lockwood Mills 240 pages $21.95 defining the ethnic group as disadvan- nic groups with precious little in common. We accept our two-party system taged by any other criterion than indi- The 1970 Census had included an option as vital to the functioning of a vidual failures. The recurring evidence to indicate that the respondent was “Mexi- democratic republic, when in fact that well-groomed and well-spoken can, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South the Founding Fathers feared that such a structure would lead to the Mexican Americans can receive nor- American, [or] Other Spanish.” But re-catego- preeminence of the parties them- mal treatment has continuously under- rizing Mexican Americans and lumping them selves over the commonweal. Obviously, this has occurred. Our media, especially mined either group or individual defi- in with other residents of Latin American de- television, thrive on controversy, often for contro- nition of the situation as one entailing scent under a “Hispanic American” umbrella versy's sake. They happily highlight spitting con- tests between political rivals, while pretending to act discrimination. was a necessary move, Mora writes, because as a balancing scale. It doesn’t work, because the “this would best convey their national minor- scale itself is broken. It is incumbent on us to pause and note ex- ity group status.” actly what these UCLA researchers were be- La Raza executive director Raul Yzaguirre Nonfiction for the Nonplussed ! moaning. Their own survey was revealing that made it clear why the Census should reject the Available from www.algora.com Mexican-Americans’ lived experiences did not questions it had used for decades, which gath- and Amazon.com square with their being passive victims of in- ered objective information about respondents’

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 28 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm national origin. “There is a difference,” Yza- tutionalized, and the new classification is, like parate groups—foremost among them the in- guirre wrote in the 1974 records of La Raza’s other classifications, assumed to have existed” numerable distinct ethnicities and nationali- National Council, “between a minority group since time immemorial. ties which are now classed as “Asian”—to rally and a national origin group—a difference rec- That this amnesia has prevailed is still behind massive super-ethnicities in the name ognized in terms of national economic and surprising. In the 1950s, when a young Ju- of victimhood. social policies as well as a lengthy, broad rang- lian Samora was at university, he experienced Grievance-mongering created for a vast ar- ing legal history relative to civil and minority pushback on the idea of a pan-ethnic identi- ray of American institutions what sociologists rights.” ty. His academic mentor, George I. Sánchez, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning call On the legislative side, Alinsky’s launch of then at the University of Texas at Austin, told Victimhood Culture—the title of their 2018 Ed Roybal ended up paying huge dividends. Samora, “For gosh sakes, don’t characterize book on America’s current oppression fetish. In 1975, by then a leading member of the U.S. the Spanish-American with what is obviously Victimization, they write, becomes “a way of House of Representatives, Roybal authored true of the human race.” According to the his- attracting sympathy, so rather than empha- Public Law 94-311, which mandated special torian Benjamin Francis-Fallon in his 2012 size either their strength or inner worth, the collection of unemployment data for Ameri- Georgetown dissertation, Minority Reports, aggrieved emphasize their oppression and cans who “identify themselves as being of Sánchez wrote to Samora in the early ’50s social marginalization.... People increasingly Spanish-speaking background and trace their that it takes “a veritable shotgun wedding to demand help from others, and advertise their origin or descent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, make Puerto Ricans, Spanish-Mexicans, and oppression as evidence that they deserve re- Cuba, Central and South America, and other Filipinos appear to be culturally homogenous.” spect and assistance.” Spanish-speaking countries.” This remark- Sánchez was preaching the individual aspira- This paradigm is predicated on a collectivist able piece of legislation goes on to agglomer- tion that the activists loathed: as Francis-Fal- understanding of society, rather than the in- ate descendants from all these many nations lon puts it, “Material improvements in jobs, dividualist striving that Alexis de Tocqueville into one category of “Americans of Spanish housing, and schools would not only allow identified as the hallmark of early America. origin or descent,” making PL 94-311 the only [Mexican Americans] to live better but would Had these groupthink tactics not been so ef- law on the books that defines an ethnic group reveal their fundamental similarity with other fective, we might not have identity politics to- in the United States. Much more importantly, Americans.” day. There was a different path available, and what the law regards as essential to this su- Sánchez lost the argument. Samora and Mexican Americans seemed eager to follow it. per-coalition is not actually race, but victim- radical groups like La Raza made sure that As Mora stresses: “It did not have to happen.” ization. The law states that “a large number victimhood became the rationale for group Those of us who believe that individual re- of Americans of Spanish origin or descent formation. Along with fabricating the His- sponsibility is a far better route to success than suffer from racial, social, economic, and po- panic identity, equating the unparalleled suf- racialization can still reverse what Ylvisaker, litical discrimination and are denied the basic fering of blacks to the condition of Latinos has Samora, Alinsky, and the rest have wrought. opportunities that they deserve as American been one of the activists’ greatest triumphs. Our first enemy is ignorance. The radicals citizens.” The very thing that defined Hispan- We have Spanish-language ballots today, for who victimized America have done their best ics was victimhood. example, because the Ford Foundation’s grant to cover their tracks: general unawareness of recipients at MALDEF were able to convince how, and why, the U.S. today is mired in iden- Changing the Narrative Congress in 1975 that English-only ballots tity politics makes the victimhood narrative were the equivalent of Jim Crow poll taxes. harder to defeat. That is the reason the myths ut why have so many people been Absent these converging phenomena— still exist, and why we must dismantle them. co-opted into believing in the validity the ideology, the funding, the advantages of Bof this invented racial category? Mora “compensatory justice,” the emergence of de- Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo E explains: “A sort of collective amnesia sets termined individuals in powerful positions— Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage in as organizations begin to refer to the new Mexican Americans could not have been ab- Foundation, and the author of the forthcoming category’s long history and develop narratives stracted into a racial minority, let alone formed The Plot to Change America: How Identity about the rich cultural basis of the classifica- into the nucleus of a larger pan-ethnic group. Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free (En- tion. By then, the category is completely insti- The success of that project inspired other dis- counter Books).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 29 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Nicholas Eberstadt The Future of the Work Ethic The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation, by Isabel Sawhill. Yale University Press, 272 pages, $28

The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, by Oren Cass. Encounter Books, 280 pages, $25.99

n the decades since the soviet union private net worth soared by $28 trillion (tril- The only wonder, in retrospect, was that it collapsed, America’s wealth machine has lion with a “t”: on average, this meant over took until 2016 to break. Ibeen the wonder of the world, our politi- $300,000 in new wealth for every notional cal and military dominance of the globe un- American family of four). Yet the number of ince 2016, dazed policy analysts precedented. But the social foundation for people on means-tested benefits jumped by from the better zip codes have been this prosperity and power has been beset by 33 million during those same years, and the Sstruggling to understand what has a growing crisis. Something has gone badly increase in private sector jobs was just barely happened in the country they thought they wrong in our domestic project. Yet our ex- positive; the net addition of less than one mil- knew—and why. The learning curve has plainers and deciders, for the most part, are lion such paid positions works out to fewer been arduous and problematic, not least still at a loss to see just what this might be. than 80,000 a year. Our new American eco- because most of today’s think-tankers and The dysfunction is vividly illustrated by nomic reality—the one currently impressed academics are almost completely out of sym- overall trends for a particularly awful recent in the living memory of any man or woman pathy with the populist wave that upended patch: the years 2000-12, a time that spans under age 40 today—is a system generating their preferred Blue and Red presidential the Clinton, Dubya, and Obama presidencies. more wealth for the wealth-holders, but less candidates in that electoral cycle. To make Over that 12-year period, the country’s work (and more dependence) for workers. matters even more confusing, thanks to the population rose by roughly 30 million and Thus was the stage set for a populist storm. famous “bubble” Charles Murray details in

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 30 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

his book Coming Apart (2012), these same It is about improving the lives of those squarely frames the road to recovery for to- analysts tend to be separated from direct who are neither rich nor poor but some- day’s forgotten Americans in terms of “moral contact with the mysterious creatures (also where in the middle. And it is about agency” and “personal responsibility,” a phrase known as voters) who brought politics as policies linked to mainstream values she uses no fewer than nine times in this short usual to an end in 2016. such as family, education and work. volume. She extols what she calls “the success The best of this cadre, however, recognize sequence”: that the grievances which brought a sort of For Sawhill, however, this appears to be a populism to power in America were not imag- second-best agenda, reflecting her judgment If an individual does just three things— inary, and have been asking the right ques- that it is the most the political market will graduates from high school (at least), tions: How (and why) has the U.S. socioeco- currently bear. Drawing on public opinion works full time, and marries before hav- nomic system failed so many of its citizens? and survey data, she links the relative decline ing children—that person’s chance of What might be done to repair it? in U.S. working-class fortunes to an array of being poor plummets from about 14% Two noteworthy books have advanced this sociopolitical attitudes and economic views to about 2%, and the chance of being effort: Isabel Sawhill’s The Forgotten Ameri- she regards as benighted or worse—most cru- middle class [which she defines as a fam- cans and Oren Cass’s The Once and Future cially, in her view, distrust of government and ily income at least three times as high Worker. Sawhill, onetime Clinton Adminis- government programs. “As long as a majority as the official U.S. poverty line] rises tration official and current Brookings Institu- of the population remains hostile to govern- to 70%…. What the country needs are tion scholar, is a center-left economist, highly ment,” she theorizes, “it will be difficult to policies that give people a fair chance regarded in Washington circles for almost move forward with a more enlightened set of to succeed in their roles as students, as half a century. Cass, a rising “reform conser- policies”—by which she means more redistri- workers, and as parents in the twenty vative” star at the Manhattan Institute, served bution by a bigger government. Instead, she first century economy. as domestic policy guru in Mitt Romney’s has organized an agenda “around three “val- 2012 presidential campaign. ues [that] might command broad support… Consequently, most of the book is devoted Both Sawhill and Cass identify the col- family, education, and work.” to outlining Sawhill’s schema for supporting lapse of work in modern America—especially family, education, and employment for the for men, and, in particular, for men of prime awhill counts 63 million ameri- forgotten Americans. working age without college degrees—as the cans in the white working class, which epicenter of the present American socioeco- Sshe defines as non-Hispanic white men o far, so good: but the devil is al- nomic crisis. Both offer detailed, carefully and women aged 25-64, whose educations ways in the details, and as non-parti- argued approaches for getting America back stopped short of a four-year college degree. Ssan readers examine the fine print in to work, and more broadly for revitalizing our Nowadays, fewer than three fifths of these Sawhill’s proposals they may find it more dif- society and economy. working class whites are married, nearly ten ficult than expected to make common cause Although the Sawhill and Cass assess- percentage points fewer than for “elite” whites, with this self-professed “radical centrist.” ments and prescriptions differ appreciably, as she calls those who have at least a bach- Sawhill is at her most persuasive on edu- what may surprise is the number of points elor’s degree. Counterintuitively, “working- cation and training. She insists “we need to upon which the authors agree, among them: class” whites’ labor force participation levels 1) the current over-emphasis on GDP growth are 11 points below those of elite whites. And as an end in itself; 2) the failure of postwar when working class whites are actually work- NEW FROM LEXiNGTON BOOKS

trickle-down economics to lift all boats; 3) the ing,Jewish elite studies •whites Political theory earn 77% more than they dofuller AdA m L. FuLLer

need to subsidize wages for low-paying jobs; because of what Sawhill calls “a precipitousfuller Jewish studies • Political theory and 4) the importance of immigration control, decline“Israel and thein Neoconservatives: the relative Zionism and wages American Interests of isthe a finely less edu- AdA m L. FuLLer researched study documenting the considerable diversity of opinion with “Israel and the Neoconservatives: Zionism and American Interests is a finely including limits on the number of less skilled cated.”respect to israelPointing within the ranks toof neoconservatives. the work more importantly,of Harvard adam Uni- Israel and the Israel researched study documenting the considerable diversity of opinion with foreign workers entering the country. versityl. fuller exposes economist the many myths and Raj stereotypes Chetty, surrounding neoconservatismshe warns that respect to israel within the ranks of neoconservatives. more importantly, adam At the same time, Sawhill and Cass over- fewerpropounded and by the fewer movement’s detractors.”young Americans are earningand the Israel Israel and the l. fuller exposes the many myths and stereotypes surrounding neoconservatism —Steven Bayme, american Jewish committee look some of the central problems inextri- morepropounded than by the movement’stheir detractors.”parents did. Chetty’s studies Israel and the —Steven Bayme, american Jewish committee neoconservatIves cably linked to the collapse of work in mod- suggestfor forty years, 30-year-olds the neoconservatives have are been now an influential as likely wing on the to make ern America. Both their strengths and their lessamerican than right. their their critics parents accuse them ofdid being moreat the loyal to same a foreign age (ad- neoconservatIves for forty years, the neoconservatives have been an influential wing on the weaknesses clarify the question of how, and justedgovernment for than toinflation) american interests. But as is that to true? inmake this book, adammore, l. partly american right. their critics accuse them of being more loyal to a foreign fuller argues that neoconservative support of israel is rooted just as much in n whether, we can meet this challenge. duegovernment to slowerthan to american overall interests. But iseconomic that true? in this book, growth, adam l. but liberal-democratic priorities. eoconservat I fuller argues that neoconservative support of israel is rooted just as much in mainly to growing differences in earnings andn

liberal-democratic priorities. eoconservat I t the outset of the forgotten incomes.AdAm L. FuLL Buter is associate Sawhill professor at emphasizes Youngstown state university. that she has , Sawhill explains that “my tailored an economic agenda for all “forgotten Americans AdAm L. FuLLer is associate professor at Youngstown state university. Agoal for this book is very simple—to Americans,” not just disgruntled Anglos. By catalyze a new discussion about how to create her broader definition, which includes non-

a jobs-based prosperity and a less-divided na- college men and women of all ethnicities inves tion in the decades ahead.” She outlines what families earning less than $70,000 a year, for-

lexington Books ves an imprint of she says is a case for gottenrowman & lAmericansittlefield comprise 38% of the work- Zionism and american interests 800-462-6420 • www.rowman.com ISBN 978-1-4985-6733-6 lexington Books 90000 ing agean imprint ofpopulation. crowmanover image & littlefield © klenger/istock/getty images Plus 978 1498 5 67336 Zionism and american interests 800-462-6420 • www.rowman.com ISBN 978-1-4985-6733-6 returning to a system in which work is To her credit, and unlike her90 Team000 Left rewarded over welfare, hand-ups over colleaguescover image © klenger/i whostock/getty imagesfavor Plus 97an8 1498 5unconditionally67336 handouts, wages over windfall profits. guaranteed Universal Basic Income, Sawhill

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 31 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

prepare people better for the jobs that exist” reasons as well—or better off even if one and rightly faults America’s elementary and spouse decided to stay home with the kids The Lines secondary schools for failing to impart more instead of dropping them at government- a novel by Anthony Varallo knowledge and skills to more students. She sponsored daycare on the commute to work advocates a big new government initiative she each day—does not merit mention. The au- calls “a New G.I. Bill for America’s Workers” thor is equally tone-deaf in extolling “respon- for upgrading educational opportunities, not sible parenting and family formation,” which $17.00 only for college aspirants but also for what to her apparently involves large supplies of paperback used to be called “vocational” trainees. The re- “long-acting forms of contraception.” She original turns from such an effort, she indicates, could warns that without government cost cover- 230 pages be high: one particularly attention-grabbing age for “the most effective forms of contra- study suggests that simply matching Cana- ception…we will have not just more poverty dian levels of student test scores would hike and less opportunity but also higher costs U.S. paychecks by as much as 20%. The price for Medicaid.” Population controllers wary tag for her plan is about 1% of GDP (meaning of heedless breeders abroad sometimes used for now roughly $200 billion a year), though those same arguments for mobilizing foreign much of this outlay would cover the Europe- aid, although they have learned to be circum- style “active labor market policies” she ad- spect about this. It is even more disconcert- A Life on the Middle West’s mires—apprenticeship systems, job place- ing to hear the same dog-whistle trained do- Never-Ending Frontier ment programs, etc.—rather than education mestically, on our own citizens. So much for by Willard L. ‘Sandy’ Boyd and training per se. a “less-divided nation.” Sawhill has other big-government ideas A life for boosting the availability of better paying he dirigiste utilitarianism in on the MIDDLE WEST’S jobs as well. One is “an independent invest- Sawhill’s approach to poor families, never-ending ment bank...for funding investments in in- however, applies equally to families of Frontier $35.00 T hardcover frastructure and basic research.” Given the the well-to-do. She wants American families ways of Washington, however, such an orga- to be strong—just not too strong. Otherwise, 394 pages 22 b&w phot0s nization is more likely to end up looking like they might transmit unwarranted opportuni- Amtrak than RAND. She also wants to raise ties and benefits to their kin. Thus she gives the minimum wage to $12 an hour, expand a shout-out to her Brookings colleague Rich- tax credits for child care, and develop a new ard Reeves’s case for eliminating tax benefits

Willard L. ‘Sandy’ Boyd work credit to raise the take-home pay for for college savings plans, child care, etc., for men and women earning less than $40,000 a upper-middle-class parents (who are de- year. She proposes funding some of the new nounced as “dream hoarders”). The author spending envisioned here from an aggres- also inveighs repeatedly against intergenera- Dakota in Exile sive new round of estate taxes on the “One tional inheritance, a practice “inconsistent The Untold Stories of Captives in the Percent.” Untaxed intergenerational wealth with basic American values.” To Sawhill’s transfer is anathema to Sawhill, who decries bafflement and exasperation, voters from all Aftermath of the U.S.–Dakota War America’s lax death tax policies in four of her income groups still want parents to be able to by Linda M. Clemmons book’s ten chapters. bequeath a fortune to their kids if they somehow manage to accumulate one. s conservatives rethink their In effect, her family policy seems to count approach to labor policies, Sawhill on embedding in each American household $27.50 Amay find allies across the aisle who an overbearing and somewhat out-of-touch paperback will concur with her concept of subsidizing relative, by the name of Uncle Sam. Uncle original low-wage work (including Oren Cass, though insists on the final say over many questions 272 pages he disdains the existing Earned Income Tax bearing directly on family wellbeing—but he 1 figure Credit—the main tax credit for poorer work- is arbitrary and inconsistent, and he plays fa- 18 b&w photos ers—as byzantine and unfriendly for its sup- vorites. Is it really any wonder that many fam- posed beneficiaries). ilies, and a great many hard-pressed families, Sawhill’s approach to family policy, by con- do not trust Uncle’s judgment? trast, is a consensus-killer. While eschewing Yes—we are back to that lack of trust the woke identity politics that has poisoned thing again. Try as she will to comprehend the progressive wing of her party, she seems their point of view, Sawhill concludes that IOWA unaware that her own position on the family America’s disaffected white working class is is itself rigid, ideological, and polarizing. just plain illogical in its aversion to more gov- where great writing begins The reveal comes early on, with her ex- ernment. “There is little question in my mind University of Iowa Press plication of why strong stable families are the white working class is voting against their order toll-free 800.621.2736 desirable: “having two earners is one way to own self-interest,” she writes. She has learned uipress.uiowa.edu boost family income.” The possibility that from Berkeley’s Professor Arlie Hochschild, such families might be better off for other who studied Cajuns closely, that

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 32 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[their] conservative politics has no ra- how candidate Romney would have fared in something is wrong with ‘growth’ that impos- tional basis. It appears to be delusional the 2012 election if he had relied on Cass’s es a de facto need for two incomes.” “Rather and self-defeating…an emotional and ir- latest missive instead of Mitt’s famous bind- than taxing low-wage work to cut other taxes rational attachment to a set of conserva- ers. The Once and Future Worker implicitly and expand entitlements, we can do the re- tive views, driven by Fox News…a com- holds that the old thinking failed America, verse: we can provide a subsidy for low-wage forting tribal imperative reinforced by and failed to understand the needs of many work, funded with higher taxes and reduced friends, family and neighbors [emphasis Americans outside the Bubble. transfer payments.” America needs “produc- in the original]. tive pluralism,” Cass maintains, meaning a ass considers himself a conserva- work-first social contract in which “people of How could it be that, poorly educated as tive, but the vision he lays out would diverse abilities, priorities, and geographies, they admittedly are, these forgotten Ameri- Chave been regarded as heretical by pursuing varied life paths, can form self-suf- cans cannot see that the value-added taxes, many American conservatives in the not-too- ficient families and become contributors to and carbon taxes, and all the rest of the re- distant past. His is a conservatism with much their communities.” distributionist apparatus that Sawhill and her less confidence in the market’s spontaneous allies would like to impose on them today are order, and much more reliant on government- he once and future worker out- actually in their best interest? abetted social solidarity and “social capital” lines the path to that vision, policy augmentation. The resulting rethink is a de- Tby policy. Cass wants much more ere we might want to reflect cidedly post-“leave us alone” agenda, resem- education and training targeted at the non- on the saga of “deaths of despair,” bling instead the outlook of Christian Demo- collegiate population; the reintroduction of Hthe opioid-abetted rise in mortality cratic parties in Europe after World War II. tracking in high school; a clampdown on for less-educated, middle-aged Anglos, docu- Cass posits what he terms “the Working low-skill migration to America; a complete mented by Princeton economists Anne Case Hypothesis: that a labor market in which work- overhaul of social welfare policies to reaffirm and Angus Deaton in a landmark 2015 study. ers can support strong families and communi- the importance of working for all who can; Case and Deaton identified this grim trend and a managed trade policy to help revive as unfolding from 1999 to 2013: on Clinton’s, the manufacturing sector, which he consid- Dubya’s, and Obama’s watch. Subsequent To be sure, ers the wellspring of better-paying jobs for data showed that death rates were higher in less-educated Americans. (overwhelmingly Anglo) rural America in the failure to Most significantly, he calls for subsidiz- 2013–2015 than in 1999–2001 for all age ing work—big time. Cass talks of a $3-an- groups between 15 and 54. create more work hour hike in wages for American workers, And yet it took America over a decade and is part of the problem, a bonus directly added to each weekly pay- a half—until 2015!—to discover this public check through a sort of negative payroll tax. health tragedy. Do the thought experiment: but neither the Although he does not specify all its details, part from rednecks, what other disadvantaged entirety nor the what he has in mind is clearly a pricey pro- group in modern America could possibly suf- gram. He puts the cost of this initiative at fer such a prolonged calamity without author- crux of it. $200 billion, but my back-of-the-envelope ities even noticing, much less responding? The calculations suggest it could easily come in question answers itself. It likewise explains between two and four times that amount. In why this great swath of America feels unpro- ties is the central determinant of long-term his vision, the new U.S. welfare state would tected by the government-industrial complex, prosperity and should be the central focus of be kinder and gentler, with more subsidiarity and why they are reluctant to entrust more public policy.” This seemingly modest conten- and less centrally administered dependence. resources and power to a distant Washington tion actually puts him in opposition to Amer- But the government that Cass envisions cadre that thinks it has the answers to what ica’s longstanding bipartisan consensus pri- would almost certainly be even bigger than really ails the hicks. oritizing economic growth and consumption the one we support today—and the unin- Where Sawhill approximates sympa- (what Cass mocks as “economic piety,” with tended consequences of subsidizing cheap thy for the objects of her study, Oren Cass the Right preferring the “supply side” variant labor on a mass scale are worthy of a consid- evinces genuine empathy. The Once and Fu- and the Left preferring to raise consumption eration which he does not provide. ture Worker is an admirable work in many through government redistribution). Cass ex- Unlike many policy tomes, The Once and respects—not least in Cass’s intellectual plains that while our “economic endowments Future Worker is a pleasure to read. An ex- willingness to reexamine everything that lib- of physical and intellectual capital” are “quite traordinary chapter castigates environmen- ertarian-ish Republicans thought they knew robust,” America’s “social endowments have tal policy that “justifies itself by assigning about the world before that annus horribilis proven themselves highly vulnerable to— enormous economic value to clear air and 2016. All of the principles (or shibboleths) of among other things—consumption-oriented water, while refusing to consider the effects modern Republican conservatism get a hard policies.” of regulation on the level, quality, or trajec- look in this book. Cass concludes that much “Neither economic growth nor economic tory of employment.” Cass argues compel- is wanting in the Reaganite prescription for redistribution will rescue America from its lingly that the prospect of massive labor prosperity for all: laissez-faire, union-free current predicament,” argues Cass; “building displacement due to artificial intelligence workplaces, and more. It is a tribute to his higher upon a crumbling foundation is a mis- and machine learning is seriously overblown, open-mindedness, if not always to his per- take.” “If historically,” he continues, “two-par- since “an abstract description rarely captures suasiveness, that Cass even questions the ent homes could support themselves with only the full complexity of any job.” It is probably propriety of free trade. One can only wonder one parent working outside the home, then still too soon to know whether this time really

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 33 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

will be different, but if the next round of tech- Consequently, the share of industry and nologically induced disruptions in the labor industrial jobs continues to decline more or market proves to be of historically familiar less everywhere. According to the Organ- NEW FROM magnitudes, Oren Cass will have explained isation for Economic Co-operation and De- why in advance. velopment (OECD), just under 10% of U.S. GEORGETOWN employment in 2017 was in manufacturing. UNIVERSITY PRESS ot all of his book, however, The corresponding figure in Canada that year meets the exceptionally high stan- was 9%, and 8% in the Netherlands, Norway, To Catch a Spy Ndards of those two chapters. His and Australia. None of those societies suffers The Art of discussion of labor unions and the future of from obvious under-industrialization. Counterintelligence work, for example, gets oddly dreamy. Cass Rich countries with abnormally large James M. Olson, is under no communitarian illusions about manufacturing sectors have distorted econo- Former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence modern America’s unions, which he consid- mies—and pay for these distortions either by hardcover, $29.95, ers “woefully incompatible with the demands soaking their neighbors (as Germany does 978-1-62616-680-6 ebook, $29.95, and opportunities of the modern economy through the European Union) or by soaking 978-1-62616-681-3 and actively harmful to both workers and their own population (as Japan has done with firms.” But then he imagines a post-Wagner its generation of lost growth). Sawhill—unlike Act (the New Deal legislation that authoriz- Cass, a skeptic of industrial policy and man- es our present system of collective bargaining aged trade—insists “the idea that we can bring with organized labor). In this business-labor back manufacturing jobs in large numbers is Insurgent Elysium, management and workers will co- misguided”—and that looks like the right call. Women Female Combatants operate together creatively in co-ops. Kind Cass plays the China card to justify a in Civil Wars of like German Mitbestimmung, only bet- more interventionist trade policy—probably Jessica Trisko Darden, ter! Please. In our real existing America, the the strongest card in his hand. He bemoans Alexis Henshaw, and most likely place and time for such a high- the “China shock,” the surge of cheap man- Ora Szekely paperback, $16.95, minded workplace revolution are: nowhere, ufactures that shuttered U.S. plants after 978-1-62616-666-0 and never. Beijing’s accession to the World Trade Or- ebook, $9.95, 978-1-62616-667-7 In fairness, Cass’s enterprise co-op fantasy ganization (WTO). MIT’s David Autor and is essentially harmless, since it is so utterly un- others have estimated that the China shock likely ever to take root in the U.S. Not so his resulted in the loss of two million or more misguided notions about managing trade to blue-collar jobs in the early 2000s. Cass also Surrogate revitalize employment, and, in particular, to points to China’s theft of international in- Warfare stimulate a new wave of manufacturing jobs. tellectual property, an ongoing crime spree The Transformation These proposals could find political resonance costing the world hundreds of billions of dol- of War in the Twenty-First Century in an increasingly populist America, and some lars a year. Andreas Krieg and day might even be embraced as policy. But the Jean-Marc Rickli all-too-predictable impact of such protection- ut china’s industrial espionage paperback, $34.95, 978-1-62616-678-3 ist ambitions would be a poorer America— is illegal right now—we don’t need a hardcover, $104.95, and one with less demand for work thrown whole new managed trade policy to ad- 978-1-62616-677-6 B into the bargain too. dress it, just an elected government with the ebook, $34.95, 978-1-62616-679-0 The populist fixation with manufacturing courage to confront Beijing about its crimi- jobs isn’t hard to understand. Typically, these nal behavior. There may even be a case for A Pocket Guide have provided good pay and steady employ- systematically excluding China from our in- to the US ment for Americans with less formal education. ternational supply chains, but this would be Constitution But manufacturing is a diminishing sector in a one-off, special-case national security argu- What Every the economy, and manufacturing jobs are a di- ment, not a precedent for Washington’s global American Needs minishing share of the labor market. Beginning micromanagement of trade and finance. As to Know with the work of 1971 Nobel laureate Simon for the “China shock”: subsequent research by Andrew B. Arnold paperback, $9.95, Kuznets, three generations of economic re- economists Robert Feenstra and Akira Sasa- 978-1-62616-558-8 searchers have traced the “structural transfor- hara suggests that the U.S. lost little if any net hardcover, $29.95, 978-1-62616-582-3 mation” that accompanies modern economic employment from the expansion of interna- ebook, $9.95, development. As societies the world over grow tional trade between 1995 and 2011, includ- 978-1-62616-559-5 more prosperous, their shares of output and ing China’s accession to the WTO. Rather, employment in agriculture dwindle to negli- the disruption to manufacturing employment gible proportions. Sooner or later, the same was more than offset by a surge in service, the thing happens in the industrial sector. This is sector now accounting for a third of all U.S. supply and demand: manufacturing productiv- exports. ity frees up labor for other pursuits, while con- Why the fetish about manufacturing jobs? AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS FROM SELECT EBOOK RETAILERS. sumer choices limit the market for machinery. On a mean hourly basis, U.S. service sector All affluent societies are service economies— jobs actually pay slightly better than manu- FOLLOW US @GUPRESS there are no exceptions. facturing work. Some of Cass’s trade policy

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 34 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Prime Age Male (Not in Labor Force) Population vs. Total Nonfarm Job Openings: USA, 2009–2019

Males in the United States/1000

proposals—such as increased scientific re- than at the post-recession nadir. Yet the num- vor restricting the influx of immigrants with search—win on their own merits, and are ber of men of “prime working age” (between few skills and little education. Will keeping only indirectly connected to trade. But other 25 and 54) neither working nor looking for Mexicans out of the labor force really get our impulses sound confused: do we really want work has barely budged since 2011, hovering lost men back in it? At the margin, probably to restrict foreign investment in America, close to seven million—a total higher today a little. But if our present employment crisis especially when companies like Nissan and than in 2009. is in large part a supply-side problem—that Volkswagen create the manufacturing jobs of And this is not for lack of employment is, not enough men being willing and moti- which Cass approves? It may help sell other opportunities. To the contrary: the number vated to take a job and show up at it, on time components of Cass’s overall vision if propo- of job openings in America has increased by and sober—such restrictions might slow the nents can tell voters they are “tough on trade.” five million since 2009. At the moment there economy without helping American citizens More generally, however, the very best state- are more unfilled positions in the U.S. econ- back into the workforce. A rich country can directed trade policy for the U.S. economy omy than there are prime-age men who have afford a measure of populist virtue signaling, and the American worker would be one that dropped out of the labor force who might fill but should have no illusions about the con- never gets off the drawing board. them. Not all of these unfilled jobs, by the sequences that will and won’t follow from re- way, are for computer coders and chemical en- stricting immigration. he forgotten americans and the gineers. Millions are in retail, restaurants, ho- The mystifying difficulty of drawing -mil Once and Future Worker each contain tels, construction, and transport, and do not lions of lost men back into the workforce is Tinsights that might help Washington require applicants with college degrees. also partially explained by another huge so- cope more effectively with today’s employ- America’s overall unemployment rate today cial problem hiding in plain sight: America’s ment crisis. (The work rate for American men is lower than at any time since the 1960s, and ex-con explosion. This is a second blind spot between the ages of 20 and 64 is no higher to- the official unemployment rate for prime-age for Sawhill and Cass, and for that matter day than it was in Depression-stricken 1939.) men is just 3%. Yet for every prime-age man for almost all those who write about getting Unfortunately, and despite their differences, who is out of work and looking for a job, there America back to work. Since the U.S. govern- Sawhill, Cass, and most of their colleagues are four more who are neither working nor ment inexplicably neglects to estimate the in think tanks and universities share certain looking. This is not a problem that can be size of our sentenced population, even well- blind spots about the continuing jobs crisis. solved by more Keynesian stimulus, a new informed Americans are commonly unaware But the flawed consensus about what is trou- industrial policy, or other so-called “demand- that the jailed and imprisoned population in bling the little people these days limits our na- side tools.” our era of “mass incarceration” comprises a tional efforts to alleviate their woes. tiny fraction of all Americans with a felony The most critical blind spot is the presump- any american working-age conviction in their backgrounds—maybe only tion that our employment crisis is basically a men (and women) missing from a tenth, or less. demand-side problem—a failure of job creation Mthe job market look to be lost in The rest—by now likely well over 20 mil- and a shortage of work especially for those with the disability-opioid archipelago, discon- lion adults, to build on the path-breaking de- lower educational attainments. To be sure, the nected from family and community as well mographic reconstructions of Sarah Shan- failure to create more work is part of the prob- as the workplace. Barely half of native-born, non of the University of Georgia and her lem, but neither the entirety nor the crux of it. prime-age American men with no high colleagues—are in society at large, i.e., back The trouble with the “demand-side theory” school degree are in the job market at all. By in the “civilian non-institutional population” can be seen in the chart on this page. Since contrast, labor force participation rates for that the Bureau of Labor Statistics referenc- the end of the 2008-09 recession, America their foreign-born dropout counterparts are es for all its job market statistics. These for- has witnessed an economic expansion now en- as robust as for native-born college graduates. mer convicts are overwhelmingly male: cur- tering its eleventh year, and the ranks of the To boost jobs and wages for America’s rently something like one in eight adult men paid labor force are 20 million workers greater distressed strata, Sawhill and Cass both fa- in the general U.S. population is an ex-con.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 35 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The proportion is very likely higher for those and Singapore likewise had overtaken America power and plenty are at their zenith, we are of prime working age—and on current train the percentage of persons in their late twen- a deeply wounded land. Material poverty has jectories, the share of male ex-cons of prime ties with college degrees. Particularly shocking been more or less banished, but our country is working age is set only to increase. While is America’s “male fail” in higher educational awash with misery. we, inexcusably, lack any official employ- attainment. Census Bureau figures document Our policy analysts and public servants ment data on this large and growing contin- an eerie stall and slump in matriculation levels have been slow to comprehend this paradox, gent of Americans, we can be sure that the for American men in their late twenties, whose even though it is fundamental. And though the ex-cons are over-represented in the pool of college graduation rates in 1977 were higher misery in our wounded nation is by no means labor force dropout, their employment pros- than ten, 20, or even 30 years later. This dra- entirely economic in nature, there is a glaring pects clouded by what economists call “in- matic, prolonged, and highly unnatural setback financial component to it. America is mightier stitutional barriers.” Until our government has occasioned remarkably little alarm, or even and richer than ever before, even as economic inquires about their plight, they will remain comment—and so far as I can tell, no one as yet self-reliance is on the wane and dependence statistically invisible in a way that precludes has seriously tried to explain its causes. is on the upswing. The United States may be evidence-based policy. practically sloshing with money overall, but f course, better elementary fewer and fewer Americans are managing to inally, there is america’s strange and secondary teaching is a press- find their own personal path to prosperity. and ominous long-term stagnation in Oing national need—as is ramping up Feducational attainment. Although Cass vocational training. But there should be no igures from the federal reserve does flag this problem in passing, neither he, doubt that America needs more—and better- indicate that the real net worth of the Sawhill, nor most others concerned with the trained—college graduates. America today is Fleast prosperous half of America is no employment crisis seem to appreciate just under-colleged: with more and better college higher today than it was 30 years ago—at how dire it is, and how troublesome are its and post-collegiate training our nation would the fall of the Berlin Wall. On a per house- implications. Research on international edu- be richer, our growth rates would be stronger, hold basis, this Fed reckoning suggests that cational attainment by Robert Barro of Har- more people would be at work, and median the real net worth of America’s poorer half vard and Jong-Wha Lee of Korea University worker incomes would be higher. It is quite is actually substantially lower today—per- shows that Americans were the world’s most possible that income inequality in our society haps as much as a third lower than it was in highly educated population (in terms of years would be less pronounced as well. Most of the late 1989. America may have won the Cold of schooling) from the 1870s until more or measured income gains since the 1970s have War, yet that great victory has not been ac- less yesterday. By their reckoning, however, accrued to those with college degrees or bet- companied by anything like a social triumph America has achieved only marginal gains in ter. A substantially greater supply of highly for our people. educational attainment for its working age trained workers might have moderated those A workable formula for prosperity for all is population since the 1970s. Indeed: accord- striking returns to higher education. Until, sorely needed in America. Coming up with ing to U.S. Census Bureau data, mean years of and unless, we understand the reasons for such a formula, one could argue, is the urgent schooling for Americans in their late twenties America’s stagnation, and relative interna- and overarching task facing our country today. was barely three months higher in 2006 than tional decline, in educational attainment, and Getting America back to work would surely for their parents 30 years earlier. redress this abnormality, progress against our be an important step on a road to prosperity This is not because the United States ongoing employment crisis and its allied af- for all. But that is only the beginning of the reached some insurmountable asymptotic flictions will be correspondingly limited. journey. threshold in the 1960s. By Barro’s and Lee’s es- The men disconnected from the workforce; timates, educational attainment for U.S. youth the vast and yet somehow invisible army of Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt 15-24 years of age had dropped to seventh place former convicts; the new normal of unfath- Chair in Political Economy at the American En- by 2010—falling behind Hong Kong, Taiwan, omably slow advances in educational attain- terprise Institute and is the author, most recently, South Korea, and Iceland. Furthermore, by ment—these are just some of the major prob- of Men Without Work: America’s Invisible 2010 such countries as Canada, Ireland, Japan, lems hiding in plain sight. Though American Crisis (Templeton Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 36 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Christopher Flannery Land of the Free The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, by David McCullough. Simon & Schuster, 352 pages, $30

t was a rainy wednesday evening opportunity to build congressional support mous Americans like John Adams, Teddy on the Ohio River, November 15, 1843. for the new Smithsonian Institution and Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and the Wright IJohn Quincy Adams was aboard the generally to advance the cause of learning: Brothers. So much is he identified with Amer- steamboat Benjamin Franklin, making his ica’s story that he was the natural pick to nar- way up the river from Marietta, Ohio, to to turn this transit gust of enthusiasm rate Ken Burns’s acclaimed documentary, The Pittsburgh. A few prominent citizens from for the science of astronomy at Cincin- Civil War (1990). Now he has written a book the Marietta area accompanied him, among nati into a permanent and persevering “about a cast of real-life characters of historic them Ephraim Cutler. Adams was a famous national pursuit, which may extend the accomplishment who were entirely unknown American, son of a president, a former dip- bounds of human knowledge and make to most Americans,” as he puts it. He had lomat and president himself, still an active my country instrumental in elevating wanted to write such a book since he first saw member of Congress, known as “Old Man the character and improving the condi- Thornton Wilder’s play,Our Town, as a young Eloquent” for the felicity of style with which tion of man on earth. man. “I always thought it would be wonderful he championed his staunch anti-slavery poli- to write a book like Our Town,” he says, “but I tics—which went hand in hand with his pro- Ephraim Cutler was one of a handful of would write about real people instead.” American, pro-science, pro-humanity poli- the obscure “pioneers”—including his father tics. He was returning from a trip to Cincin- Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam, Joseph utler and adams were the same nati, whither he had gone, at some risk to his Barker, and Samuel Hildreth—who brought age, 76, and their fathers, both New health, to lay the cornerstone for what Da- higher learning and much else to the wilds CEnglanders, had known one anoth- vid McCullough in The Pioneers notes “may of Ohio and who are McCullough’s heroes er back in the heady days of the 1770s and have been the first public observatory in the in this book. For half a century, McCullough ’80s. They talked long into the night as the western hemisphere.” As usual, Adams was has won Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Benjamin Franklin carried them up the river. thinking big. He wrote of this occasion as an Awards by turning out bestsellers about fa- Among their topics was John Adams’s role

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 37 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

in “securing the Northwest Territory for the Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery United States” in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. nor involuntary servitude in the said This is the historical beginning of the story of territory, otherwise than in the punish- The Pioneers: the acquisition by America, as a ment of crimes whereof the party shall result of victory in the war for independence, have been duly convicted. of “all the lands controlled by the British west of the Allegheny Mountains and northwest of If family records can be relied on, Manasseh the Ohio River east of the Mississippi.” This Cutler, Ephraim’s father, as the agent for the was the first land owned by the government of Ohio Company of Associates meeting with the newly sovereign United States of America, members of Congress in New York in July “265,878 square miles of unbroken wilder- 1787, played an important role in ensuring that ness.” It was an area larger than France, and these American principles would be carried to half as large as the entire territory of the 13 the then-wild West. McCullough relies large- states that had fought for and won indepen- ly on Cutler family records, and he concludes dence. It had over 3,000 miles of shoreline on that Manasseh played perhaps “the most im- “Vigil illuminates the journeys these women four of the five Great Lakes. Eventually the portant role by far” or even an “all-important forged, and skillfully threads together their states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, part...in the creation and enactment of the stories into the larger tapestry of First Ladies.” —Amy Shanler, Boston University and Wisconsin would be carved from this Northwest Ordinance” and in particular the vastness. But in 1783, it was a “howling wil- inclusion of the anti-slavery clause. A portrait derness,” with no road, bridge, town, church, of Cutler included in this attractive volume is school, store, or tavern. accompanied by the explanation: “against all When Cutler expressed the gratitude of odds, [he] almost singlehandedly persuaded Ohioans for the statesmanship of Adams’s Congress to pass the Northwest Ordinance.” father a lifetime ago, he “saw the tears gath- McCullough acknowledges that the historical er” in Adams’s eyes. Another witness to the record is inconclusive on these points. The de- conversation recalled that “Adams’s voice fal- cisive fact is that, whoever deserves the credit, tered in saying that ‘he rejoiced to find that it was through the Northwest Ordinance that there were some who still remembered the “the American Ideal” gave political form to the services of his beloved father.’” But immea- Northwest Territory. surably more important than the acquisition of this immense domain were the distinct- he clause prohibiting slavery ly American moral and political purposes above all expressed the “American Ide- that would govern it. These purposes came al” of McCullough’s subtitle, brought “The editors have at last made easily T to be memorably expressed in the North- west by the pioneers. This would have been available a host of sources, barely known or unknown even to Lincoln experts, and this west Ordinance of 1787. “One of the most the most poignant subject of that evening’s compactness alone provides their purpose.” far-reaching acts of Congress in the history conversation on the Benjamin Franklin. Like —James M. Cornelius, Ph.D., Editor, Journal of the of the country,” as McCullough calls it, the John Quincy Adams, and like their fathers Abraham Lincoln Association Northwest Ordinance ranks with Magna before them, Ephraim Cutler was an anti- Carta and the Declaration of Independence slavery man. He got a chance to stand up, or as a great milestone in the history of human lie down, for his principles when he was se- freedom. In it is found the moral core of Mc- lected as a delegate to Ohio’s constitutional Cullough’s story. convention in 1802, where—despite the existence of the Northwest Ordinance—an s he writes, “the northwest ordi- attempt was made to introduce slavery into nance was designed to guarantee what the Ohio Constitution. According to one Awould one day be known as the Ameri- account, the seriously ill Cutler was carried can way of life.” He emphasizes especially ar- from his home to the assembly to speak and ticles 1, 3, and 6 of the Ordinance, respectively cast a vote against the pro-slavery measure, securing freedom of religion, providing for ed- and the measure was defeated by one vote. ucation, and prohibiting slavery: As his daughter Julia would later record, “To Ephraim Cutler, more than to any other man, Art. 1. No person, demeaning him- posterity is indebted for shutting and barring “Dictys and Dares ﬁ nally provide us with authentic self in a peaceable and orderly manner, the doors against the introduction into Ohio accounts and real eyewitness descriptions of the most shall ever be molested on account of of the monstrous system of African slavery.” famous and controversial event in ancient history.” —From the Preface his mode of worship or religious senti- His eulogist would say of Ephraim, “to him ments, in the said territory…. must ever belong the high honor of drafting Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowl- that article in the first constitution and fun- iupress.indiana.edu edge, being necessary to good govern- damental law of the great state of Ohio which ment and the happiness of mankind, makes it the home of the free while the state schools and the means of education shall last.” When Cutler told Adams about redlightningbooks.com shall forever be encouraged…. his experience in the Ohio constitutional

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 38 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm convention and the exclusion of slavery from ant surviving stumps were to last for decades.” Bringing this American freedom to a large Ohio, Adams said, “with emphasis”: “‘slavery Then because of the wet weather, the huge expanse that might otherwise have remained must and will soon have an end.’” But that piles of logs had to be constantly rolled and or become subjected to one form or other of end would not come soon enough or easily. re-piled to keep them from rotting. A great despotism is what crowns the heroic accom- Both men would die before the great crisis part of McCullough’s charm is his nearly plishments of the pioneers. over slavery nearly destroyed the country. inexhaustible interest in the world around The fact that the two old men were traveling him, especially the American part of it. He he story of america is precisely on a steamboat was itself remarkable. When is interested in what it takes to walk several the heroic story of pioneers who bring the American settlers came to the territory hundred miles in winter over mountains and Tthe American ideal again and again to back in the 1780s and ’90s, they had to make through wilderness with no roads; to know the West. In 1788, the West was the largely their own canoes and flatboats, which were where you’re going; to repair wagons, build unknown country northwest of the Ohio Riv- powered by water currents and human mus- boats, and make your way down (and up!) river. The West would keep moving west, as the cle. Steam power did not arrive in the western ers in different seasons; to make and acquire frontier receded. But West is not just an earth- territories until 1811, and by revolutionizing provisions, stay healthy, bear illness, design bound geographical direction; it is an idea. As travel and commerce up and down the nearly and construct shelters; to clear forests, plant we have been reminded this year, with pic- 1,000-mile Ohio River, it came to define an and harvest crops; and to establish laws, start tures of Buzz Aldrin placing an American flag era. By 1820 there were 63 steamboats op- libraries, and found universities in the middle on the moon 50 years ago, the cosmos itself is erating on the river, some of them as large as of nowhere. McCullough’s book delights in the West. As long as Americans are Ameri- 200 tons, double-deckers, with 12-foot-wide this drama of human purpose, endurance, can, as John Quincy Adams might say, they paddlewheels—the kind of thing that en- and skill. will extend the bounds of human knowledge tranced Mark Twain in his boyhood. and make their country instrumental in ele- t may be sound tradition not to vating the character and improving the condi- ollowing the steamboats were judge a book by its cover, but this book tion of man on earth and even in the heavens. the railroads, but when the first pio- Ideserves to be judged in the first instance Or as Abraham Lincoln put it, the American Fneers arrived in the territory in 1788, by its title and subtitle. They fully express the principle of liberty for all gives hope and in- there were no roads at all, much less rail unashamed admiration the author has for his dustry to all and is constantly spreading and roads. To travel or transport goods on land, subject. McCullough’s pioneers were heroes, deepening its influence and augmenting the the pioneers had to cut their own roads because of what they did and how and why happiness and value of life to all people of all through virgin forests. Forests, rivers, moun- they did it. A pioneer, according to the stan- colors everywhere. tains, seasons, and weather play significant dard dictionaries, is a person who goes before America today is deeply divided into two roles in McCullough’s story. The pace of the others to prepare or open up the way; one parties: those who celebrate this American story is the pace of the first pioneers: 48 men, who begins, or takes part in beginning, some spirit and those who condemn it. The former carefully selected by the Ohio Company of enterprise or course of action; an innovator, would embrace McCullough’s title and ev- Associates, starting out in December 1787 a forerunner. To this day, local sports teams erything it implies; the latter would make it from Ipswich Hamlet in Massachusetts and in the Marietta area proudly call themselves impossible to grant a Pulitzer Prize or a Na- Hartford, Connecticut, to walk 700 miles— “pioneers.” No one has passed a law against tional Book Award to anyone using it. It is a at about one mile per hour—to the headwa- it yet. Christopher Columbus, the Puritans, fair barometer of our current politics that this ters of the Ohio River, near Pittsburgh, the Lewis and Clark, unnamed thousands in cov- book would simultaneously leap to the best- Gateway to the West. There they would have ered wagons on the Oregon Trail, generations seller lists and be morally condemned by Har- to build boats to carry them and their equip- of astronauts—all were pioneers. Venturing vard and Columbia University professors on ment 140 miles or so to a place they would forth into unknown worlds is something that social media and in the New York Times and eventually name Marietta, “in tribute to is essential to the West broadly speaking and Washington Post. Too much white perspec- Queen Marie Antoinette of France, who… to America and the American West. It is he- tive, old stereotypes, an outdated narrative had done more than anyone…to persuade roic partly because stepping into the unknown of American progress and exceptionalism; it the King of France to lend support to the is intrinsically heroic. It takes courage—may- should have focused on “indigenous” peoples American cause.” be even daring or recklessness—and a kind of and been told from their perspective, and so Building boats was a skill not possessed intrepidity to walk, or sail, or fly away from all on and tediously and insidiously on. by many, and it required a sawmill. Saw- that is familiar into regions where everything “What then is the American, this new man?” mills operated on water power; but when the that happens will depend on you and the el- asked J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur in his pioneers arrived at Sumerill’s Ferry on the ements, unknown forces, and luck. Even the Letters from an American Farmer, 60 years be- Youghiogheny River, the water was frozen. “brought” of the title is powerful. fore John Quincy Adams and Ephraim Cutler Once they got working, it took nearly two McCullough is a man of this West. He is a made their way up the Ohio River. As long as months to build the necessary boats and ca- native of Pittsburgh, where a bridge is named the American story continues to unfold and is noes and a galley, named the Mayflower, that after him. He is grateful that the pioneers not replaced by someone else’s story, this an- could carry 50 tons. They arrived at Marietta brought the American way of life, defined swer will suffice: he is a pioneer. on April 7, 1788. Once arrived, they needed by the American Ideal, to this wild country to clear land and build shelters. It could take in place of whatever the uncertain alterna- Christopher Flannery is a senior fellow of the one man three to four weeks to “chop down tives might have been. This meant above all Claremont Institute, contributing editor of the a single acre of hard-wooded forest, leaving that slavery would be forever prohibited in Claremont Review of Books, and author of the stumps in the ground…. Many of the gi- this territory. It would be the home of the free. The American Story podcast.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 39 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Christopher Caldwell From Saving the Earth to Ruling the World

he year 1989 brought not only the For surely the relevant problem is not that ing melting. But it was only at the end of the end of the Cold War but also The End of man has done away with nature but that na- 1980s that scientists’ data came to preoccupy TNature, one of the first books to address ture might do away with him. We have court- politicians, bringing hearings by Demo- global warming, by the New Yorker journalist ed danger in so many ways, with pesticides cratic senators Tim Wirth of Colorado (who and climate activist Bill McKibben. Its title and disease research, with genetic manipula- sought a “New Deal for global warming”) quickly crept into the folklore of environmen- tion, cloning, and nuclear fission. It was quite and Al Gore of Tennessee. In 1988 an In- talism, overturning much inherited common- natural that, once the Cold War’s distractions tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sense about man’s relationship to nature. The had passed, our relationship with nature (IPCC) was founded at the United Nations. legal philosopher Jedediah Purdy, for example, would move to the center of our political life. Ever since, the IPCC, backed by a hard core while not denying that there was such a thing Less expected was that the specific obsession of professors and political agitators world- as a “natural world,” nonetheless told an inter- that would seize the imagination of political wide, has been locked in battles with the viewer in 2015 that “‘nature’ no longer exists activists was the weather. American, Chinese, Indian, Russian, Bra- independent of human activity. From now on, zilian, and other national governments over the world we inhabit will be one that we have A New Ideology how serious a problem global warming is, helped to make, and in ever-intensifying ways.” what measures must be taken to correct it, Intellectuals have grown ever more confi- orrisome rudiments had long and who must pay for them. A “Green New dent that man is calling the shots. Some have been known. Carbon dioxide Deal,” going far beyond Wirth’s early pro- taken to calling our epoch “the Anthropo- (CO ) absorbs heat. Swedish posals, may soon be part of the Democratic W 2 cene,” on the model of a geological epoch, like chemist Svante Arrhenius warned at the Party platform. the Pleistocene or the Holocene. One is return of the 20th century that, as coal and The novelist Nathaniel Rich, in a new his-

minded of the wiseacre high-school-yearbook oil burned and CO2 accumulated, the atmo- tory, Losing Earth, has focused on the late quotation that was popular in the middle of sphere would warm. In 1958 the oceanogra- Cold War origins of climate consciousness. the last century: pher Charles Keeling set up a U.S. Weather His claim is that we might have stopped Bureau observatory in Mauna Loa to mea- global warming in its tracks back then, had

God is dead. sure atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which we been bold enough to act. “[I]n the decade —Nietzsche have shown a steep and almost perfectly lin- that ran between 1979 and 1989, we had an Nietzsche is dead. ear rise ever since. Measurements taken of excellent chance,” he writes. “The world’s —God the Arctic ice cap in the 1960s showed alarm- major powers came within several signatures

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 40 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of endorsing a binding framework to reduce Politics and Pollution hole,” as Rich puts it, “and there was no layer.” carbon emissions…. [W]e came so close, as But it resulted in a such a broad nationwide un- a civilization, to breaking our suicide pact o it has been from the beginning. ease (albeit more over skin cancer than global with fossil fuels.” If there is a low point for environmen- warming) that Ronald Reagan, theretofore a No, we didn’t. We didn’t even come into Stalists’ hopes in Rich’s book, it comes skeptic, called for a 95% reduction in CFCs the general neighborhood of doing that. A with the 500-page National Academy of Sci- and signed the 1987 Montreal Protocol to lim- faithful reporter and a stylish writer, one with ences report Changing Climate, commissioned it greenhouse gases. The Antarctic ozone “hole” a gift for seeing complexity, Rich nonetheless by Jimmy Carter in 1979 but not published is now shrinking rapidly. If climate change (the has trouble thinking his way into the very dif- until 1983, well into the Reagan Administra- science) is an “inconvenient truth,” climate ferent kind of environmentalism that existed tion. Rich describes the moment as “lethal” to change (the cause) frequently advances through before global warming became a global cause. the climate activists’ cause. The report gath- convenient half-truths and even falsehoods. But what did happen in those years is just as ered dozens of the nation’s most distinguished Much of Pomerance’s work was in goad- interesting, and visible at the margins of his oceanographers (including Roger Revelle of ing the climatologists he worked with (for book: a new internationalist ideology was U.C. San Diego), economists (including Wil- example, the NASA computer modeler Jim born out of the ashes of the one that had just liam Nordhaus of Yale), climatologists and Hansen) to be more attentive to P.R., and to been vanquished. mathematicians—and lined them up behind recognize that “[p]olitics offered freedoms The hero of Rich’s tale is Rafe Pomerance, that the rigors of the scientific ethic denied.” grandson of the financier, philanthropist, and These freedoms have always lain temptingly New Deal architect Maurice Wertheim, son Books mentioned in this essay: within the grasp of scientists, but Rich misses of an important nuclear disarmament activist, the Faustian aspect to them. The authority and himself a welfare agitator until his awak- The End of Nature, by Bill McKibben. of science wanes in equal measure as the po- ening to environmentalism. That is fitting. Random House, 224 pages, litical engagement of the individual scientist Just as the “Christian Right” at the end of the $17 (paper) deepens. In recent years the same rules have 20th century was invigorated by imports from applied, mutatis mutandis, to political journal- other, not conspicuously religious branches of Losing Earth: A Recent History, ism and journalists. the Republican Party, the climate movement is by Nathaniel Rich. One of the reasons Rich believes the 1980s full of people from various non-meteorological Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 224 pages, could have been a watershed moment for cli- walks of progressive life. To take just intellec- $25 (cloth), $16 (paper) mate activists is that many industry-affiliated tuals, the anti-capitalist activist Naomi Klein bodies had shown themselves ready to inves- writes increasingly about global warming. So Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if tigate and solve ecological problems. In 1968, do the prison reformer Michelle Alexander People Mattered, by E.F. Schumacher. the American Petroleum Institute (API) com- and the Indian novelist and literary radical HarperCollins, 288 pages, missioned a study from the Stanford Research Arundhati Roy. The novelists Jonathan Saf- $16.99 (paper) Institute—“Sources, Abundance and Fate of ran Foer, Amitav Ghosh, and (in France) Fred Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants”—in which Vargas have all put their fiction careers on Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: the authors alluded to the possibility of “signifi- hold to write short, urgent non-fiction books Reflections on the End of a Civilization, cant temperature changes” before 2000. Tem- about global warming—Ghosh, strangely, by Roy Scranton. City Lights, peratures did indeed rise by just under 1°F over wondering why more people aren’t devoting 144 pages, $13.95 that period, according to NASA. Rich is not their lives to writing about global warming. alone among climate-change activists in treat- Rich’s own “climate fiction” (or cli-fi, as it is The Collapse of Western Civilization: ing this API report as a “smoking gun”—evi- called) includes a love story set in a submerged A View from the Future, dence of oil-industry foreknowledge, and thus Manhattan of the future. by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. culpability. But to examine the original docu- It is fitting, too, that Pomerance should Conway. Columbia University Press, ment, which is available online, is to see that be not a scientist but a lobbyist. It is an ar- 104 pages, $9.95 (paper) it is no such thing. The report is tentative and ticle of faith today among those who deplore deferential, citing Revelle’s warming theories, global warming that the debate on it is closed. yes, but also research that warned of cooling. They are right to say there is a scientific con- a painstakingly documented case for the ex- The API did call it “ironic” that so much sensus around rising CO2 concentrations istence of global warming. So where is Rich’s attention was then being paid to incidents of and increasing temperatures. But confidence problem with that? Not so much in anything pollution here and there, so little to the over- in their own scientific rightness has made the report argued but rather in the reluctance arching climate. They were right about this: them science’s enemies as often as its friends. of most of its authors, at the press conference in the early 1980s only seven of the 13,000 Many in the anti-global-warming movement rolling out the study and thereafter, either to employees at the Environmental Protection are so confident about their science that they hector the public or propose remedies. They Agency worked on climate. Yet you can see do not think they need scientists. They need were scientists, not politicians. why an “abatement” approach, a mix of public- uncomplicated activists, such as the Swedish Conversely, the giddy high point in the sector regulation and private-sector offshor- high-schooler Greta Thunberg. “The climate 1980s climate struggle came when television ing of dirty industries, was attractive in the crisis already has been solved,” the 16-year-old networks alerted the public to the “hole in the 1980s. It was producing extraordinary re- Thunberg said at a TED Talk in Stockholm ozone layer” over Antarctica in the course of a sults: the Charles River in Boston, so dirty at this year. “We already have all the facts and debate over aerosols and chlorofluorocarbons the start of the Reagan Administration that solutions. All we have to do is wake up and (CFCs). It was a poor description of ozone’s university rowing crews were required to get change.” place in the atmosphere—“[f]or there was no tetanus shots if they capsized, is swimmable a

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 41 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm generation later. Today, wolves have returned that time were all looking to seem like they against humanity,” the offense that was es- to the woods around Washington, D.C., and were supporting the policy without having tablished as a grounds for hanging Nazis at bald eagles to the coast of Maine. That is one to make hard commitments that would cost the Nuremberg trials. “There will eventually reason why the country was not clamoring for their nations serious resources.” emerge a vigorous, populist campaign to hold a climate-change program at the end of the Rich does not believe him, but Sununu to account those who did the most to block 1980s. If the problem was a form of “pollu- is correct. When Bill Clinton signed the climate policy over the last forty years,” he tion,” then why risk upsetting the economy to Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Senate, by a writes, and today’s lawsuits “may seem tenta- fix a situation that was visibly improving? vote of 95-0, refused even to consider ratify- tive compared with the vengeance to come.” There is no inherent reason why a scien- ing it. Barack Obama chose a different route At this point, the reader who has been nod- tific question such as climate should divide after the 2015 United Nations Climate ding off will snap alert and ask: am I read- one political party from another. There is no Change Conference in Paris. He ignored the ing too much into this, or is he proposing to Democratic and no Republican position on the constitutional requirement for Senate rati- string a few of these people up? temperature at which water boils. If today Re- fication altogether. Instead, Obama “ratified” publicans welcome climate skeptics more than the agreements reached in Paris by signing From Ecology to Environmentalism Democrats do, their differences are probably a personal “deal” with Chinese Premier Xi over policy, not science. Just under half of Re- Jinping on a visit to Hangzhou in September ich, perhaps without intending publicans agree that there is a scientific consen- 2016, promising (promising whom?) to “ac- to, charts a shift of paradigms— from sus that global warming is happening. cept the said agreement and every article and Rthe “ecological” perspective common This statistic infuriates Rich. It ought to be clause thereof on behalf of the United States to hippies and other nature-lovers at the start unanimous, as he sees it, and the 1980s mark of America.” That bit of legerdemain did not of the 1980s to today’s hard, “environmental- the moment when Republicans descended make the Paris accords the law of the land. It ist” perspective, which is in some ways diamet- from the reasonableness of those API studies did make them government policy—albeit for rically opposed to it. In the 1960s and ’70s, al- to Reagan’s “thuggish” deregulation, on their a much shorter while than had been antici- most everyone had thought as an ecologist. It way to the “mustache-twirling depravity” of to- pated in the autumn of 2016. was understood that problems were accumu- day’s party. George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff, Rich ends his book on a “woke” note, if lating in the “outdoors”: smog, junk floating John Sununu, whom Rich accuses of politi- we can use that word to mean orotund, in- down rivers, broken glass. A frequently aired cizing science, argues that no climate-change cendiary, and blind to any possibility of good public-service ad showed an Indian in tribal agreement was ever a possibility back then: “It faith in those who disagree with him. He ac- dress paddling his canoe out of a primeval for- couldn’t have happened,” he tells Rich in an cuses any politician who so much as claims est, beaching it on a pile of garbage, then hav- interview,” because the leaders in the world at to be unsure about climate change of “crimes ing a paper bag full of fast food heaved onto

NEW CONSERVATIVE TITLES from

HC.com

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 42 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm his moccasins from the window of a speeding out. People could thus judge the severity of mand and interfere. As for the carbon com- car. The old “ecological” paradigm conformed the problem of pollution and instruct their plex, any industry that controls a dominant to a long Western ethical and intellectual tra- elected representatives on how much they energy source in a free economy risks turn- dition. Its manifesto, to the extent it had one, wanted done to fix it. The evidence from his- ing into a “complex.” If all our cars were solar, was Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People tory is that they wanted quite a lot. That is then advertisers, public relations companies, Mattered (1973), a collection of essays by why you can swim in the Charles today. The and marketing firms would shill for sunshine E.F. “Fritz” Schumacher, refugee from Hitler, “ecological” understanding of nature and just as ardently as they now do for oil. Indus- head of planning at the British National Coal what it requires from us is compatible with try lobbyists and other insiders will fight for Board, and brother-in-law of the theoretical democracy. special favors, too. That is one of the lessons physicist Werner Heisenberg. Schumacher’s Modern “environmental” climate activ- of the Obama stimulus package of 2009. It message was simple: The earth’s resources are ism is less obviously so. Its science is mys- was notoriously a boon to the now-bankrupt limited and, in many cases, unrenewable. We terious to people, and science sometimes California solar-cell maker Solyndra. Plenty are wasting them. seems far from its main focus. To read al- of extravagantly expensive products appeared The countercultural theorist Theodore -Ro most any of the contemporary books that on the scene, like the solar-powered “smart” szak placed Schumacher alongside Tolstoy, try to give an overview of climate change is trash cans made by Bigbelly, which cost thou- Gandhi, William Morris, and Lewis Mum- to be struck by their non-scientific obses- sands of dollars apiece. (Eighty of them were ford in the tradition of “anarchism, if we mean sion with “capitalism.” Princeton English scheduled for installation in San Francisco by that much-abused word a libertarian polit- professor Roy Scranton, in Learning to Die last fall.) ical economy that distinguishes itself from or- in the Anthropocene (2015), describes the en- If Schumacher’s way of fighting pollution thodox socialism and capitalism by insisting vironmental crisis as “the collapse of carbon- follows the pattern of a religion, Oreskes’s that the scale of organization must be treated fueled capitalism” and warns that “global follows that of an ideology. It proposes not as an independent and primary problem.” So decarbonization is effectively irreconcilable that we hesitate, or doubt ourselves and our while Schumacher was a kindred spirit to with global capitalism.” Similarly, the Har- present structures, but that we work through this hero of the hippie movement, he was also vard historian of science, Naomi Oreskes, their contradictions to some new synthesis, as someone whose vision could inspire anyone Karl Marx envisioned. Our overuse of carbon who thought about life in a traditional or reli- (which it requires esoteric expertise to quanti- gious way. It might be necessary, Schumacher If all our cars fy) calls for a new economic order (which it will argued, to take a step back and reconsider require esoteric expertise to design). The case whether our position is sufficiently respect- were solar, then does not lack for supporting evidence. With ful of nature, or sufficiently respectful of God. advertisers would a world population headed towards 10 billion, Our problem was that we were “inclined to many of them in places with a precarious food treat as valueless everything that we have not shill for sunshine just supply, we might not have the luxury of a glob- made ourselves.” as ardently as they al economy subject to great fluctuation. But This was particularly the case with fos- Oreskes and Conway have an additional gripe. sil fuels. As people in the 21st century would, now do for oil. Like Rich, they are frustrated that so many sci- Schumacher worried that we were using them entists resist being politicized. The scientists too much—although part of his worry was have been “hamstrung by their own cultural that we were using them up. Modern man, co-authored a science-fiction dystopia about practices,” they write, “unable…to act upon like a dissolute heir, was burning through his climate change, The Collapse of Western Civi- what they knew. Knowledge did not translate inheritance, treating his capital as if it were lization (2014). She and Erik M. Conway of into power.” More power to experts: perhaps income. Schumacher noted especially that we the California Institute of Technology cast this has been the real climate agenda all along, were burning through “a certain kind of irre- the enemy as the “carbon-combustion com- whether the world is ending or not. placeable capital asset, the tolerance margins plex,” backed not just by energy companies which benign nature always provides.” While but also by those who profit from them (ad- First World Problems this perspective vindicates the global-warming vertisers, public relations, marketing firms). concerns of our time, it also repudiates our As Oreskes and Conway envision the future, oday,” writes scranton, “glob- time’s simple solutions. Because if Schumacher only China will succeed at managing climate al power is in the hands of a tiny is right that fossil fuels are capital, then once change, owing perhaps to a sensible program “Tminority, and the system they pre- we have run through them, we will have run of environmental regulation under Commu- side over threatens to destroy us all.” Howev- through them. Abandoning fossil fuels will not nism, and vindicating “the necessity of cen- er true that might be as a description of eco- necessarily mean carrying on modern life in a tralized government.” nomic privilege, it is diametrically wrong as a wiser, saner way. It might mean giving up mod- These books are cult favorites among description of the politics of global warming. ern life altogether. We will either find another global-warming activists. The authors may be The problem is rather that access to (carbon) source of stored energy, such as nuclear power, right that non-capitalist countries have a bet- power has been democratized and decolo- or we will revert more or less to the way we got ter chance of addressing climate change. But if nized, and that coal mining, traffic jams, and energy before: water, and the labor of animals, so that is not because non-capitalist economic air-conditioned malls are now widespread including ourselves. systems are better or cleaner: during the Cold in the most teeming parts of what used to Schumacher’s “ecology” was a system that War, Communist East Germany was the most be called the Third World. China accounts ordinary citizens could understand by look- polluted country on the European continent. for 29% of global carbon emissions, the U.S. ing at it. Ecological damage consisted of The advantage of non-capitalist countries is for 14%, Britain and other major European things that citizens could pick up and filter rather in their greater willingness to com- countries for a mere percent or two each.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 43 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

If the United States still dominated the con- only that we put our own moral house in order with it. More, not less, energy use will be the sumption of fossil fuels, we could make a dent in but also that we threaten those countries that result. Most solutions to climate change are the world’s carbon footprint by setting off on a insist on, say, burning coal to achieve the same of this nature—miscalculation or poor ex- jag of self-abnegation, however out of the na- lifestyle we already have. It would mean the ecution can exacerbate the problem. tional character such an impulse might be. But equivalent of a non-proliferation treaty, to deny “As our technology grew more sophisti- as Americans were aspiring to clean energy, the not weaponry but comfort and sustenance. cated,” Nathaniel Rich writes, “our behavior rest of the world began to aspire to the lifestyle (Although the weaponry would be denied, too, grew more childish.” It is a true and profound that we had acquired (and maintain) through because to de-carbonize a society is essentially insight. Climate change is one of a family of carbon energy. Our old profligacy had passed to disarm it.) Short of war, or statesmanship crises of modernity involving Promethean hu- almost unnoticed as long as there were only a of the least democratic kind, it is hard to see bris and unfunded externalities. It connects few tens of millions of us living this way; but how the anti-warming agenda can be carried to all kinds of conflicts between nature and as Asia and Africa caught up, the whole carbon out. Today’s climate politics are incompatible culture, or between barbarism and civiliza- game threatened to become unsustainable. not just with this or that state but with the con- tion, or between (to use Bertrand Russell’s We have little to do for poor countries ex- tinuation of the state system in general. dialectic) freedom and organization. Naomi cept lecture them. Oreskes’s novel records At root, climate change is a Malthusian Oreskes and Erik Conway speak for many cli- that “a different version of denial emerged in problem. The Canadian energy scientist Va- mate-change activists when they imagine that non-industrialized nations, which argued that clav Smil said, in a recent New York maga- future generations will marvel at “how we— the threat of climate change was being used to zine interview with the climate author Da- the children of the Enlightenment—failed prevent their development.” Is this really so un- vid Wallace-Wells, that the depopulation of to act on robust information about climate reasonable? The average Indian observing this advanced countries might be a plus for the change.” They probably won’t marvel at it so Western paroxysm of climate moralism has rea- earth’s future. “Partially there is a ‘hope,’ much if they recall that the Enlightenment son to be suspicious about its timing. And since I would say, in the sense that we are dying has many aspects. It is the source of certain global-warming ideology always arrives with a out,” Smil said. “As we have seen over the values, the source of a new type of domination spring-loaded, fully elaborated governing and past three decades, once you get to 1.3 or 1.4 by experts, and the source of energy-extract- regulatory agenda, “denial” might be the wrong [children per woman per lifetime, the rate ing technologies that have brought wealth be- word for what is more accurately described as in many countries of Europe], there’s no… yond man’s wildest dreams. Like many prob- a reluctance to pay with Eastern prosperity to chance in hell that it could ever recover. Ja- lems the Enlightenment gets called in to solve, solve a Western problem. Americans and Eu- pan is losing now half a million people every this is one of its own making. ropeans not of the governing classes might have year.” But this is a “hope” only so long as the similar misgivings. What they are “denying” is green space freed up by depopulation does Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor of not reality but the will of their rulers. not get filled with migrants. If it does, then the Claremont Review of Books and the author Solving the problem of global warming in the level of economic sophistication will like- of the forthcoming The Age of Entitlement: the manner activists desire would require not ly fall, and energy efficiency will fall along America Since the Sixties (Simon & Schuster).

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY Logic as a Liberal Art OF AMERICA PRESS By R.E. Houser Available December 2019

Paper $34.95 978-0-8132-3234-8

Ebook $34.95 978-0-8132-3235-5 Paradise Lost By Michael Cavanagh Available February 2020 Origins of Catholic Paper $29.95 978-0-8132-3246-1 Words Ebook $29.95 978-0-8132-3247-8 By Anthony Lo Bello Available January 2020 Paper $29.95 978-0-8132-3230-0 cuapress.org Ebook $29.95 978-0-8132-3231-7

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 44 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Daniel Johnson Eric the Red Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History, by Richard J. Evans. Oxford University Press, 800 pages, $39.95

ad ideas are rarely tainted by tional, had failed to prevent or even oppose lag to genocide. This is nowhere more obvious the evils perpetrated in their name. the First World War. than in his attitude to an important aspect of BAn ideologist can safely ignore evi- Then came Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. his own identity: the fact that he was a Jew. dence, however devastating, that his ideology It changed everything. Lenin and Stalin im- A couple of illustrations suffice. At a din- brought untold suffering to countless people. provised their own version of Marxism—a ner party in the 1980s given by fellow histo- If he brazens it out, a generation will even- shock therapy imposed on a peasant society rian Hugh Thomas, Hobsbawm held forth tually emerge with no memory of such hor- at the cost of starving millions to death. The about the threat that the Middle East conflict rors, whereupon he can impress new cadres dictatorship of the proletariat, originally en- might precipitate a superpower clash. David of intellectuals all over again. Genius is not visaged as a transitional phase, morphed into Pryce-Jones was present and, writing in the required—only longevity. the one-party police state—a collectivist, to- New Criterion, recalled that Hobsbawm said Historian Richard J. Evans’s Eric Hobsbawm: talitarian tyranny unprecedented in the scale “it would be better to kill a few million Israelis A Life in History perfectly captures this pa- of its savagery. The fact that Communism by dropping a nuclear bomb on their country thology. Marxism was already a zombie ide- actually existed in the Soviet Union gave new than to suffer the deaths of two hundred mil- ology by the time of Hobsbawm’s birth in life to the ideas that inspired it—ideas that lion Europeans and Americans in the Cold 1917. Economists already regarded the Marx- could in turn be ruthlessly deployed to justify War nuclear exchange that he forecast would ist labor theory of value as a museum piece; this new despotism. very soon happen. When I said that Goebbels social scientists noted that the working class was the last person I could recall who had spo- had not been “immiserated,” but had in fact n hobsbawm’s hands, an ideology that ken of mass murder in terms of arithmetic, an prospered under capitalism. The German So- had once longed for government of the in- enraged Hobsbawm left the room and did not cial Democratic Party—by which Karl Marx Itellectuals, by the intellectuals, for the in- return.” and Friedrich Engels had set such store—had tellectuals, became instead a cynical calculus This was no isolated outburst: Hobsbawm abandoned revolution in favor of reform and, of power politics, in which the end of a Com- blamed the Jews for their own misfortunes. like other Socialists in the Second Interna- munist utopia justified any means, from Gu- In 2009, he wrote, apropos of Gaza: “Let

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 45 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

me not beat about the bush: criticism of Is- Trotsky was not.” Already as a schoolboy, the rael does not imply anti-semitism, but the iron had entered Hobsbawm’s soul. The ideas actions of the government of Israel occasion had taken root that would enable him to jus- shame among Jews and, more than anything tify Gulag, famine, and terror. else, they give rise to anti-semitism today.” Hobsbawm’s background, as a grandson of fter the buzz of berlin, the lon- Polish-Jewish immigrants, makes his visceral gueurs of London made Hobsbawm hatred of Israel even more dismal, but it ex- Aeager to escape to Cambridge, where tended to other aspects of Jewish survival. As he studied history at King’s College (1936-39). Evans relates, Hobsbawm once sneered con- The only academic there who impressed him temptuously: “Would it matter if Yiddish dis- was M.M. Postan, who knew his Marx—he appeared?” In this, he was true to the teaching had been a Communist at 17, he told under- Europe and the Decline of Marx himself. In the formative text of left- graduates, “but I grew out of it.” Postan had of Social Democracy wing anti-Semitism, Zur Judenfrage (“On the experienced Bolsheviks firsthand in his na- Jewish Question”), Marx claimed that “money tive Bessarabia and knew how brutally they in Britain is the jealous God of Israel” and that “the so- treated the peasantry and the bourgeoisie, cial emancipation of the Jew is the emancipa- but Hobsbawm only heard what he wanted From Attlee to Brexit tion of society from Judaism.” to hear. He left university knowing far more ADRIAN WILLIAMSON about history, seen through a Marxist prism, obsbawm was born in alexan- yet none the wiser about its distortions. dria, Egypt, the son of Percy, an This was evident in his reaction to the Mo- HEnglish postal official, and Nelly, lotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact of Au- a Viennese jeweler’s daughter. Their family gust 1939. Hobsbawm judged that Stalin had name was Hobsbaum, but Eric’s name was struck a blow for peace by isolating Hitler; in misspelled by the clerk who registered his fact, Stalin had thrown the rest of Europe, in- birth. The only other member of the clan to cluding his comrades, to the wolves. “I don’t distinguish himself was Philip Hobsbaum, a think there’ll be a war,” Hobsbawm wrote. poet and critic, impressive not least for hav- Four days later, Hitler invaded Poland. ing held out against the academic Marxism of Hobsbawm was too busy writing pro- which his cousin became high priest. Soviet propaganda to question the party line At age two, Eric Hobsbawm was trans- (that this was an “imperialist” war), let alone planted from an outpost of the British Em- the fact that his hero Stalin was on the war’s pire to post-imperial Vienna. His mother wrong side for two years. Drafted into the knew how to deal with the anti-Semitism British army, Hobsbawm narrowly avoided that suffused the Austrian capital, warning being sent to Singapore just before it fell to him: “You must never do anything, or seem the Japanese. Instead, he had a “good” war in to do anything, which might suggest that you the Army Educational Corps, where his intel- are ashamed of being a Jew.” Her son, howev- lectual prowess served him—if not always his er, thought he knew better. After his parents country—well. “Essential reading for anyone died, he moved to Berlin to be with an uncle Hobsbawm did not have to choose between who wants to go beyond working in the film industry. There, parachut- party loyalty and patriotism during World the Westminster games and ed into the last years of the Weimar Republic War II. That changed in the Cold War. When as an orphaned and impressionable teenager, his first wife, Muriel, wished to signal that understand the deep causes Hobsbawm became a Communist. For the their marriage had broken down, she sent him of the current crisis.” next 80 years, until his death at 95, he saw no a copy of Orwell’s anti-Communist novel Nine- —Fintan O’Toole, reason to modify his credo. teen Eighty-Four. Such was his contempt for the Although he remembered being terrified British ruling class that he might have been columnist at the Irish Times in Berlin—alone in a streetcar with Nazi surprised to learn how efficiently MI5 kept stormtroopers, or stuffing Communist Party him and his party colleagues under constant Offering a much-needed historical leaflets into postboxes—he was spirited out surveillance. These detailed (and inadvertently perspective to the current political crisis of the German capital in March 1933 by his hilarious) intelligence reports enrich Evans’s bi- in Britain, this book explores the country’s uncle Sidney, before the real terror began. ography. The security services had themselves gradual disenchantment with both social He entered London, “not as a refugee or emi- been penetrated, of course. After the spy Guy democracy and the EEC/EU, culminating grant, but as someone who belonged here,” he Burgess fled to Moscow, he called his friend in the 2016 vote for Brexit. recalled. This is important: his decision to to apologize for missing the annual dinner of remain a party member in England was not the Apostles, the secretive Cambridge society, September 2019, $34.95/£25 a matter of existential survival, but cool cal- thereby “making absolutely certain that my ISBN: 9781783274437, 384 pp., HB culation. “Drown yourself in Leninism,” he phone would thenceforth be bugged.” wrote in his diary. He admired Soviet lead- Hobsbawm, though, would rather be www.boydellandbrewer.com ers for combining principle and opportun- bugged than buggered. He was indeed one ism: “Lenin and Stalin were [great statesmen], of the Apostles, whose members permeated

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 46 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

what was just coming to be known as the of Empire, and culminating in 1994 with his And the relativist-in-chief has long been Eric establishment. Yet Hobsbawm’s tastes were bestselling history of the 20th century, The Hobsbawm. demotic (jazz and cinema); he did not share Age of Extremes) and accolades, academic or Even a sympathetic biographer like Evans their homoeroticism (he had many affairs, but political (Queen Elizabeth, on Tony Blair’s cannot disguise his subject’s readiness to toe only with women); and, above all, he was no advice, made him a Companion of Honour). the party line. Other Communists could not fellow-traveler, but an unwavering Commu- The man who considered himself an “outsider,” stomach the invasions of Hungary or Czecho- nist, dedicated to the long march through the even in the Communist Party, had become slovakia; Hobsbawm could. Others might institutions. the ultimate insider of the establishment he have doubts about, say, the 45 million Chi- Finding the atmosphere more congenial at despised. nese peasants who died in Mao’s Great Leap the workers’ evening schools offered by Birk- The scale of Evans’s biography is dispro- Forward; Hobsbawm showed none. Asked by beck College, London, than among the jeu- portionate to Hobsbawm’s “life in history,” Michael Ignatieff in 1994 whether it would nesse dorée at Cambridge, Hobsbawm moved but it may yet justify itself by his daunting have made a difference to his decision to be- to the capital. There he could play a significant legacy. If you would see his monument, look come a Communist in 1934 if he had known part in Communist politics, not least as chair- around: the Leftist politicians of our day— about Stalin’s crimes, Hobsbawm replied: man of the party’s Historians’ Group, which not only fossils of the Cold War, such as Ber- “Probably not...the chance of a new world be- included E.P. Thompson and Christopher nie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, but also the ing born in great suffering would still have Hill. The way that history is taught today in new wave of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and been worth backing.” Ignatieff pressed him, British schools and universities owes much to her ilk—echo Hobsbawm’s critique of the asking whether “the loss of fifteen, twenty their ideological zeal. West and justification of its enemies. From million people might have been justified?” neoliberalism to neo-imperialism, from capi- Hobsbawm: “Yes.” he majority of evans’s huge bi- talism to climate change, the free world’s To write history as cold-blooded as ography covers the latter half of supposed defects have been the relentless fo- Hobsbawm did is to consign humanity to per- THobsbawm’s career. Yet as his fame cus of that critique. The indifference of the dition. But the historian who does so belongs, grew, the narrative lapses into a chronicle of “progressives” to, for example, famine-strick- for his part, in a place too cold for Hell. visiting chairs (notably at the New School en Venezuela is striking: the cruelties of in New York), ever longer books (including Chavez and Maduro are blamed on the U.S. Daniel Johnson is editor of the U.K.-based online his trilogy on the 19th century, The Age of The evils of empires that once worshipped platform TheArticle and founder of the monthly Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age at the shrine of Marx are still relativized. magazine Standpoint.

the claremont institute Search The American Story on your favorite podcast presents app and subscribe.

OUR ARCHIVE

APPLE PODCASTS

SPOTIFY PODCASTS

WITH CHRIS FLANNERY GOOGLE PODCASTS

THEAMERICANSTORYPODCAST.ORG

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 47 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by David P. Goldman Time Out of Joint Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich, by Christopher Clark. Princeton University Press, 312 pages, $29.95

hristopher clark is our out- Guns of August (1962) transposed the date Clark addresses the “why” by way of a medi- standing historian of the Great War. of Russian mobilization, delaying it by a de- tation on the shifting self-image of the Ger- CHis 2012 account of its beginnings, cisive two days. Thus Clark discredited the man nation from the Thirty Years’ War to The Sleepwalkers, stunned the world and set black legend of unilateral German aggres- the Hitler period (i.e., 1618–1945). Having a new standard in a field that most thought sion, and with it the popular thesis that de- established that the statesmen of Europe exhausted. Clark was the first Western his- mocracies don’t start wars; democratic France, walked in their sleep, Clark now wants to torian to enter the Russian diplomatic ar- eager to regain the territory lost in its 1870 war know what they were dreaming—the better chives. With them he showed that Russia with Prussia, encouraged Russia to mobilize. to understand the great changes in politics mobilized first and made war inevitable at a The somnambulant autocracies in Berlin and currently underway. moment when Berlin still expected a local- Vienna stumbled into the war. Brilliant as an investigator, Clark is out ized rather than a European war. He proved The Sleepwalkers addressed the “how” of of his depth as a philosopher of history. He that Barbara Tuchman’s Pulitzer Prize-win- World War I’s beginning. In the diffuse, fas- worries that the liberal vision of history as ning account of the war’s beginning in The cinating, and frustrating Time and Power, progress will give way now to an atavistic na-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 48 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tionalism that fabricates its past in order to populist rebellion against liberal progressiv- idents in the United States to the no- repudiate history altogether. It may be too ism represents a devolution to primitive, de- tion that there is a “right” and a “wrong” much to ask a historian of the Great War structive expressions of nationalism. side of history. But...[t]he abysmal fail- to take a benign view of nationalism. Clark ure of liberal democratic “nation-build- certainly is justified in pointing to the risks ot only has the postwar liberal ing” projects in the wake of the Iraq attendant upon our present populist revival. order failed, Clark avers; its intellec- and Afghanistan wars discredited the As Angelo Codevilla observed recently in the Ntual foundation, namely the belief in pretensions both of “democratic peace Claremont Review of Books, “The Great War’s progress over time, has fractured: theory” and of the political culture that combatants...had become what one might gave rise to it. call ‘idol states,’ objects of cult, ritual, and Liberal democracy is founded, no less human sacrifice” (“Defending the Nation,” than communism, on a linear under- The horrible alternative to the fractured Winter 2018/19). I argued in my 2011 book standing of history.... [B]oth systems liberal order, Clark tells us in the book’s in- How Civilizations Die that each of the Eu- are founded on the intention to change troduction, is Donald Trump, who “mount- ropean powers dreamed of its own national reality for the better; at the heart of ed a challenge...to conventional American election as a new Chosen People. Nonethe- both is an idea of modernization that historicity by becoming the first president less, Clark’s attempt to draw a parallel be- requires “breaking from the old and of modern times overtly to reject the notion tween the breakdown of the German state initiating the new”.... Hence the strong that America occupies an exceptional and after World War I and the crackup of the attachment of recent Democratic pres- paradigmatic place at the vanguard of his- 21st-century liberal order fails in both concept and narrative.

lark has read his way into the theories of time which gained trac- tion on the European continent dur- C 30% off with promo code BB657 at www.urpress.com ing the 19th century. He cites Henri Bergson, Émile Durkheim, and Martin Heidegger, who “proposed that the ‘existential and onto- logical constitution of the totality of human consciousness [Dasein]’ was ‘grounded in temporality.’” Here we have an unintended irony: Clark draws on Heidegger to explain why a rupture in temporal sensibility risks encouraging a new kind of Nazism. But, he neglects to add, Heidegger’s own views on temporality led him to conclude that the concrete circumstances of his own time required support for Educating Liberty The Sense of Injustice and the Adolf Hitler. In 1933, during a conference at Democracy and Aristocracy Origin of Modern Democracy the University of Tübingen, the Marburg phi- in J.S. Mill’s Political Thought losopher declared that BRUCE J. SMITH CHRIS BARKER A careful study of the political thought of We have witnessed a revolution. The A comprehensive study of Mill’s theory of lib- Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke, revealing the erty, uncovering Mill’s solution to the problem state has transformed itself. This revo- roots of modern democracy of democracy, the tyranny of the majority • • • lution was not the advent of a power 324 pages 9781580469234 $90 HB pre-existing in the bosom of the state or • • • Offer price: $63 Offer272 pages price: 9781580469227 $73.50 $105 HB of a political party. The national-socialist revolution means rather the radical Socrates and Divine Revelation transformation of German existence. Becoming Socrates LEWIS FALLIS Political Philosophy in Plato’s “Parmenides” “[W]ill take its place among the finest That conference was organized by Tübingen’s ALEX PRIOU scholarly analyses of Plato and the most local branch of the Nazi party. It is odd to “[A] deeply thought-provoking new illuminating theoretical investigations of the warn that we risk a Nazi revival if we depart perspective on Platonic-Socratic political problem of religion and political philosophy.” from a conceptual framework whose first con- philosophy.” —Thomas L. Pangle, University —Peter Ahrensdorf, Davidson College clusion was support for Nazism. of Texas at Austin • • • Clark reduces the issue of temporality to • • • Offer94 pages price: 9781580469081 $66.50 $95 HB only two possible views: the linear notion of Offer256 pages price: 9781580469197 $66.50 $95 HB historical progress (à la liberalism) versus the perpetual present fed by obsession with an imagined past (à la premodern societies and Nazism). This juxtaposition leads Clark to Visit us at www.urpress.com the trivial (and wrong) conclusion that the

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 49 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

tory’s forwards movement.” As Clark sees public life. The collapse in 1918 of the this is because Clark likes the French Revo- it, “In the United States, Poland, Hungary, system Bismarck created brought in lution, and blames the Nazis for having “neu- and other countries experiencing a populist its wake a crisis in historical awareness, tralized” it. revival, new pasts are being fabricated to dis- since it destroyed a form of state power place old futures.” that had become the focal point and lark’s book compares the histori- In my view, the linear notion of historical guarantor of historical thinking and cal self-understanding of the Hohen- progress which Clark takes for “conventional awareness. Czollern nobleman and Great Elector American historicity” is neither conventional Among the inheritors of this crisis... of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm (ruled nor American. It is not conventional, because were the National Socialists, who initi- 1640-88), who built the state that would be- the Progressive movement advanced it at the ated a radical break with the very idea come modern Prussia and later modern Ger- turn of the 20th century in radical opposition of history as a ceaseless “iteration of the many, to that of Bismarck in the 19th century to American convention. And it is not Ameri- new.” and then that of the Nazi regime in the 20th. can, but rather a Hegelian cuckoo’s egg depos- But this comparison is insufficient as an -ac ited in America’s nest by the Baptist minister Totalitarian regimes, Clark asserts, un- count of Germany’s national development. Walter Rauschenbusch and others in the So- dertook “ambitious modern interventions in What was it that united the 36 major po- cial Gospel movement. Later I will discuss the the temporal order.” They eschewed notions litical subdivisions of Germany, guaranteed American notion of temporality. Let us first of progress in favor of a sentimental longing sovereignty in 1648 by the Peace of West- examine Clark’s narrative. for their respective peoples’ mythic bygone phalia, into one nation? It surely was not the days, so as to foster a sense of “deep iden- Prussian monarchy. The Hohenzollerns, as fter claiming that trump and tity between the present, a remote past, and Clark notes, had no historical connection to other populists resemble Nazis, a remote future.” The book devotes some at- Brandenburg, the core of the future Prussian AClark spends most of the book retention to the Soviet Union’s official calendar, state, “purchased...in 1417 for four hundred viewing German history in order to arrive which in 1930 under Stalin was altered to re- thousand Hungarian gold guilders. Through at a characterization of the Nazis that cor- place the traditional seven-day week with a strategic marital alliances, successive genera- responds to his reading of Trump. He writes, new one of five days, identified simply by col- tions of Hohenzollern Electors had acquired ors and numbers. Clark calls this “a revolu- territorial claims to a number of noncontigu- [German Chancellor Otto von] Bis- tionary experiment in reordering the human ous territories to the east and west.” marck’s historicity was riven by a ten- relationship with time.” But, oddly, he does Under Friedrich Wilhelm’s grandson, sion between his commitment to the not mention the great precedent for Stalin’s Friedrich Wilhelm I, and great-grandson, timeless permanence of the state and abortive experiment—namely the Jacobins’ Friedrich II (“the Great”), Prussia had nei- the churn and change of politics and ten-day week and renamed months. Perhaps ther the characteristics nor the self-under-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 50 A RADICAL ANALYSIS

Discrimination and Disparities is a radical book, in the fundamental sense of going to the root of an issue. It challenges the very foundation of assumptions on which the prevailing “social justice” vision of our time is based. The first two chapters ofDiscrimination and Disparities present a new framework of analysis, and back it up with empirical evidence from around the world, before proceeding to demonstrate why and how so much of the “social justice” vision is a house of cards. Some readers may find it surprising to discover what elementary fallacies provide the basis for many often- repeated assertions about the “top 10 percent,” “top one percent” or the “top 400” highest income recipients. The numbers behind such assertions may be valid as of a given moment, but most people’s lives last longer than a moment. At some time during their lives, just over half of all Americans are in the “top 10 percent” in income. Internal Revenue Service data show that, over a 23-year period, there were 4,584 people in the “top 400”— and most of them were in that bracket just one year out of more than two decades. In many contexts, turnover is the ignored elephant in the room. Discrimination and Disparities points out many other elephants that have been ignored for far too long. The fact that life has never been even approximately “fair,” in the sense of presenting equal chances for achievement to all individuals, groups or nations is undeniable. But that tells us nothing about the causes of particular skewed outcomes. Nor does it mean that we can reduce the causes to whatever fits a particular social vision, without putting that vision to the test of empirical evidence. The alternative analysis and evidence offered in Discrimination and Disparities suggest that skewed distributions of outcomes are by no means improbable or unusual, whether among human beings or in natural phenomena beyond human control, such as tornadoes or earthquakes. This does not mean fatalistic acceptance of economic and social disparities. But it does suggest that much of what is said and done in the name of “social justice” is an impediment to creating greater opportunities for all. Teachers who want their students to see more than one side of an issue may find Discrimination and Disparities especially appropriate for that role.

Basic Books $30.00 US $39.00 Canada mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

standing of a nation. Prussians constituted a stances and preserve the balance of power in minority of its soldiers during wartime, and Europe. Clark wants to get at the developing German was a minority language in Berlin time-consciousness of German leaders be- during most of the 18th century. Huguenots, fore Hitler. But he has summoned a witness Poles, Jews, and other immigrants replaced with nothing but banalities to offer. the majority of the population of Branden- It would have been instructive to compare burg and Pomerania that had been depleted the empty rigamarole of Friedrich I’s corona- during the Thirty Years’ War. Clark does tion with its British equivalent. The British not mention the man who compelled Prussia monarchy, which claimed its thousandth an- to transform itself from a territory, defined niversary in 1973, appropriates the Biblical by the personal sovereignty of the monarch, ritual of anointment to emphasize the sacred into the core of the German nation. That character of the institution and its derivation man was Napoleon I. Napoleon’s levée en from the Davidic monarchy. (This is por- masse placed the whole of French manhood trayed touchingly in Episode 5 of the popular Follow us @KentuckyPress Follow and 800-537-5487 order: To kentuckypress.com at his disposal and put a field marshal’s baton series The Crown, when George VI explains in the rucksack of every foot soldier, cutting to his child Elizabeth that anointment is what through Prussia’s best armies and claiming makes one a monarch.) Britain appropriat- swaths of its territory at the 1806 Battle of ed elements of the biblical past into its own Jena. It was in the wake of this trauma that memory, with enormous success. The sense of the atomized German princedoms began to sanctity attached to the sovereign has helped develop a sense of national solidarity. The Britain muddle through for centuries with an Hohenzollerns, then, were not the unifiers unwritten constitution. of the German nation. ll the european nation-states but riedrich wilhelm held power by Germany arose out of such an act of right of personal sovereignty, rather Acultural appropriation. Starting in the Fthan national sovereignty. In 1701 his 6th and 7th centuries, when Saint Isidore of son, Friedrich III, was crowned and anointed Seville and Saint Gregory of Tours urged the as Friedrich I, King of Prussia. Clark notes Visigoth and Merovingian kings to assume the that the coronation ceremony was strangely mantle of the Davidic monarchy, the nations of lacking any sense of continuity with the past: Europe understood themselves as emulators of “Publicists and councilors alike were quick to ancient Israel under the tutelage of the Church. point out that the function of the anointment Tribes and clans do not naturally agglomerate (Salbung) was purely symbolic. This was not into nations; by itself, tribal society fractures a traditional sacrament, but merely an edify- into something like the 832 distinct languages ing spectacle designed to elevate the spirits of (not dialects) presently spoken in New Guinea. those present.” Clark thinks that Friedrich Christianity transformed the tribes of Europe III’s vision of the state as “a historically non- into nations by forming monarchies on the specific fact and a logical necessity” represents Biblical model and inculcating Biblical memo- a break from the Great Elector’s view of his- ry into its peoples. tory as an ongoing stream of change and for- No Western nation undertook this proj- ward movement. ect more consciously and with greater delib- He then attempts to show that Friedrich eration than the present-day exemplar of a III’s vision of the timeless state began to clash nation-state, the United States of America— with a more progressive model of history un- the “almost chosen people,” to use a phrase der Bismarck. But though he sketches Bis- from Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 address to the marck’s notion of historical time in a neatly New Jersey State Senate. America’s national drawn miniature, Clark misses the Teutonic epic is the King James Bible. Its most char- forest for the trees. The Iron Chancellor acteristic work of literature, Mark Twain’s wrote early in his career, “The stream of time Huckleberry Finn, is derivative of John Bun- runs its course as it should, and if I stick my yan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, as Harry V. Jaffa hand into it, I do so because I believe it to noted in a private conversation. Lincoln’s be my duty, not because I hope thereby to Second Inaugural Address is our national change its direction.” And he added late in sermon, and the Battle Hymn of the Repub- life, “Man can neither create nor direct the lic with its paraphrase of Isaiah 63:1-4 is our stream of time. He can only travel upon it national song.

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY OF KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY PRESS and steer with more or less skill and experi- The cultivation of German nationalism in ence.” From this we learn only that Bismarck response to the collapse of the 18th-century was a pragmatist who sought to adapt the Prussian army at Jena took a different path. Prussian monarchy to changing circum- Clark’s failure to mention it is perplexing.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 52 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

He sticks to his contrast between liberal hind and looks forward. This is neatly captured progressivism and Hitlerian nostalgia with in one of our foundational stories, Washington academic stubbornness. This is unfortunate, Irving’s “Rip van Winkle.” Rip goes to sleep in because the understanding of time in Con- the temporality of “once upon a time”—in No- tinental philosophy actually begins with the valis’s enchanted world. He awakes after the response of post-Kantian German philoso- American Revolution in a new temporality, in phers to Napoleon’s triumph over the Ger- the clear light of the modern world. man monarchies. Immanuel Kant’s 1795 essay on “Perpetual Peace,” with its vision of an ut this american forward motion eternal and unchanging stasis among all na- is not the utopian progressivism that tions, was both the epitome and swan-song Clark wants to identify with liberal-

B PRESS of the Enlightenment. The revolt against ism. Clark’s simple juxtaposition of progres- the Enlightenment began with an attack on sive linear time and the changeless present of

Kant’s theory of synthetic a priori reason, the traditional society utterly fails to understand RELEASED RECENTLY faculty of a rational being that precedes and American temporality. America does not THE PANIC OF 1819 makes possible our comprehension of space, march toward the end of history, because its The First Great Depression Andrew H. Browning time, and morality. J.G. Fichte (1762–1814), founders felt keenly Saint Augustine’s dis- $45.00 $22.50 • 978-0-8262-2183-4 later the philosopher of German nationalism, tinction between the heavenly city and the argued in his 1793 lectures at the University earthly city. The American journey does not of Jena that Kant’s a priori synthetic reason proceed toward the earthly paradise of the had to be situated in human consciousness. progressives, but to a vanishing-point on the His young student Novalis, perhaps the horizon. That is why the most impassioned most influential of the German Romantics, insisted that all consciousness was tempo- rally bound, anticipating Heidegger by more It is nonsensical than a century, as Peter Charles Hanly of to identify “Make Boston College has shown in his 2014 essay, “Figuring the Between.” America Great Again”

rawing on augustine’s concept with the Nazi revival

of time, Novalis understood the of the pagan past. OF THE BACKLIST BEST present as an “ecstatic” unity of D America has no pagan THE MYTH OF COEQUAL memory and anticipation. His 1799 speech BRANCHES “Christianity or Europe” appealed to Europe’s Restoring the Constitution’s past to revive. Separation of Functions medieval Christian past as a foundation for David J. Siemers present European consciousness. The mythi- $40.00 $20.00 • 978-0-8262-2169-8 cal Christian past would ennoble the legends religion can cohabit here with the rule of rea- of the profound past, and the disenchanted son. The American eschaton is not imminent, world of the Enlightened would be re-en- but beyond the horizon. The American avatar chanted (Wiederverzaubert) in the legend- of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim is Huckleberry Finn, laced world of the Christian Middle Ages. who, in true American fashion, concludes his Novalis’s program remained hugely influen- journey by starting a new one, lighting out to tial for a century; one encounters it virtually the new territory ahead of the others. unaltered more than a century later in T.S. Sadly, Clark’s application of the Conti- Eliot’s careful references to James George nental philosophy of time is reductionist and Frazer’s The Golden Bough. J.R.R. Tolkien, impoverished. That is his fault rather than who considered the English inheritance of that of the philosophers. Heidegger’s older Anglo-Saxon myth inadequate to provide a contemporary, the great Jewish theologian

foundation for British culture, undertook Franz Rosenzweig, asserted in 1921 that the UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI to create his own array of pagan myths as a Biblical concept of time was the normative THIS FALL AVAILABLE more congenial precursor to Christianity. case. “Revelation is the first thing to set its DISESTABLISHMENT AND It is instructive to compare Novalis’s hope mark firmly into the middle of time; only af- RELIGIOUS DISSENT for the re-enchantment of Europe to America’s ter Revelation do we have an immovable Be- Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833 attitude toward its past. The unchanging past fore and Afterward,” he wrote in The Star of Edited by Carl H. Esbeck and of European old-world society does not know Redemption (1921). “Then there is a reckon- Jonathan J. Den Hartog $45.00 $22.50 • 978-0-8262-2193-3 time, but only “once upon a time.” Generations ing of time independent of the reckoner and come and go, but life remains the same, and the place of reckoning, valid for all the places Readers of The Claremont Review the past is identical to the future, blending into of the world.” Rosenzweig never visited the receive a 50% discount on these a perpetual present. But American time-con- United States or commented on its national titles with the code UMPCR. To sciousness leaves this old-world mentality be- character, but his intuition that the Biblical order, visit upress.missouri.edu.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 53 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm reckoning of time is “valid for all the places of Friedrich Nietzsche denounced in 1886 in Uhlig: “Time is absolute Nothing. Only that the world” rings true by reference to Amer- Beyond Good and Evil: “the anti-French folly, which makes time forgotten, that destroys it, ica in one way and the United Kingdom in the anti-Semitic folly, the anti-Polish folly, is Something.” another. Biblical time is metaphysically dif- the Christian-romantic folly, the Wagnerian ferent from the eternal present of primitive folly, the Teutonic folly, the Prussian folly... n clark’s carnival-mirror compari- society: it begins with the irruption of the and whatever else these little obscurations son, Trump’s campaign rhetoric about re- one Creator God into history, which sets a of the German spirit and conscience may be Istoring American greatness and reclaim- marker for past and future, as Rosenzweig called.” ing American manufacturing jobs evokes observed. The crux of Clark’s argument appears in the same regression to a mythical past that his chapter on Hitler, which “builds a case beguiled the Nazis—as if the American steel n heidegger’s construct, we absorb for the distinctiveness of National Socialist industry, which in 1948 employed ten times by mere repetition the heritage that fate temporality.” Hitler sought “to establish an more workers than it does today, were the Ihas apportioned us. To be entschlossen, ever more perfect identity with the remote equivalent of Nibelheim or Valhalla. That is a or decisive, means to Heidegger submitting past, out of whose still uncontaminated tim- feverish instance of what Leo Strauss mocked ourselves to this fate. America by contrast bers the house of the future would have to as “reductio ad Hitlerum.” adopted the heritage of Israel in an act of re- be built. In the ‘longing for a common [Ger- To say that Trump has rough edges is an ligious imagination. The Puritan “errand in man] fatherland,’ Hitler wrote, there lies ‘a understatement, but it is nonsensical to iden- the wilderness” with its vision of a new “city well that never dries.’” Clark indulges in a tify “Make America Great Again” with the upon a hill” adopts the history of Israel as lengthy peroration on the Nazis’ fascination Nazi revival of the pagan past. America has America’s spiritual history, the foundation with what he calls “the remote past,” includ- no pagan past to revive. It was founded as a for a new covenant. That is why America’s ing archeological investigation of Teutonic Christian nation with a Biblical culture, al- remembrance transcends the mere repetition prehistory, cataloguing of folk customs, and beit low-church Protestant and antinomian. of accumulated habits and experience and be- other efforts to promote a culture of Ger- Trump was the overwhelming choice of evan- comes instead what Lincoln called “[t]he mys- man racial identity. The reader well may ask gelical Protestants in the primaries and won tic chords of memory, stretching from every whether the Nazis’ amateurish evocation of the highest proportion of the evangelical vote battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living the mythic German past had anything like on record. Evangelicals supported Trump heart and hearthstone.” America looks back, the impact of Wagner’s operas, especially rather than one of their own, Texas Senator not to a distant past of pagan legends, but to the “Ring” tetralogy derived from 13th- Ted Cruz, because they sought not a national a Biblical history which it has chosen for the century epic sagas in the Nibelungenlied pastor but the sort of rough man who would backdrop of its journey into a bright and glori- and the Scandinavian Eddas. Not only did lead them in battle against the Philistines—a ous future. Wagner turn the remote German past into Jephthah or Saul rather than an Elijah. In a In Germany, by contrast, the reconstruc- a dramatic parable for the present. He did country whose founders held to the Calvinist tion of the past took a tragic direction that so in a musical framework that subverted doctrine of total depravity, rallying behind a Novalis and the Christian Romantics failed the forward-looking structure of musical sinner is not the least bit incongruous or un- to anticipate. Neo-pagans like Richard Wag- time, which had prevailed from the compos- Christian, much less Hitlerian. ner succeeded in mining the legendary past ers of Renaissance counterpoint to the clas- for a German identity founded upon race. sical composers a generation before him. In David P. Goldman is a columnist for the Asia This became the “national nervous fever” that 1852 Wagner wrote to the violinist Theodor Times and president of Macrostrategy LLC.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 54 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Mark Helprin Pride and Prejudice at Harvard

was born in 1947, and for me the ef- and earth were truth and beauty, and I went Harvard Club lunch, or, as they said in Cam- fect of the Second World War was not to Harvard truly believing in its vaunted mot- bridge, luncheon. The majesty of the Harvard I merely a haunting eddy but more like the to: Veritas, which was at the head of the ad- Club complemented his pronouncement that aftermath of a bombing in which one exists for missions diploma that it, perhaps uniquely of we were “the finest young men of your gen- a time in a netherworld of deafness, confusion, all institutions, granted merely for its genius eration.” Really? How did he know? I was and shock. I grew up surrounded by, and at in choosing you. I had no thoughts of pres- 17. Some of us still had acne and wore white times living with, Holocaust survivors, former tige, career, making a living, attaining power socks. In stating what he did, was he not ad- soldiers, French resistance fighters, and fami- or position, or whatever the repulsive and dis- ministering a perhaps daily or hourly dose of lies who mourned their dead among the more honorable thing was then that now is called self-adoration, as in methadone maintenance? than 50 million who perished. My surround- “networking.” Of course, I was a naïf, perhaps So that was why they gave me the diploma. It ings couldn’t have made me anything but seri- a bumpkin, but even as my naïveté vanished was a certification of what they fancied their ous at heart, and this in turn was deepened I tried to stick with the original idea. Given own good judgment. by many serious childhood illnesses—quite a what I had come to understand about history few of which nearly carried me away. In many from the very existence of the people around Fair Harvard respects, I was an old man before I was five— me, there was no other option. something often noted by those unfortunate The first hint of disillusion came in the ust as there was vichy france and enough to have known me. late spring of 1965, when an itinerant dean France Libre, the France of the collabos and Having little use for conventional ambition, descended upon Manhattan to welcome local Jthe France of the Résistance, the France of I had come to believe that the keys to heaven members of the forthcoming class of 1969 at a Céline and the France of Zola, so with Har-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 55 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm vard. It would be wrong to call out unfair Har- Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the College Lee Kuan Yew, the sitting prime minister of vard without noting the wonder of fair Harvard, alone (pace the schools of law, medicine, di- Singapore, who had granted himself a leave of which much has been lost but much, though vinity, dentistry, design, public health, engi- of research and reflection. He made clear to current balances weigh against it, survives. neering, business, education, forestry, public me then that the anarchy and dissolution that Unlike the malcontents who for one rea- administration, and God knows what else) by the time he visited had taken over Harvard son or another hated the place, I loved it was 650 pages long? In the 60-plus depart- Square horrified and disgusted him, and I even as I became aware of its faults. One of ments and degree programs you could study was not surprised by his subsequent broken- their complaints, lifted without the slightest anything from Chuvash to malacology, even windows approach in Singapore, down to justification from the Berkeley Free Speech if you hadn’t the slightest idea what they banning chewing gum. Movement, was that it was too big and im- were before you went in and possibly even When in my sophomore year Secretary of personal, its professors inaccessible, the un- after you came out. A solar system of a hun- Defense and architect of the Vietnam War dergraduates jilted in favor of research. This dred specialized libraries, some of which Robert McNamara (rule of thumb: whatever criticism of Harvard found eager repetition were themselves stars, orbited Widener (one he might recommend, do the opposite) was among smarting students at smaller, less pres- never said Widener Library, or the Widener), trapped by a demonstration outside Win- tigious colleges, such as Yale, for whom Har- which in most respects is the finest library in throp House, he escaped into Harvard’s im- vard had been the unrequited first choice. But the world. mense network of tunnels, where I, my room- it was untrue. Its great and famous scholars The place was filled with madmen, scoun- mate, and Tony Hiss (son of Alger) intercept- were by and large open, accessible, and amaz- drels, geniuses, and not a few dolts, for leavened him and an aide. While a DOD car drove ingly generous with their time. In my fresh- ing. It was either so rich or so odd that it ap- around attempting to find him at the loading man year, even I—a benighted adolescent so peared to have the luxury of name collecting: dock of the central kitchen, we were able to overburdened with energy that it easily sank F. Skiddy von Stade, who brought his polo spend half an hour sophomorically debating my primitive intellect—gained entrance to a ponies; Outerbridge Horsey, of the many him. I will always treasure his unexcelled, in- six-person seminar with the leading Dante generations of Outerbridge Horseys; and credulous annoyance. scholar of the age, Dante Della Terza, and a of course Stanislaus von Moos. Taken for I have so many similar stories that, as many class with Harry Levin, the most renowned granted were the continual visits of what Bill have about their years at Harvard, I could Shakespeare scholar. That kind of access con- Murray might have called, with a long flata write a book about them that no one would tinued unambiguously throughout my under- after the l, “dudes like the lâma,” as in Dalai. read. It was a giant, magic barrel, rich in ma- graduate and graduate years. You were not assigned places in Widener’s terial things, experiences, and, best of all, the How could one not love a place where, main reading room, but claimed them by ad- acquisition of floods of knowledge within a by the time I left, the course catalog for the verse possession. Mine was next to that of still-intact culture and belief system. For a

New and Noteworthy Books from AEI Scholars

How America’s Political Seven Pillars A Time to Build Parties Change (and How What Really Causes Instability in From Family and Community to They Don’t) the Middle East? Congress and the Campus, How Edited by Michael Rubin and Brian Katulis Recommitting to Our Institutions Michael Barone Can Revive the American Dream October 15, 2019 December 2019 Publisher: Encounter Books Publisher: AEI Press Yuval Levin ISBN: 9781641770781 ISBN: 9780844750248 January 21, 2020 In Seven Pillars: What Publisher: Basic Books Whenever one of our ISBN: 9781541699274 two major political par- Really Causes Instabil- ties has a setback, we ity in the Middle East? In A Time to Build, hear that it is doomed a bipartisan group of Yuval Levin explores to permanent minority leading experts unravel the frustration, divi- status or to disappear the core causes of sion, populist anger, altogether. In How America’s Political Parties instability in the Middle and alienation that Change (and How They Don’t), Michael East and North Africa. have overwhelmed Barone argues that’s not likely to happen. Understanding the our public life. By Drawing on more than 50 years of observ- pillars of instability in understanding what our institutions do for us, ing and writing about American politics, the region can allow the United States and how they are now failing us, and how we Barone notes that America’s political parties its allies to rethink their own priorities, adjust might be failing them too, we can chart a are old—the oldest and third oldest in the policy, recalibrate their programs, and finally path toward an American renewal and can world—and astutely explains why these two begin to chip away at core challenges fac- see what we each might do to bring oft-scorned institutions have been so resilient. ing the Middle East. it about.

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE aei.org

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 56 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm short period, like a break in the clouds, Har- lywood Ten, was unjustly accused of being a they run in packs.” They did, and the elders vard was deliberately blind to race, class, and Communist, and had had to move to France. had begun to fade away. the many particulars that now figure so heav- I replied that being a Communist in Amer- In the mid-’60s, going to see Casablanca at ily in selection, hiring, and the disposition of ica was not illegal, and it was a pity that he the Brattle Theatre was a ritual. When Vic- controversies. The 1964 application for ad- had had to move to France—though I myself tor Laszlo defies the Germans and orders mission was designed with that in mind. Of would have loved to have moved to France if the orchestra to “Play the Marseillaise!” the course, if you were a donor, a legatee, a Rock- only for the food—but that his father was in- audience would often stand and sing. Profes- efeller, a Mellon—or a squash—or if you had deed a Communist, and either his father had sors (some in tears), tutors, and even under- gone to Groton or Andover, it couldn’t be hid- lied to him or he was lying to me. He reacted graduates like me, deeply moved, would rise den: they didn’t go so far as to ignore such de- in amazed disbelief. I couldn’t possibly back in respect. Six years later, the same scene, per- tails. From several universes away, I marveled up what I said. But, no, I told him, his father ceived as camp, elicited the conformist, gut- at the precocious alcoholics who drifted in on had been in the same Hollywood Commu- less, Harvard hiss, a group exercise in disap- the afternoon tides from Exeter and St. Paul’s, nist cell as my mother, who had known him proval of expressions of emotion, patriotism, so well schooled that they were able to coast quite well. Ahem. Christianity, and anything unfashionable. In through their undergraduate years drowning It is remarkable how such true believers those years, a lot had happened and a lot of in cocktails and ennui. can leverage a community that lacks aware- pressure had been brought to bear. But the impulse was toward merit above ness, conviction, and fighting courage. A all, without either the ideological discipline well-known Communist tactic is to place a Guerrilla Warfare or compulsive categorizations absent which small group of agents both at the four cor- the modern university would be unrecogniz- ners and scattered near the center of a large arvard has always taken up able and the hearts of its busybody enforc- meeting. Reacting simultaneously either to masses of real estate in Cambridge, ers would stop. It was generally assumed propose or oppose, they can carry the more HBoston, and elsewhere, from for- that after exposure to a wide range of views, passive participants with them by creating ests, agricultural land in California, astro- facts, and ideas, you would continue your nomical observatories around the world, to education forever, and freely choose your Bernard Berenson’s former villa in Florence, own course, opinions, and convictions. This Harvard was a giant, hospitals, clinics, a cyclotron, giant swim- confidence and equanimity was possible only ming pools, and secret gardens. But mainly with faith in the power of truth and belief magic barrel, rich it straddles Cambridge like (if I can be per- that there was such a thing. As the recent in material things, mitted an insane simile) a fat, happy, beau- kerfuffle between Sohrab Ahmari and -Da tiful, snobbish octopus. You can do a lot vid French illustrated and could not settle, experiences, and, best with $40 billion, no taxes since 1633, and a such liberalism may lead to its own demise. of all, the acquisition river of government and private grants, tu- At Harvard, it did. ition, and giant bequests. Harvard is as big of floods of knowledge and varied as Xanadu. For example, only af- Soft, Privileged Center ter almost a decade of living in the middle within a still-intact of it did I discover what appeared to be the y first brush with the deluge culture and belief system. terrace, of the faculty dining room, of the caf- was anecdotal but potently sym- eteria, of the school of forestry. Harvard con- Mbolic. In 1965, I witnessed what I tains Whitmanesque multitudes, and one think of as the Ur-protest at Harvard, in the the illusion of consensus. As the Vietnam can describe it only as accurately as the blind form of a single demonstrator carrying a sign War and urban unrest destabilized the ’60s, men describing an elephant. Though within in front of Lowell House. He was against pari- posing urgent questions one after another its vastness I could be in only one place at a etals, the rules that not only dictated the lim- and, like the sea beyond a dyke, exerting time—and spent most of that time with my ited hours in which girls could visit your room, constant pressure against the figurative walls head down, reading and writing—by chance but assigned proctors to inspect periodically of the university, leftist true believers took alone I was present at so many disruptions in for sexual activity. I didn’t like parietals, but control of Harvard’s soft, privileged center. the late ’60s and early ’70s that by reasonable in that era when we dressed in jacket and tie Pacific by nature, academics are ill-suited to extrapolation their real number and frequen- all day, as I had since 4th grade, I appreciated Leninist political combat, and though they cy were a steady guerrilla warfare: the staple their value in elevating desire by means of cannot be blamed for shying from it, they student protests about regulations and living the heavy cultivation of forbidden fruit, and should be held to account for becoming its conditions, which by then had been beauti- in steadying, so to speak, the morals of state. converts and agents. fully feathered into broader political themes; Even if the heart of the game was to circum- Where were those in authority with the jackbooted, leather-clad Panthers march- vent them, that they were there was civilizing. spine to stand up to the fascistic tactics now ing in cadence through the Yard to the old So, undecided, I heard him out. the everyday province of so many academic Gund Hall, where they invaded a lecture on He was not, however, merely protesting institutions? Many on the faculty were veter- medieval city planning they claimed was in parietals, he was protesting America—past, ans of the Second World War. Others were furtherance of black genocide, and forced present, and, were it not to transform ac- refugees from totalitarianism. They were as the professor to abandon it; the attack by cording to his lights, future. I loved America brave and eloquent as necessary, but vastly helmeted, chain-and-pipe-wielding leftist and was profoundly grateful for its principles outnumbered by the generation they had fascisti on what they thought was the Cen- and its reality, so I asked him why he was so sired. William Alfred, my tutor in junior ter for International Affairs but was really angry. His father, he said, one of the Hol- year, said to me, sadly, “It’s different now: the Semitic Museum and its aging female

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 57 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

saying, “He’s five hours late. Well, I’ll wait one more hour for him and if he doesn’t come then he can go and borrow that $100 from someone else.”)—is doing your damnedest to please whoever it is who is beating the hell out of you. Rather than strike the precariously held beachhead, the administration allowed it to consolidate. So the occupiers chained the doors, brought in supplies and reinforce- ments, and engaged in public relations. By the time action seemed likely, they had assembled hundreds of Radcliffe girls and others to serve as a barrier between them and the inevitable police assault. Passing by the Cambridge firehouse embedded in the campus (most Harvard buildings lay within two seconds to a minute of a speeding fire truck), I saw masses of government police in riot gear and preparing to move out. After scaling the locked gates of the Yard, I went to University Hall, where, after placing newspaper on a beautifully finished table so as not to damage it, I climbed up and an- nounced that the battalions were on their way with their battering rams. My object being to spare the students outside who would bear the brunt of the attack, I urged the occupiers to disperse like the guerrillas they so admired. But they shouted me down, explaining that they wanted to “radicalize the bouzhies.” That is, the bourgeoisie. You didn’t know that Rad- cliffe girls were the bourgeoisie. The pumped-up-adrenalin charge that fol- Zara Tzanev/HGSD lowed was extraordinarily violent and bloody, docents (it might have been funny except jerky, black-and-white film of the Academy’s as the police used their nightsticks like gladi- for the injuries and destruction); Cambridge elite American academics welcoming Mus- ators against the unprotected “bouzhies.” At cited in the Institute for Strategic Studies’s solini, whose program and beliefs were well the top of the steps, before they broke-in the (which later prefixedInternational to itself) known at the time, by passionately, if not lit- doors, they threw students over the rails so vi- Strategic Survey, 1970, for a violent demon- erally, kissing his ass. olently that the momentarily splaying bodies stration (among many) in which, inter alia, on Events such as those described above— looked like chaff in the wind. I saw an officer April 16 of that year 300 were injured; try- outrages against civility, law, freedom, and continue to hit a boy on the head as he lay on ing to sleep despite clouds of tear gas waft- common sense—were either ineffectively the ground, until the nightstick broke either ing from Harvard Square a third of a mile opposed or simply tolerated, and have never on the boy’s skull or the pavement. He then away; my graduate adviser’s car bombed in been corrected. Instead, they have become a chased me, although I was just a bystander. the garage adjacent to the Center for Middle sort of English Constitution or common law I escaped by climbing onto one of the giant Eastern Studies, where he was the director; for Harvard. One can almost cite them like window ledges of Widener. He ordered me to literally fighting my way past thugs blocking case law to describe what goes on today. come down, but I would not. I have a picture classroom buildings; and so on. Even in its As Lady Macbeth would have put it, Har- of him. Unfortunately for all serving police stronger days, the administration either sur- vard’s “most admir’d disorder” came in April officers (including, subsequently, me), he was rendered, compromised, or did not notice. 1969, when the Students for a Democratic really fat and he looked very much like a pig. Thanks in part to Harvard’s better angels, Society seized University Hall (Harvard’s As the police entered the building, the I could not help but notice. As a freshman administrative HQ), beat up the deans, rifled ring leaders escaped out the other side. One of no consequence, my very first course had the files, and, in their idiom, occupied and of them, whose name you would recognize, been a seminar on Italian fascism, taught by trashed the place. Rather than immediately later told me that Mao said the leadership one of the great and principled men, Dante dispatch the university police to evict these must be preserved. Well, it was, and it con- Della Terza, who had opposed it. So I knew vandals, the ever-so-understanding authori- tinued with what it had come to call the long the drill and what was likely to follow. The ties attempted to reason with them. An in- march through the institutions, where, if not tendency of refined academicians to bow to explicable frame of mind—exemplified by deceased but now emeritus, it watches the force and fashion was eerily confirmed yet Neville Chamberlain, John Kerry, and Caspar ravishing strides of the generations it indoc- again and much later when as a fellow of the Milquetoast (a famous cartoon shows him, trinated as they prove that absurdity has no American Academy in Rome I watched a soaked to the bone, standing in a cold rain, end.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 58 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Insanity as Orthodoxy prigs of Winthrop House, in a ferocious display of their timidity, insisted that, like their Find a new ven in the dinosaur time when counterparts of the same age at forward bases I was graduated, Harvard conferred in Syria or Afghanistan, they had reason to read from so many degrees that, after the gen- feel “unsafe,” and he had to go. So he did. Eeral commencement, diplomas were handed Such are the workings of a semi-insane asy- a NYU Press out in ceremonies divided by undergraduate lum as, at a steady though not glacial pace, it house and the various graduate schools. Now, sheds its ancient and inherited prestige. however, perhaps smitten with Ben & Jerry’s CRB readers will be aware of these and many flavors, it countenances black, “latinx,” other depravations continually upwelling and “lavender” graduations. But what if you in the universities. Even half a century ago, are a womyn, half-Irish, half-black, lavender, though mere seedlings, they were apparent. latinx, disabled, socialist, atheist, Basque, Visiting the New Republic in Washington, I nudist, survivor of Chinese aggression in Ti- was speaking to Roger Rosenblatt, who had bet? Where the hell is your inclusion? You been on the short list for Harvard’s presiden- have been marginalized by the patriarchy, and cy, when in walked Marty Peretz, who had just about everything else. been a tutor in Kirkland House when I lived At my first Harvard commencement (I there. Roger said, “You remember Helprin, skipped the second), there were no such di- don’t you? From the asylum?” And that was visions, just as in the years leading up to it then. there had been no segregated dorms or race- There is no question that a place of free in- “A must-read for those interested in early restricted dining tables such as to my aston- quiry and free thought must, as much for its American republic history.” ishment I would encounter at Princeton in own sake as for the public good, tolerate to —Library Journal, starred review 1973. Each of us was a unique individual, and, some extent the unorthodox, the weird, the in a vast, egalitarian unity, freer than we were disruptive, the revolutionary, and even the in- carrying the brands of identity. Now your sane. Although to avoid its own demise it must betters will tell you that you simply do not know and uphold its own principles, it should have the latitude of mind to understand why not be mainly in the business of imposing its racially separated quarters and ceremonies own orthodoxy. Tolerance and commitment are proof of the defeat of segregation. must be fluid rather than fixed, and balanced In the jackbooted invasion of the old Gund as a matter of art, or they easily and disas- Hall briefly mentioned above, the students trously get out of whack. The worst possible were stunned, fearful, and silent. The pho- getting out of whack is when the insane be- tograph accompanying this article is of their comes the strictly imposed orthodoxy, which successors in the new Gund Hall, at the 2017 is what we see now. How did this happen? No “Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions” one can know exactly, but even though it isn’t conference. Except that they are smiling, they in California, Harvard has often been in the seem hardly distinguishable from the Red lead among American universities, and I have Guard or the various fascist youth groups of an idea or two about why it has become what “This meticulously argued work succeeds in yore. Their department, like most at Har- it has become. illuminating with plain language what the vard, is subject to diversity bureaucrats who A persistent mistake of human nature is immigration system obscures behind jargon are really nothing more than political officers. to attribute power, wealth, and fame to the and steel bars.” Certain departments or divisions—Women, workings of high intellect, when as often as —Library Journal, starred review Gender, and Sexuality; African and African not in an aristocracy they are merely inher- American Studies; Immigration and Latino ited, and in a democracy they accrue to those Studies; et al.—function as organelles within who can please the lowest common denomi- the university as a whole, making sure that it nator. Especially in a conformist environment, doesn’t stray from their orthodoxies, and that, the appearance of intelligence can be simu- if it does, it will hear about it. lated by adherence to orthodoxies in political Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard Law School belief and how one lives, and the adoption of COMING professor, was relieved recently of his position mandated styles of speaking and argumenta- SOON as the “residential dean” (more about this lat- tion. Thanks to the approximately 4 zillion er) of Winthrop House because he had the te- public-radio call signs, it is almost impossible merity to represent an unpopular client, that to escape the astoundingly mannered and self- fetching sylph, Harvey Weinstein. Had he conscious way of speaking that I call NPR- or represented Khalid Sheikh Mohammed he Ivy-speak, which, like a self-basting chicken, would have been a hero. As in a lobster trap continuously bathes itself in its wonderful or the Roach Motel, Harvard has a ratchet reasonableness. A good example of this is mechanism: principle flows in one direction Barack Obama, who, even if he doesn’t know An urgent plea for much needed reforms to legal education. only. Professor Sullivan, who is black, then the difference between a subjective and objec- tried the race card. But the militant young tive pronoun and thinks it is possible to lead nyupress.org • @nyupress

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 59 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm from behind, walks the walk and talks the bandied about like badminton shuttlecocks world good, Americans deplorable, and so on, talk in a spectacular victory (for some) of style and pushed into Orwellian servitude? The forever producing new blooms. over substance. Intellectuals would rather be trick in using language as a political weapon Now it is Asians who are bad and against caught dead than failing to pirouette their in- is to make it as flexible as Kirsten Gillibrand, whom Harvard must defend itself lest it be telligence or admitting that they don’t know vaguer than Beto O’Rourke, and more emo- overrun “disproportionately.” Just like the Jews or haven’t read something. At a cocktail party, tional than Cory Booker. One need only con- in the 1920s and ’30s, because they’re so wily, refer to Durkstein’s Adductive Paradox and sult Humpty Dumpty, for apparently when Asians would be “over-represented.” It was okay see how no one will ask what it is, even though Harvard encounters a word, it means just what for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants to be “over- it isn’t. The greatest proof of this lies in the vast Harvard chooses it to mean. And Harvard’s represented,” but, in Harvard’s view, not Jews, tundras of modern academic prose, in which answer as to how it can do this is that the real because, strangely enough, as in Harvard’s view with unintentional hilarity, if one may borrow question is who is to be master—that’s all. of Asians today, they worked too hard, were sentence structure from Winston Churchill, If Harvard makes a practice of approach- one-dimensional, alien, kept to themselves, never have so many over-credentialed idiots ing the English language with no more preci- and lacked desirable personal characteristics attempted to conceal such utter nonsense be- sion than that of a habitual drunkard; if via such as summering in Southampton. hind so much anaesthetizing jargon. its Hiphop Archive & Research Institute Caught red-handed in anti-Asian racism, Unquestionably, Harvard is a nexus of wealth, it thinks it is “Facilitating and encouraging Harvard is now wiggling and obfuscating in power, fame, and prestige. Although none of the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and a contemptible effort to establish that its rac- these is necessarily correlated with intelligence, responsible leadership through Hiphop” (I ism is not racism. It will certainly succeed in certainly among its many thousands of stu- did not make this up); if it—fervently—be- proving this, if only to itself; but a federal dis- dents and faculty it possesses brilliance, some lieves that it is possible for a man to become trict court has recently gone along, too. As it might say, and they might be right, unrivaled a woman and a woman to become a man, to has through the centuries, Harvard fails to anywhere on the planet. This is not about them. what extent does this suggest intelligence? perceive, understand, or accept that each of It is about those who hold the power, make the And if it does not, is it perhaps an indication us is unique, and that generalized categories policy, enforce the rules, and set the tone, al- of the thing that is the opposite of intelli- of exceedingly low information content and though it is also about the compliant sheep— specificity—such as skin color, eyelid struc- designing resistance, building coalitions—who ture, or whatever, even if closely correlated fiercely lap it up. What is one to conclude about As in a lobster trap with certain cultures or subcultures—do not the breathtakingly stupid administration of a or the Roach Motel, and cannot serve as accurate tools of assess- place renowned for its intelligence? ment given the high complexity and staggering Take for example the aforementioned Sul- Harvard has a variation of any individual, his experience, and livan affair. Unremarked in the press is the ratchet mechanism: his soul. The deans of Harvard understand significance of the title he had to relinquish: this perfectly well in regard to the police and residential dean, which used to be house mas- principle flows in one racial profiling, but not so much as it is applied ter, or, after Harvard became co-ed, it was, I direction only. to admissions and hiring. In this, as much as believe, sometimes house mistress—until they might try to tut-tut it away, they are the someone complained that this was redolent bosom buddies of those white guys of my gen- of slavery. Many words are redolent of slav- gence, a thing that begins with “s”? Could it eration—Brylcreemed hair, black pants, and ery, such as “slavery.” Or “chains,” “subjuga- be? Is it possible? At Harvard? Really? white tee-shirts with a pack of Camels rolled tion,” “ownership,” “manumission,” “auction,” up in one sleeve—who hurled insults and more “block,” “middle,” and “passage.” “Master” pre- Puritan Aristocracy at tiny little black girls trying to go to school. dates slavery in America and has many other The only difference is in which groups meanings and connotations. The failure of ith relatively brief periods of they favor, which they disfavor, and the savoir Harvard’s governors lies not only in analysis exception, Harvard has always been faire they employ in doing so. Their Ameri- and etymology but in taking a word that has Wa racially and otherwise prejudicial can and German predecessors in the academy numerous applications and rejecting its em- institution, as it is now. The only variance in advanced racism and eugenics with plenty of ployment in one because it is objectionable this seemingly unbreakable pattern is which savoir-faire. Is Margaret Sanger not to this day in another. Shall we now have the tortured groups are targets and which beneficiaries. In one of the heroines of the smart set? If people equivalents of a residential-dean key, a resi- almost 400 years, it has had the opportunity for who believe that they cannot be anything but dential-dean switch, a residential-dean piece, much revision: Christians good, heathens bad; good employ rancid principles in furtherance a residential dean of arts degree? Should Pat- heathens good, Christians bad; heterosexuals of what they assume will be just outcomes, rick O’Brian have retitled his book Residential good, homosexuals bad; homosexuals good, the destructive power of the former will al- Dean and Commander, or Casals have taught heterosexuals tolerable (because there are so most always make impossible the latter. a residential-dean class, or Julia Child have many) but guilty; men good, women tolerable Although it would generate mutinies and written Residential-Deaning the Art of French (because they are so pretty); women good, men riots, the faults in Harvard’s governance could Cooking? actually not; Protestants good, Catholics bad; be corrected were it genuinely and without Is it not astounding that in the universities, Protestants and Catholics bad; atheists good; evasion to uphold beleaguered principles such where one would expect historians, linguists, Jews bad, Christians good; Christians bad, as freedom of speech, association, and reli- philologists, lawyers, and philosophers, among Jews okay, maybe, assuming they’re neither region; presumption of innocence; due process; others, to define terms closely, the words “hate,” ligious nor Zionists; blacks bad, whites good; right to counsel; catholicity of viewpoints; “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” “aggression,” blacks good, whites bad; Americans good, the and the rights and equality of individuals as “rape,” “survivor,” “racist,” “privilege,” etc., are rest of the world deplorable; the rest of the expressed in the common law, the Declaration

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 60 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. disproportionately to preserve the Union and speech, dress, lineage, demeanor, and, most of It is most unlikely that they would do so, and free the slaves, it may have been less in affirma- all, presumption. Some characteristics were the question is why? tion of the principles of the founding than (as laudable and worthy of adoption, others hard- The snobbery, elitism, and self-deception of is the wont of their descendants) to engage in ly so. Now that undergraduates—who, grant- a culture in which people believe they are en- the joy of righteousness. ed, as a pathology of adolescence, have always titled to manipulate the classes and races “be- Harvard does not look back to these prin- garishly encostumed themselves—dress like low” them as if these were Mahjong tiles can- ciples as its own foundation. Why should it? Its anarchists, villagers straight out of Bruegel, not be addressed other than by a heavily doc- culture began 139 years prior to the American or 19th-century lumberjacks, the superfici- umented, multivariate analysis rather than Revolution. It regards itself as senior to that alities have changed radically, but not the pre- an informal essay, and in either case neither disturbance, and above it. As American history sumptions. Harvard has always believed itself precisely nor conclusively. But I suspect that a has unfurled beneath it, it has watched with superior to, and separate from, the rest of large part of the explanation lies in Harvard’s the imperturbable superiority of a sow nursing America. Over almost four centuries, Puri- particular situation and may have spread else- her piglets. Being senior, it need not subscribe tan self-righteousness and aristocracy’s self- where due to its outsized influence. As far as to the declarations of relative newcomers long justifications have managed in one form or one can ascribe an ongoing culture to an insti- after it had come through almost a century and another to carry on within it. tution, Harvard never fully bought in to the a half of New England’s punishing winters and Years after I had left, I found myself in principles of the American Founding (or their beautiful fresh summers. Still remnant as its conversation with an undergraduate. The refinement and realization in the Civil War), foundation are attitudes traceable to belief in subject was zoning and how to accommo- the last great and just political passions, after the divine right of kings, or at least, by exten- date the rights of both the owners of prop- which all others have proved retrograde. sion, the aristocracy of which Harvard and the erty and the community as a whole. I said In its atavistic Toryism it remains demon- nobles it imagines it creates are the inheritors to this young person, “The difficulty of the strably hostile to the essence of the Declara- and beneficiaries. Dreadful enough, this gets question is determining who will decide.” tion of Independence. Natural rights? No. worse when conjoined with the other half of The response—immediate, impassioned, Consent of the governed rather than the ac- Harvard’s double helix—a fervent, intolerant and emphatic—was, “We will decide!” What tion of experts? No. Self-evident truths? No. A Puritanism that feasts on the kind of self-righ- could better show Harvard’s pride and its Creator? Not these days. And it mainly follows teousness based these days, more often than prejudices? Woodrow Wilson—of Princeton, no less—in not, on truly delusionary ravings such as the regard to that exasperating and pointlessly ob- need to accommodate pregnant men. Mark Helprin is a senior fellow of the Claremont structive doctrine, the Constitution. Though When I arrived 54 years ago, the outward Institute and the author, most recently, of Paris Harvard’s sons fought bravely and no doubt signs of aristocracy were unconcealable—in in the Present Tense (Harry N. Abrams).

BECAUSE GREAT Kinder Institute IDEAS on Constitutional Democracy

Brand New at Mizzou! INSPIRE Residential College GREAT BA in Constitutional Democracy MA in Atlantic History & Politics

IDEAS democracy.missouri.edu

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 61 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Max Eden Not Worth It Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America, by Richard K. Vedder. Independent Institute, 416 pages, $28.95

ichard vedder keeps a post-it year and allowing student tuition to decrease increasingly mix only with themselves, but all Note in his office: “Never have so by 20%. the while they insist that a bachelor’s degree is Rmany spent so much for so long learn- Meanwhile, an astonishing 40% of students a prerequisite for first-class citizenship, rein- ing so little.” When Winston Churchill spoke fail to graduate within six years. And there’s forcing their privilege even as they bemoan all the words on which Vedder’s witticism is little evidence that those who do receive a de- forms of oppression. based, only 5% of Americans had a college gree have learned much at all. Although advo- degree, and colleges inculcated a spirit of civic cates of higher education insist that college is ut what can be done once pub- pride and noblesse oblige. Today, more than more important than ever—so much so that lic sentiment shifts? Vedder suggests 50% of Americans have attended some college, we must have “free college for all”—the fact is Bthree “I”s: information, incentives, and and these institutions have become a breeding that nearly half of college graduates end up in innovation. Government could require uni- ground of entitlement and resentment. jobs that don’t require a diploma, and there’s versities to publish information about stu- In Restoring the Promise: Higher Education little reason to expect that to change. dents’ later earnings, which would show col- in America, Vedder, a distinguished emeritus leges to be a bad investment in many cases. professor of economics at Ohio University, niversities are shockingly inef- Schools could be put on the hook for students does not provide a roadmap to restoration ficient. College presidents engage in a who can’t pay back their loans, prompting so much as a catalogue of the ways in which Uconstruction arms race, even as they them to take better care of those they admit higher education has become a bad bargain. inadequately maintain their existing build- and encouraging them to provide a useful ed- He describes a “triple threat”: 1) college costs ings, which lie vacant for a third of the year. ucation. Accreditation could be overhauled to have risen dramatically; 2) students don’t Professors must “publish or perish” rather allow new institutions into the market, ones seem to be learning much of anything; and 3) than focus on teaching, even though a third that could provide a more useful education for only half of the small majority who graduate of journal articles remain uncited years after a lower cost. find jobs that require their credential. publication. Colleges are accredited by a car- Vedder also recommends that instituting Why have college costs risen? To hear pro- tel of their peers, a process that provides little a National Collegiate Exit Exam could professors and their progressive allies tell it, be- accountability to students and their families vide a better signal to employers about what cause the value of college professors has risen, even as it stifles innovation. a student actually knows, and could also even as the subsidy state universities receive Time and again, Vedder declares that his serve as a college analogue to a GED, allow- from taxpayers has fallen from about 50% to preferred solution would be to eliminate fed- ing students to demonstrate their knowledge under 30% of total revenues in the past four eral financial aid and dramatically curtail and skill without necessarily having to spend decades. Nonsense, says Vedder. Colleges state government involvement, only to ac- four years accumulating credit hours. No have bloated up on bureaucrats and spend knowledge that it’s politically unfeasible and doubt the Left would object that such a test an ever-decreasing share—now about one to suggest more modest reforms. He notes, would have a disparate racial impact. But so third—of their expenditures on instruction. however, that “political and social milieus of does the current system—and at far greater And the taxpayers’ subsidy for universities has nations can change over time, often abruptly,” cost: barely more than one in five African- actually risen substantially, just not as fast as and expresses the hope that the political envi- American students graduate in four years. As the explosion in college expenditures. ronment in America “can and will change as the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick The best explanation is that colleges have public uncritical acceptance of the ways of the M. Hess and Grant Addison have suggested increased their expenditures in order to cap- academy change.” in their essay “Busting the College-Industrial ture ever more generous federal financial Higher education is perhaps the most re- Complex,” published earlier this year in Na- student aid. Professors reflexively deny this gressive government redistribution, providing tional Affairs, employers should be sued un- theory, because it reveals that they—not dis- a benefit primarily to those with the strongest der Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) for the advantaged students—are the true benefi- economic prospects. Ever-expanding federal racially disparate impact of requiring a college ciaries of federal largesse. Progressives may tuition assistance has not increased the share degree where none is truly needed. decry for-profit colleges as having every in- of graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds For decades, Republicans no less than centive to collect as much federal money as and, by driving up the sticker price, has almost Democrats have been profligate and sloppy possible with no direct incentive to educate certainly dissuaded many from even applying. with their higher education policy and spend- their students effectively, but that is no less For every $100 in their endowments, colleges ing. But in a time of increasing public dissat- true for non-profit and state universities. The dedicate less than $0.67 to lowering tuition isfaction with America’s colleges and univer- only difference is who profits—sharehold- for disadvantaged students. Room and board sities, Richard Vedder’s Restoring the Promise ers or rent-seekers. The data cited by Ved- costs have nearly doubled after inflation, un- may yet show future statesmen how best to der leaves little doubt: if the ratio of campus doubtedly in part because students are captive restore these institutions to their proper place. bureaucrats to faculty had held steady since consumers. 1976, there would be 537,317 fewer adminis- Our current system exacerbates the cul- Max Eden is a senior fellow of the Manhattan trators, saving universities $30.5 billion per tural divide: not only do the highly educated Institute.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 62 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Bradley C.S. Watson Based on a True Story Conservatives and the Constitution: Imagining Constitutional Restoration in the Heyday of American Liberalism, by Ken I. Kersch. Cambridge University Press, 428 pages, $84.99 (cloth), $34.99 (paper)

merican political science has seen tists and historians claimed to deconstruct tral—clarifying where history was going—or its share of fads. Scientific naturalism— the founders’ self-evident truths and institu- normative, using apparatuses borrowed from Aparticularly Darwinian evolution— tional safeguards, revealing them as masks the natural sciences in service of a progressive and complementary concepts such as pragma- for aristocratic self-interest. Armed with this social agenda. Much of mainstream political tism and relativism dominated the discipline in knowledge, political science could finally ad- science still suffers from this confusion. the late 19th century. Sympathetic academics dress the American public’s practical concerns paired these with German idealism’s celebra- and material interests. Enlightened experts his new dispensation was not tion of the centralized state’s alleged progress could craft public policy unchecked by the without its critics. Influenced by toward rationality. Such philosophical con- Madisonian system’s limited and dispersed Tthe thought of German émigré Leo structs gave a new class of “political scientists,” powers. Because progressive elites would have Strauss, a small group of scholars in the sub- as they were proud to call themselves, the over- the people’s best interests in mind, their rule field of political philosophy insisted that po- weening confidence to flee from old institu- would be “democratic.” litical science had lost its way. It was nihilis- tions and ideas as fast as their theories could In its quest for ever greater scientific tic—denying that we could know anything take them. First abandoned was the founders’ rigor political science had, by mid-century, about the political good simply, or even that Constitution and the understanding of human largely reduced itself to empirical—statisti- there is such a thing. It was therefore either ir- nature on which it was premised. cal—methodologies. Overreliance on stats relevant—burying the great questions of right The American Political Science Associa- produced research that could generously be and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice, tion—dedicated to refining and transmitting described as careerist and trivial. It also mud- under a mountain of stupefying and often this progressive ideology—was established in died the waters of the discipline, which could contradictory data—or dedicated to the pur- 1903. Like-minded political and social scien- no longer decide whether to be value-neu- suit of transient “values,” grounded simply in

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 63 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm what progressives perceived to be required at ist conservative judiciary.” But this assumes the engage in “elevating a new set of ‘culture war’ any particular moment. Political science was founders’ Constitution is just a tool to get the issues—abortion, most importantly, but subse- also largely unconcerned with the historical results conservatives (or liberals) want, rather quently bioethics and gay rights—to the front events and institutional forms that were once than—on proper interpretation—an embodi- lines.” This happened, allegedly, in support of understood to define America. ment of eternal verities. Kersch implicitly de- “new constitutional positioning.” Readers might By the 1980s, scholars who wanted to nies the possibility of proper interpretation. be forgiven for wondering if Kersch under- say substantive things about politics beyond He cuts the reader no slack, stylistically or stands exactly who elevated these things, and statistics or models, but were unwilling to substantively. Almost everything appears as what counts as a new constitutional position. eschew empirical “science,” began to identify a function of the “construction,” “narration,” He credits Straussians with being the with an approach known as “American politi- “story-telling,” and “agenda-setting” that define conservative movement’s chief constitution- cal development” (APD). Much of this sub- “identities” and lend meaning to lives, helping al theorists and “ersatz” historians. But he field dedicated itself to tracing in detail—in political actors discover “a unified self.” “This thinks much of their work “hagiographic,” a value-neutral manner—historical changes process is inherently relational: the construc- particularly that of “moralists” like Harry in American politics and institutions. APD tion of a political self typically involves a posi- V. Jaffa, the main theorist of the Claremont replaced numerical data with narratives of tioning of that self vis-à-vis the political other, school in its insistence that the Constitu- change. It was the switch in time that created constructing identity through the cultivation tion is designed to preserve the equal natural tenure lines (not to mention academic jour- of a sense of membership (belonging) and op- rights of all human beings. Kersch avers that nals). Unlike progressive political science, it position.” The process is not a means of getting subsequent moralists on the Right condemn was not necessarily hostile to the Constitution, things right, but for “political oppositions [to] chattel slavery—but show a “palpable indiffer- but neither could it fully embrace America or wrest control and win power.” Kersch’s thesis ence to the concerns of contemporary African defend it against leftist caricatures. It studi- almost disappears under the weight of devel- Americans,” seeing them as “largely irrelevant” ously identified political constructs and com- opmental verbiage, but he seems to adopt, sub except as a “philosophical first premise” for pared “stories” about how American politics silentio, a classic mid-20th-century definition the fantastic stories conservatives want to tell moved from there to here. It tried to avoid of political science: the study of power, includ- about the Constitution. both dry-as-dust empiricism and heart-on- ing its acquisition and uses. The definition is sleeve progressivism—but ended up incorpo- as reductionist as it is tendentious. en kersch never sees fit to re- rating a fair amount of each. mind us that the Constitution isn’t just onservatives and the constitu- Ka story. It is, rather, a founding docu- oston college political scientist tion provides rich detail about the ment that sets well-defined metes and bounds Ken I. Kersch is a master of APD- Cpersonalities, organizations, and po- to our common life. It rests on a particular, cog- Bspeak. His latest copiously researched litical alliances that made modern American nizable account of human nature that sees men book, Conservatives and the Constitution, cor- conservatism. But it emphasizes that they as politically equal beings, entitled to consent rects some of the defects of American political were oriented to crafting stories to suit their to their government and to exercise the free- science even as it exemplifies others. interests. Chapters bear titles such as “Stories doms proper to them, as of natural right, un- Kersch offers a detailed account of the About Markets,” “Stories About Communism,” fettered by arbitrary or unaccountable rulers. individuals, ideas, and institutions that col- “Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian This truth never surfaces in his book; it is swal- lectively argued for taking the Constitution Stories,” and “Right-Wing Roman Catholic lowed by wave after wave of contextualization. seriously again. He makes clear that consti- Stories.” The various stories conservatives told Here’s a story: once upon a time, in a land tutional conservatism cannot be reduced to about markets tended to insist that the Consti- far, far away from contemporary political sci- law-school-centered theories of originalism— tution favors them, thus forging a conservative ence, a group of patriotic men pledged—not largely because conservatives were excluded identity larger than any single policy position. just rhetorically but actually—their lives, for- from the mid-20th-century legal academy. Conservatives also told stories about Com- tunes, and sacred honor to the cause of repub- Conservative constitutionalism was forged munism that “could not help but shape the lican self-government. They bequeathed us elsewhere, making it much broader, and riven emotional tenor of all sorts of constitutional a written Constitution carefully designed to by more serious and substantive theoretical stances,” including the conflict of “the faithful preserve it, by putting some things—in the disagreements. Journalists, economists, polit- v. the Godless.” Fundamentalist Christians realms of politics, economics, and culture— ical theorists, and theologians spoke freely on told stories about Darwinism’s and progressive beyond the constitutional pale. Nowadays, constitutional questions outside the conven- modernity’s incompatibility with America’s the fake “living constitution” of progressiv- tional constraints of the liberal legal academy. Christian moral and constitutional order. The ism—which can be anything its interpreters “[P]ostwar conservative constitutional argu- arguments of evangelical and fundamentalist want it to be, and so amounts to no constitu- ment,” Kersch writes, “was diverse, multivocal, Christians “echoed and harmonized with the tion at all—vies for supremacy with our ac- contested, mutable, and developmental.” themes of civilizational and existential struggle tual Constitution. As for political science, it Disentangling conservative constitutional emphasized elsewhere on the Right by conser- remains a discipline in search of something thought from contemporary originalism, and vative Catholics, (key) Straussians (the decline higher than empiricism and process. It won’t showing the latter to be but one thread in a of the West), anticommunists, and Austrian find it in American political development. complex tapestry, is fine as far as it goes. But economists (the road to serfdom).” Right-wing how far does it go? Kersch claims there was Catholics told stories about natural law, which Bradley C.S. Watson is professor of politics at little in the “later, narrowed originalism that helped them “make meaning and meanings.” Saint Vincent College, where he holds the Philip was necessarily conservative in any theoreti- They chose to “re-narrate the nation’s histo- M. McKenna Chair in American and Western cal or ideological sense.” It was instead crassly ry—including the history of its Founding, its Political Thought, and the author of the forthcom- utilitarian, aimed at “kneecapping” liberal Constitution” as compatible with Catholicism. ing Progressivism: The Strange History of a precedent, and being “serviceable” to an “activ- By the 1980s, Christians had the audacity to Radical Idea (University of Notre Dame Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 64 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Steven F. Hayward Practical Wisdom Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, by Greg Weiner. Encounter Books, 224 pages, $23.99

f someone had to come up with a mistaken enterprise for two reasons. First, the sought to calibrate actions to circumstances, bumper sticker encapsulating Edmund prudence of the statesman cannot be under- such that calm times, like those he wrongly IBurke’s political philosophy, it would stood purely theoretically, much less scientifi- foresaw continuing, elicited calm leadership.” probably read: “Against metaphysical ab- cally—which means modern political science stractions!” If Burke had lived to the 1850s, cannot understand it at all. In fact, Weiner ristotelian moderation is the he might well have expressed private reser- points out early on that “scientific politics” is heart of prudence and enables the vations about Abraham Lincoln’s use of the inherently imprudent. Second, Burke explic- Aprudent statesman to avoid or fend off Declaration of Independence. Burke might itly argued that the ability to understand the extremes. But the paradox is that the poten- especially have disputed an 1859 letter to the circumstances of the moment is at the heart tial or actual arrival of extreme circumstances Boston politician Henry L. Pierce, in which of prudence. As he put it in a debate in the warrants a kind of intransigence which, in Lincoln characterized the Declaration as “an House of Commons in 1792, “A statesman, the abstract, seems highly immoderate. So it abstract truth, applicable to all men and all never losing sight of principles, is to be guided was with Lincoln as the 1850s wore on, but times.” Burke embraced prudence as the high- by circumstances; and judging contrary to the Weiner also reminds us of the more felicitous est object of political thought and the most exigencies of the moment, he may ruin his comparison to Winston Churchill, whose important quality—probably the sole qualify- country forever.” Weiner thus concludes that central perception in the late 1930s was that ing trait—of the statesman. But even had he understanding true statecraft requires “genu- “compromise with evil was not only wrong but accepted Lincoln as a model of prudence and ine instruction in the unapologetic histories of also imprudent.... Churchill...did not make high statesmanship (as is likely), it is not easy great and prudent statesmanship.” an idol of daring for daring’s sake. The mo- to square Burke’s understanding of “abstract ment—which is to say the circumstances— truths” and their place in political practice s weiner reminds us at the outset demanded it.” with Lincoln’s. Fortunately we have associate of Old Whigs, even those who under- Weiner notes that “One suspects Burke professor Greg Weiner of Assumption Col- Astand that the statesman’s prudence is would see some of Lincoln’s early rhetoric lege on the job with his compact but rich new an art acknowledge it to be an art that is poor- about the power of reason as intemperate,” book, Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Poli- ly understood. This is why there are so few most especially the climax of his Lyceum Ad- tics of Prudence. public figures today deserving to be regarded dress: “Reason, cold, calculating, unimpas- On the surface, it is not easy to nail down as true statesmen. “No lines can be laid down sioned reason, must furnish all the materials either man’s account of how abstractions for civil or political wisdom,” Burke wrote in for our future support and defense.” But if such as natural rights play out in reality. The a 1770 pamphlet on abuses of royal power; Lincoln was more Platonic while Burke was paradox of Burke is that he supported nat- “They are a matter incapable of exact defini- more Aristotelian, still a Burkean defense ural rights in the abstract but (mostly) option.” In one of his more enigmatic pronounce- of Lincoln is possible: Lincoln was, after all, posed appealing to natural rights in practi- ments, from his 1777 “Letter to the Sheriffs drawing on the “tried and true” tradition of cal deliberations. This has been a puzzle to of Bristol,” Burke wrote that prudence is “the the American Founding to ground his state- readers of Burke ever since his Reflections god of this lower world.” Weiner connects craft. Burke was sympathetic to American on the Revolution in France first appeared this with Burke’s well-known critique of ideo- independence. But his assertion in a 1775 in 1790. For example, take this declaratory logical and utopian politics, but the analogy speech about the colonies that “[a]bstract lib- judgment from the Reflections: “Government to godhead is equally apt because the divine is erty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be is not made in virtue of natural rights, which ultimately impossible to comprehend. It may found” presaged the problem America would may and do exist in total independence of it.” be going too far to ascribe godlike attributes pose for him. Still, it is easy to imagine Burke Yet in a 1783 debate over the governance of to the supremely prudent statesman, though discerning that Lincoln’s attachment to “an India, Burke argued, “The rights of men, that perhaps Lincoln came close when he observed abstract truth, applicable to all men and all is to say, the natural rights of mankind, are, in his 1838 Lyceum Address that “men of am- times” did not constitute a utopian vision or indeed, sacred things; and if any public mea- bition and talents” with a “ruling passion” for threaten a new American Jacobinism. Pru- sure is proved mischievously to affect them, glory belong to “the family of the lion, or the dence, after all, counsels all things in their the objection ought to be fatal to that mea- tribe of the eagle.” Burke would likely have ap- time—and even idealism has its place. sure, even if no charter at all could be set up proved of Lincoln’s careful efforts to modulate against it.” such passion through dedication to the rule Steven F. Hayward is a visiting professor at the But trying to reconcile Burke’s apparent of law, which binds both citizens and states- Goldman School of Public Policy at University of inconsistencies, let alone trying to harmonize men alike. “The Lyceum Address was a model California, Berkeley, and a fellow of the Biparti- him with Lincoln on a theoretical level, is a of Lincolnian prudence,” Weiner writes. “He san Policy Center.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 65 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

in memoriam Michael Martin Uhlmann, 1939–2019

Michael Uhlmann died on October 8, 2019, aged 79. In addition to a distinguished career in government, private legal practice, and philanthropy, he taught at Claremont Graduate University since 2002, and was a senior fellow and faculty member of the Claremont Institute and a frequent contributor to the Claremont Review of Books. He made his debut in our second issue, Winter 2001, with two articles, one on constitutional theory and one defending the electoral college—under attack again by liberals in the wake of an election that didn’t go their way. He wrote his last article for our Summer 2019 issue just a few months ago, on the extent to which the federal courts can be counted on to re-constitutionalize our government. In all, his essays and reviews appeared 28 times in our pages.

CRB readers delighted in Mike’s ruminative mind, graceful pen, and unfailing sense of humor, which he brought to bear on almost any subject—presidential war powers, natural law, the administrative state, Brown v. Board of Education, eugenics, Catholic social teaching, his heroes (particularly John Marshall and William F. Buckley, Jr.), and teaching as a vocation. Readers who crave some examples of his writing are invited to visit our website.

We include here reflections from some friends and colleagues—Michael Anton, Hadley Arkes, James L. Buckley, D. Alan Heslop, Wilfred M. McClay, and Jean M. Yarbrough.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 66 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Michael Anton Not to suggest that he was unhappy in grandfatherly patience and good humor. And 1996, but he was not kindly or gentle. At least he was now something else to me, too: a col- that wasn’t the impression he gave. league. At Mike’s funeral, his brother said he first time i saw mike was in I learned from Charles and from Harry Jaf- that Mike’s ultimate goal as a teacher was to graduate school. Charles Kesler, my fa the basic story of how Mike, already a bud- make all his students, eventually, colleagues— Tprincipal teacher and then head of the ding lawyer, got to know Jaffa on the Gold- to teach them what he knew so that they Salvatori Center, told me “We’re having Mike water campaign, and how Jaffa persuaded him could one day converse as equals. I do not be- Uhlmann come speak at the Athenaeum, and to drop everything and come to Claremont to lieve I ever became Mike’s equal, but he none- there’ll be a lunch; you’re invited.” The Mar- study political philosophy and the American theless—after that first encounter—always ian Miner Cook Athenaeum on the campus Founding. Which, a few years later, Mike did. treated me as if I were. of Claremont McKenna College is the pre- And then took that knowledge back to Wash- mier speaking venue at the Claremont Col- ington to save the electoral college, help es- e had one major disagreement. leges. Intended for high-minded intellectual tablish the Federalist Society, transform the As the Trump phenomenon gained discourse, it has more recently become better federal judiciary—among other things—and Wsteam in 2015, I asked Charles—by known—as Heather Mac Donald learned practice law while out of power. then and since, editor of the CRB—if I could to her dismay—as a place to riot against un- make the case for Trump in its pages. He gave popular speakers. But back in those innocent he mike uhlmann of 1996 did not me a tentative yes, but then rejected the piece. days of the mid-1990s, the “Ath” was more look anything like an academic. His I later learned that I had divided the house: civilized and lived up to its name. Tsuit was too somber and perfectly fit- many were passionately for publishing it, oth- Impecunious graduate students are always ted, his posture too erect, his manners too ers passionately against. Nothing personal up for a free lunch, so I readily agreed, but polished. He spoke that day on the budget. against me, I understand, but passions were also asked: “Who’s Mike Uhlmann?” Despite the leadenness of the topic, I was running high then, especially about Trump. Who’s Mike Uhlmann! mesmerized—by his command of the issue, Mike was against. I eventually came to understand Mike as his humor, his ability to structure and deliver About eight months later, Charles asked five things: a devoted father and grandfather, a talk with apparent effortless ease, hiding all me to write something fresh on the same top- a serious Catholic, a kindly and knowledge- the work that must have gone into it. ic. I initially said no, but then wrote it anyway able teacher, a formidable corporate lawyer, I was—then as now, but more then—in- and sent it in. Once again, I divided the house. and a political mover and shaker. It was the terested in clothes. Unique (I think) among Labor Day weekend, 2016, I arrived in formidable corporate lawyer, with a little bit grad students, I possessed a small wardrobe Philadelphia for the American Political Sci- of the macher mixed in, who showed up at the of custom-made suits. I naturally wore one ence Association. At the time a non-formi- Ath that day in 1996. to the event. Charles, as ever, had arranged dable corporate flak, I was in town to give Those who first got to know Mike after he to have his grad students sit with Mike at a paper on Machiavelli, a scholarly inter- had left the practice of law and taken up full- the lunch. Mike was next to me. As we spoke est I maintained more or less as a hobby (or time teaching may have never seen this side about politics, philosophy, and other things, obsession). The fate of myCRB article had of him. From that point on, he was every bit the glint in his half-shut right eye said, “I’m been decided—it would be published, under the gentle teacher who would, however, tell not yet impressed, but I want to be, so keep the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus—but I amazing stories of being in the room with trying.” didn’t know that as I entered the hotel. Way Goldwater, Nixon, Kissinger, Ford, Reagan, Then the subject changed to suits. I com- down a very long hallway, I saw a familiar fig- Meese, Buckley, Bork, Thomas, Will—every plimented his. He examined mine—a glen ure walking toward me. It was Mike. Now, I imaginable luminary of 20th-century Repub- plaid with a red overcheck—and then said the knew he had opposed the first piece and so as- licanism and conservatism—so that you knew following, as best as I can remember: sumed he opposed the second. I wondered to here was no mere Mr.-Rogers-in-a-cardigan myself, “How’s this going to go?” who happened to know something about the When I was a junior associate at—[he Mike had a small entourage following him; Constitution. You were in the presence of a named a bigtime firm so famous even I he was holding court. But it didn’t take him serious player who had been at the center of had heard of it]—I had a suit very much long to spot me. Here goes nothing! He broke things and moved the levers of power. like that. Very tasteful, so I thought. out into a wide grin as our paths converged. But he told those stories without any One day I was in the elevator and a se- He extended his arms, walked right up to trace of the braggadocio that usually infuses nior partner got on; it was just the two me, took my face in his palms, kissed me on Washington tales. I came to realize that the of us. He looked me up and down and each cheek like a mafia don, and drawled out no-nonsense authority I had first observed in said, “Nice suit.” Relieved—this was an one word: “Deciuuuuuuussssss.” And then he Mike was neither an affectation nor central to intimidating guy—I said, “Thanks!” To walked on down the hall. his character, but rather necessary armor to which he replied, “Off to the track after I spoke to Mike frankly and freely before make his way and hold his own, to gain and you get your hours billed?” the conference was over. I made my pro- keep respect, in a series of cutthroat environ- I never wore it again. Trump arguments; he stated his objections ments. When among friends, he didn’t need it, and reservations. It would be inaccurate to and so didn’t use it. As Mike himself said, and I wore mine again, but never again without a characterize Mike as “NeverTrump”; he had everyone who knew him said of him, he loved tremor of trepidation, and never in front of certainly been anti-Trump in the primaries teaching infinitely more than he loved the law Mike. and remained, at best, Trump-skeptical— or even politics. He was finally doing what he Some years later, I began teaching in the though certainly not pro-Hillary! I think wanted to do, what he felt born to do. And he Claremont Institute’s summer fellowship pro- that, like many (or even most), he expected was happy. grams. Mike was always there, exuding kind, Trump to lose and worried what his candi-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 67 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

dacy and loss would do to the Republican I write here with a free hand, not holding age years began to be felt keenly in a family Party and to conservatism. And Mike was back, because I fill in a story that the prin- of five children, and he came to the judgment simply too much of a gentleman, too deeply cipal himself will ever be too modest to set that his energies and wit had to be absorbed religious, too old-school in every sense not to down. He immersed himself in Elizabethan more fully in the family at that moment be put off by much of what we all saw. Those literature at Yale, then went back for a while than in the courthouse. For his friends it of us who supported Trump through every- to teach at his beloved Hill School. But then has been a lasting source of disappointment thing, thick and thin, need to understand to the law, at the University of Virginia, with that he did not take that appointment—as that this reaction can arise from a deep well the same depth of engagement, this time it has been a source of pride among the of decency. in jurisprudence and philosophy. Follow- same friends that he made the decision he Trump’s actions, our blandishments, as ing philosophy out of the clouds, he moved did. But in public office, or in private prac- well as circumstance and events wore down thence to political philosophy, to earn his tice, returning to teaching, or to the life of Mike’s skepticism, at least partially. So much doctorate, studying with Leo Strauss and a private foundation, his counsel has been of his public life was devoted to setting aright Harry Jaffa in Claremont. His natural—or sought by people at every level in the coun- the federal judiciary that he could not help supernatural—gifts of teaching kept him for try, from Attorneys General and presidents noticing that Trump had done and was doing a while in the academy, until the academy to kids in the shipping room. He continues more for this cause than anyone in a genera- turned upside down in the turmoil of the late to be, at every turn, the sustainer of everyone tion, and perhaps in Mike’s lifetime. Encour- 1960s. He had done a master work on the else. I have pleaded with him never more to aged by this—especially by the selection and electoral college, and he was drawn away to write an essay or speech with the willingness swift confirmation of Neil Gorsuch—Mike Washington, to Senator Hruska, to save the to put, in place of his own name, the name of began to say that, should Trump confirm a electoral college, when it was subject again, a figure in public office. In the judgment of second Supreme Court Justice meeting his in the 1970s, to another bootless campaign his friends, he has been too inclined to efface approval, he would “personally lead the Sec- to end it. The recurring melodrama would himself, with rationales too public-spirited: ond Inaugural parade.” play out once again: the affectation of shock namely, that the byline of a public figure will At my daughter’s confirmation, I noticed that we should be governed in modern times draw more attention to the argument, and a tall, white-haired gentleman escorting a by such an anachronistic device, followed by the argument may be far more important young lady toward the altar. It was Mike, an awareness, slowly setting in, that every that the name attached to it. With the same who was there as sponsor for one of his practical alternative was notably worse or temper, he is apt to spend Thanksgiving Day granddaughters. We chatted afterward; this unworkable. The passion for reform would working at a kitchen in the parish or painting was just before the Christine Blasey Ford hit usually exhaust itself before Michael could walls for nuns. And on Christmas morning, job, when it looked like Brett Kavanaugh go on to show that this arrangement, devised his friends are likely to find gifts laid at the was cruising toward easy confirmation. “If by the likes of Gouverneur Morris, might ac- doorstep, from a messenger evidently sweep- this goes through, Mike, you know what that tually have something to do with preserving ing past in a Mercury station wagon rather means,” I said. He didn’t hesitate: “I will lead constitutional government in a continental than a sleigh. When he returned to teaching, the parade!” Nor did he backtrack when the republic. Staying in Washington, Michael with a stint back in Claremont, one of his hit job failed. would join the staff of Senator James Buck- students wrote in a review that “Professor I join many others in feeling the same ley, where he wrote the first Human Life Uhlmann could read the telephone book and way about Michael Uhlmann: whenever and Amendment. He would be recruited to the make it compelling.” He could also, no doubt, wherever deserved tribute is paid to this noble Department of Justice under President Ford, lead the students into its deeper implications and good man, I will lead the parade. where he would shepherd John Paul Ste- and find, somewhere in that prosaic thing, vens to confirmation at the Supreme Court, the lurking premises of modernity. Michael Anton is a lecturer in politics and re- and eventually persuade a young Clarence search fellow of Hillsdale College, and a senior Thomas that he could find his vocation in n the course of this book i describe fellow of the Claremont Institute. judging. With the advent of the Reagan Ad- the proposal I had shaped as the most ministration, Michael became counselor to Imodest first step of all on abortion: to the president, where he argued compellingly, preserve the life of the child who survived the and dealt deftly, on matters freighted with a abortion. When it appeared to be the moment Hadley Arkes moral significance. He took an active lead in to revive that proposal in 1998, Michael made propelling the administration into action, in the rounds with me on Capitol Hill, meet- From the “Acknowledgments and Dedication” dealing with the Baby Doe cases that arose in ing with senators, congressmen, and their of Natural Rights and the Right to Choose the 1980s. In those cases, parents sought to staffs. He would take himself out of any of his (Cambridge University Press, 2002) withhold medical care from newborn infants projects to join me, with a keen sense of what afflicted with Down’s syndrome and spina staffers on the Hill would find helpful. With he final word is for michael uhl- bifida. If there was a federal presence, cast- the right blend of respect and familiarity, and mann. Man of letters, counsel without ing up alarms, standing against the trends, it with the authority of one who had been there Tpeer, raconteur with limitless range, was there mainly as a function of his own art. before, he would make the case, and no one sustainer of families, runner to the rescue, made it better. Along with Robert George, of devoted son of the Church, maddeningly t one moment, he was persuaded Princeton, he knew the logic of that bill as well self-effacing. For matters of moral conse- by his friends to let himself be ap- as the one who devised it. The sparest account quence, enduring alertness; for pretension, Apointed to the federal court of ap- of Michael, and the one most readily recog- unremitting jest. And in friendship, untiring, peals in the District of Columbia. But that nized, might well be that account, in All’s Well with the touch of grace that lifts everything. was also the moment when the rigors of teen- That Ends Well, of Bertram’s late father, a man

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 68 New from University of Toronto Press

“The erudition of the volume is “One of the very few works on “This book is especially urgent in this extremely impressive, with David Ukraine in this period, Propaganda politically explosive moment, as we try Novak demonstrating a magisterial in Revolutionary Ukraine... will find a to grapple with what the future holds grasp of the primary texts.” broad audience among historians of in store for ‘surveillance states’ around Tom Angier the revolutions and wars in the former the globe.” University of Cape Town Russian Empire.” Joshua Reeves Tom Angier Oregon State University University of Cape Town

“By exploring the colonial, even “Wendy Dobson is one of the “Law’s Indigenous Ethics is extremely genocidal, legacy of the Indian few analysts with the vision and novel, important, and has the potential residential school system, this book experience to provide an informed for great influence.” represents a tough, timely, and blueprint for the future.” Bethany Berger University of Connecticut thoughtful account.” Laura Dawson Mike DeGagné Director, Canada Institute at the Wilson Nipissing University Center, Washington, DC

utorontopress.com | @utpress mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm legendary for his wisdom in council. Of him Mike was with me just three years before lit up many conversations. Mike could quote the poet writes that he was recruited for a more important posi- from Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Metaphysi- tion in the Nixon Administration. But the cal poets, T.S. Eliot, and Auden. In old age, …his honour lessons he had taught me and his approach to he could still faultlessly recite lines from the Clock to itself, knew the true minute his work served me well during the balance of Canterbury Tales (said in careful Middle Eng- when my Senate term, as they would in later years lish), Shakespeare (particularly Macbeth), and Exception bade him speak, and at this in my role as a federal appellate judge. Wordsworth (the only Romantic he cared for). time There was a kind of sad pleasure, too, for His tongue obeyed his hand. James L. Buckley served as a U.S. senator (New friends who followed Mike’s mind as he sur- York), undersecretary of state for international veyed the broken world of American govern- Governed by that hand, this account would security affairs, and judge on the U.S. Court of ment. He spoke brilliantly, persuasively, about have ended far earlier. But I plead again for a Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. threats to the Constitution: the fast-growing certain license when the principal figure in the despotism of the administrative state, the story will never broadcast it himself. Lincoln, decline of congressional oversight, and the as a young politician, in his taut style, defend- underlying tendencies toward plebiscitary deed his course and said, “If I falsify in this you D. Alan Heslop mocracy. He would wax gloomily on threats can convict me. The witnesses live, and can to freedom of speech, the decline of the press, tell.” In this account, I would make the same rown men cried when they the hypocrisy of both parties, the mounting claim, and the venture is even more warrant- heard the news of Mike’s death, deficit, the evils of the primary system, the ed here because the chief witness would never Gand on the internet many grieving rise of lobbyists, the baneful influence of -fi tell, or speak of what he has done. His friends friends shared wonderful stories of knowing nance, and the base character of those in know, and so they must tell. Judy Arkes and him. Some friends recalled the help he gave power. He saw patriotism as undermined by Susannah Patton would no doubt skip the to their careers, finding them jobs, opening a kind of hysterical mass sentimentalism that embellishment, but they would confirm the doors, writing recommendations, and giving faulted America for some of humanity’s old- judgment, and they would join me, with deep life counsel. They were the lucky members est ills. Sometimes he would say bleakly, in his affection, in dedicating this book to Michael of the Uhlmann Network. Mike had made deepest voice, “We’re doomed!” But he didn’t Martin Uhlmann. friends everywhere: at the Hill School, Yale, really believe it for, at heart and in belief, he Virginia, the Goldwater campaign, National was an optimist. Hadley Arkes is the Edward N. Ney Professor of Review, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Jurisprudence Emeritus at Amherst College, and Reagan campaigns and White House, New ike’s closest friends believe in the founder and director of the James Wilson York and Jim Buckley’s office, the Department God. Sure and certain in his faith, Institute on Natural Rights and the American of Justice, a dozen Republican national con- Mhe had no time for materialism Founding. This excerpt is reprinted with permis- ventions, presidential transitions, Claremont or determinism or the schemes of “sophists, sion of the licensor through PLSclear. McKenna College and the Rose Institute, the economists, and calculators.” He disdained Pepper Hamilton law firm, the Bradley Foun- Puritanism and all its companion depressants. dation, Claremont Graduate University, the For him, the Christian life meant battling “our Federalist Society, the Claremont Institute, ancient foe,” as the hymn has it, through the James L. Buckley the James Wilson Institute, Catholic congre- daily practice of loving kindness. He made gations in several churches, and innumerable friends, one by one, with a word of thoughtful ike uhlmann came into my life academic conferences. He gave enormous en- praise or a small gift (carefully chosen, neatly at the beginning of 1971, a most ergy and great organizational skill to dozens wrapped), or a book inscribed in his beautiful Mcritical time for me. The prior fall, of worthy conservative causes: their leaders penmanship with a perfectly apposite mes- I had managed to win election to the United owed him favors and he called them in—for sage—little tokens of caring and kind comfort. States Senate as a third-party candidate who others, often his students. People grieved so deeply at his death because had little political experience and had never en- Many of Mike’s friends recounted the they had seen and felt the goodness in him. gaged in the in-depth analyses of public issues pleasures of his company. They and his stu- Mike gave help quietly, almost secretly. that my new job would require. And that is dents remembered the mischievous wit, the Few knew the work he did for poor nuns why having Mike as a key member of my Sen- deft interruption, the telling anecdote, and at Thanksgiving, when he painted, cooked, ate staff proved such a special blessing. the robust laughter of a man at ease with and cleaned for them. Long ago at the Hill Mike was a soft-spoken man of deep in- his world. His conversation, with or without School, Mike sang George Herbert’s great telligence, one who combined a lovely sense whiskey or wine, always sparkled. He could hymn-poem and it stayed in his mind: of humor with an iron adherence to thought- tell of times spent with long-dead political through principle. Although he was only 32 and legal figures, some great, others very far Teach me, my God and King, when he came to me, he had already acquired from it; of struggles over the electoral col- In all things Thee to see, an understanding of the Constitution’s politi- lege; and of countless political campaigns. He And what I do in anything cal and philosophical roots that was of a depth often spoke of his heroes in the law—John To do it as for Thee…. and breadth that would prove of the greatest Marshall above all—and of his friends Bork, importance to me. What’s more, his analytical Scalia, and Thomas. He talked knowledge- A man that looks on glass, skills and ability to formulate effective argu- ably of music, especially Bach and Beethoven, On it may stay his eye; ments were of the highest order, and hence of and he delighted in evenings at the opera. But Or if he pleaseth, through it pass, the greatest utility to a newly hatched legislator. it was English literature, his first love, that And then the heav’n espy.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 70 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

All may of Thee partake: cable white button-down and beloved Hill New from Carolina Academic Press Nothing can be so mean, School tie. He was always better dressed than Which with his tincture—“for Thy the academics around him, and his courtly sake”— manners were always charming to women Will not grow bright and clean. and ingratiating to men. But a big part of his charm came from a certain animal magnetism A servant with this clause that they don’t teach at the Hill School. Un- Makes drudgery divine: derneath all the outward polish, Mike had the Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, earthy directness and whole-souled humanity Makes that and th’ action fine. of an Irish pol (which he was, despite the Teu- tonic surname), always ready with a quip or Complicated Lives Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619–1865 God bless you, Mike, our dear friend, great a funny story about Pat Moynihan or some Sherri L. Burr, University of New Mexico School of Law, teacher, and true Christian gentleman. other character he knew from his years on Emerita

that other (and lesser) Hill. He was a little 2019, 212 pp, ISBN 978-1-5310-1617-3, $25.00 D. Alan Heslop is professor of government emer- like Reagan in that way. Complicated Lives upends the pervasive belief that all Africans itus at Claremont McKenna College, former landing on the shores of Virginia, beginning in late August 1619, be- executive director of the California Republican cannot say that i was a close friend came slaves. In reality, many of these kidnap victims received the status of indentured servants. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of free African Party, and founding director of CMC’s Rose In- in the usual sense. But Mike had an un- Americans in the South and North owned property, created busi- stitute of State and Local Government. matched talent for a certain kind of in- nesses, and engaged in public service. Complicated Lives further ex- I plores the lives of Free Blacks through the lens of the author’s ancestors timacy. We did not keep up on the details and other Free Blacks who lived this history, including those who of one another’s lives, but whenever we had served in the integrated troops commanded by George Washington lunch or drinks, after some pleasantries, he during the Revolutionary War. took things straight to the depths. “How goes Wilfred M. McClay Slavery in the Southwest it with your soul?” he once asked me, with as- Genizaro Identity, Dignity and the Law first got to know mike uhlmann tonishing and utterly sincere directness, those Robert William Piatt, Jr., St. Mary's University Law School back in the mid-’90s, when he was a fel- enormous eyes bearing down on me, as if to Moises Gonzales, University of New Mexico low at the Ethics and Public Policy Cen- say, “you will answer with the truth.” Many of I 2019, 262 pp, ISBN 978-1-5310-1555-8, $35.00 ter. He occupied the office next to that of my our conversations were like that. He was, of A brutal reality in the American Southwest is that Indians were great friend the late Michael Cromartie, and course, always trying to convert me to Roman captured by the Spanish or by other Indians and were kept or sold as I would sometimes pop in during my visits to Catholicism, and I loved him for that, even as slaves. Descendants of these captives, known as "Genizaros," still struggle against their loss of tribal identity, while attempting to maintain the office to see how the other Mike—I would I resisted his advances. But that wasn’t really their culture and dignity. For the ﬁrst time, this book frames legal ap- eventually call him “The Other,” which he what he was asking me. proaches, based upon domestic and international law, to alleviate the liked very much—was doing. His love and concern came from an even badges of servitude which still exist for these Indigenous people. The book includes important historical and cultural contexts as the frame- He was always happy to be interrupted. deeper place. I’m sure others had this experi- work for the legal analyses it presents. He was then working on a compendious ence of him, and indeed several of us called book about assisted suicide, which would him Father Mikey, which seemed to please Gambling Under the Swastika Casinos, Horse Racing, Lotteries, and Other eventually be published by Eerdmans as him, and certainly captures some part of his Forms of Betting in Nazi Germany Last Rights?: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia demeanor. He was, as they say in the church Robert M. Jarvis, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Debated (1998). It always seemed a marvel business, a very pastoral priest. Which is why, Broad College of Law to me that a man who was spending all his when he gave up the law and the Hill and all 2019, 208 pp, ISBN 978-1-5310-1252-6, $49.00 working hours contemplating such a dismal that to become a teacher, he really found his Although much has been written about the Nazis, one aspect of subject could be so unfailingly cheerful and proper ministry. their rule has been all but overlooked: gambling. While philosophically witty. But that was Mike. In this respect, I have something im- opposed to gambling, in practice the Nazis relied on gambling to prop As I gradually got to know him, I found out portant to thank Fr. Mikey for. About ten up Germany’s economy, earn hard currency, and wage war. In this engaging new work, Professor Robert M. Jarvis (Nova Southeastern (mostly through his other, closer friends) that years ago, I had an opportunity to change University) presents the first comprehensive look at gambling in the life had dealt him a very tough hand, with far the trajectory of my career dramatically— Third Reich. After summarizing Germany’s pre-Nazi gambling laws, more than the usual share of personal woes the details of it don’t matter, except that it Jarvis describes how, within months of coming to power, the Nazis re- opened Baden-Baden’s famed casino (shuttered since 1872), took con- and disappointments. But you would never would have involved leaving academia—and trol of the country’s horse tracks, and encouraged citizens to play the have guessed it from his radiant countenance, I sought Mike out for advice. We had a long, lottery (to fund social welfare programs). With the advent of war, the Nazis’ use of gambling increased. While in some countries (such as and he never, ever talked about such things, at long conversation over many drinks at the the Netherlands) the Nazis used gambling to curry favor with the local least not to me. He carried the burdens of his Nassau Inn in Princeton, and at the culmi- citizenry, in others (such as Poland) gambling became another means life with an air of quiet but immense dignity, nation of it, after clearing away all the brush of waging war.” leavened by humor and undergirded by im- and all the preliminaries, Mike looked at me mense and visceral gratitude to God for the with one of those deep, penetrating, uncan- sheer privilege of existing—in this time, this ny, summing-up gazes of his that came from place, this country. somewhere not quite earthly, and declared, He was consistently elegant in his dress “You could do this. You’d be great. But you Save 20% off these titles with the discount code, CROBF19, and manner, and I imagine that he looked his do this.” He then went on to say why through December 31, 2019. For more information, shouldn’t and to view other titles, please visit www.caplaw.com. dapper best for his recent appointment with I shouldn’t, entirely in terms of what I would Saint Peter, no doubt wearing one of his char- be leaving behind, and I have never heard a 700 Kent Street, Durham NC 27701 | 800.489.7486 acteristic charcoal pinstripe suits with impec- more passionate encomium to the work of

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 71 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm teaching. All the layers of sophistication and address, which he happily accepted and fre- useful friend. He championed my scholarly the occasional cynicism and understandable quently used to sign off his emails, went to the work, praising it extravagantly and recom- world-weariness that Mike often evinced heart of who he was: a light-hearted man of mending it to his students and friends. To melted away, and what I saw before me was faith who brought uncommon joy and grace make sure that success did not go to my head, a man afire with love, a higher love, an ag- into our lives. this master stylist would dash off emails re- ing man who suddenly looked preternatu- Whatever else his achievements, and they minding me, inter alia (as he would say) that I rally young, his eyes gleaming with delight were many and impressive, Mike’s true vo- should be thankful for his ongoing criticisms and gratitude and devotion for the privilege cation was teaching. For Mike, this was no of my writing. “Consider this, never again in of doing the work he was doing with and for ordinary 9 to 5 job. For several summers, I your life, at least before you start drooling, his students at Claremont. As far as he was taught alongside him in the Claremont In- will you write ‘circle around.’ So, let’s show a concerned, it was the most important work stitute Publius Fellowship Program, where little gratitude. (s. Henry W. Fowler).” in the world. I was out of my mind even to he not only presided over masterly discus- consider giving it up. sions, but also got to know his students per- bove all, mike was the very best And he convinced me at that moment. In sonally, dispensing “fatherly” advice on the kind of friend, one who freely shared fact, he did more than that. His little ser- things that mattered. After his presentation, Ahis wisdom and his worldly goods. mon in that dark, empty room on a chilly I would often find him in animated conversa- His generosity of soul sprang from his old- Princeton night was more than just good tion with some student who had sought him school Catholic faith. Christmas figured advice. It rekindled my own appreciation for out. prominently in Mike’s calendar as it gave the privilege of the work God had given me him the excuse to practice generosity on a to do, and about which I was becoming half- e lavished even greater at- wide scale. Every year “Santa” showered his hearted. He firmly rebuked that slackness in tention and affection on his own friends with gifts meant to mark the true me, and made me remember how much of Hstudents at the Claremont Gradu- meaning of that holy day. To us, he often the joy and giftedness of my existence I was ate University—charming them with poetry, sent books on foods of special interest (oys- taking for granted, and squandering. That regaling them with stories, wowing them ters, trout, game birds) or wines and spirits. moment changed my life. I haven’t been the with his intellect, and showing them by his Other years his selections included books on same since. example the power of faith. He inspired in his gardening and architecture. This is how we He had a gift for that sort of thing. Thank students a rare devotion because he helped first discovered his favorite architect, Allan you so much, Fr. Mikey. I’ll see you later. to shape not only their minds but their souls. Greenberg, whose defense of “canonical clas- An advocate of large families, Mike increased sicism” appealed to Mike’s love of the beauti- Wilfred McClay holds the G.T. and Libby Blan- his own by folding his students into it. He ful and the good. kenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the celebrated their professional achievements, Christmas was not the only occasion for University of Oklahoma. blessed their marriages, and rejoiced in their Mike’s goodness of soul. When my husband children. He understood what made for a was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Mike good life and pointed the way, even or perhaps sent us a copy of Richard John Neuhaus’s As especially because he had known both happi- I Lay Dying to prepare us spiritually for the Jean M. Yarbrough ness and heartache. road ahead. In those last final days, he sent Mostly I knew him as a friend. It goes the following email, informing me that com- first met mike uhlmann in 1997 at a without saying—though I am not only saying our way were several CDs of Gregorian Liberty Fund event run by Jim Stoner and ing it, but insisting upon it—that being with chants. I shall let Mike’s own words speak to I my late husband, Dick Morgan. Dick had Mike was always great fun. Whether in La us now in our sorrow at his death: “It is the wanted me to meet Mike, then at the Ethics Jolla, Tucson, D.C., Pasadena, Maine, or true music of the spheres, and I cannot think and Public Policy Center. Somehow, he got some other fashionable watering hole where of anything more comforting as the bell tolls. me invited to dinner on the last night—where these conferences and lectures took place, he Put on one of those CDs, pour yourself a we spent several hilarious hours, made all the packed a bundle of amusing stories into his drink, and let the prospect of eternity warm merrier by the adult beverages freely flowing. suitcase, perfect for each occasion. But these you. Be not afraid.” By the end of that evening, I knew we would were merely accessories, the finishing touches Requiesce in pace, Fr. Mikey. be friends for life. on a perfectly outfitted mind. To a few of us, he quickly became known To put it in Aristotelian terms (I hear him Jean M. Yarbrough is professor of government by the slightly, but only slightly, irreverent now protesting against such hifalutin’ ideas), and the Gary M. Pendy, Sr., Professor of Social sobriquet, Father Mikey. Yet that playful he was not only a pleasant friend, but also a Sciences at Bowdoin College.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 72 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Charles Horner China’s Democratic Future

hina is a country where com- University by the philosophers John Dewey 1950, the newly victorious Communist gov- memorations matter, not only sen- and Bertrand Russell. In less than a genera- ernment, the People’s Republic of China, sent Ctimentally but also politically. Two tion, by the mid-1940s, Anglo-American in- its forces into Tibet and bloodily suppressed important anniversaries in 2019 have given fluence would become conspicuous in the an armed resistance. Turkic peoples in the far Beijing’s Communist leadership reason to councils of the Republic of China. The upper northwest met the same fate. The new regime worry. First and foremost was the centennial reaches of President Chiang Kai-shek’s minis- then turned against the Chinese people them- of the May Fourth Movement. Thousands of tries were dominated by Ivy League graduates. selves in a violent top-down effort to hasten Chinese students assembled on May 4, 1919, The dissidents in 1919 personified their industrialization. This “Great Leap Forward” in Beijing’s renowned Tiananmen Square to political demands as “Mr. Democracy” and claimed tens of millions of lives throughout demonstrate against the Versailles Treaty “Mr. Science.” To this day, Mr. Democracy has the late 1950s. In the 1960s the “Great Prole- that had ended World War I that same year. remained a powerful presence in Chinese po- tarian Cultural Revolution,” a merciless push Though the Republic of China had been one litical life in the face of extraordinary violence. to suppress anti-Maoist dissent, spread still of the victorious allies, it did not gain the full May 4, 1919, fell in the midst of the “warlord” more death and destruction. restoration of sovereignty which had been its era (1916-28), when rival strongmen fought Despite all those years of bloodshed, new main war aim. The Chinese were especially for territorial dominance over a divided Chi- protests in 1989 showed that the democratic affronted that Germany’s holdings in China na. The warlords were racketeers, typically spirit in China remained truly deathless. In were transferred to Japan, not returned to more interested in local infighting than world the “June Fourth Incident,” demonstrations China itself. The resultant protests inaugu- affairs. But they did sometimes engage in full- erupted again in Tiananmen Square. As New rated a period of intellectual and political scale wars when prompted, and in July 1937 Ja- York Times correspondent Nicholas Kristof ferment that came to encompass more than pan initiated one. The Sino-Japanese engage- put it at the time, foreign relations. ment was among the most ferocious conflicts The dominant vocabulary of the movement of World War II. When it ended, the Chinese More than 150,000 demonstrators was Anglo-American. Many of the leaders Civil War which had been raging between the openly defied official warnings and a were American-educated, and many others Republic of China and the Communist Party concentration of troops today to march had been influenced by lectures at Peking of China resumed, killing millions more. In for 14 hours through the capital, repeat-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 73 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

edly and effortlessly puncturing lines Deng himself called “socialism with Chi- Standing Committee of the Politburo of the of policemen and soldiers sent to stop nese characteristics,” created a state-directed Communist Party of China. Its seven mem- them, in one of the biggest displays of market economy subservient to objectives bers sit atop a network of huge state-owned dissatisfaction in 40 years of Com- established by the political leadership. This enterprises, especially banks, which gener- munist rule.... Most worrying for the bargain looked stable for a time—until the ate and disperse enormous amounts of cash. authorities was the fact that crowds of Soviet Union unexpectedly collapsed in They also sit atop a massive internal security cheering workers lined the entire route 1991. After that, the Communists began to apparatus, thus bringing together in one and hailed the core of student marchers fear that their rule could not survive deeper place tools for coercion and slush funds for almost as a liberating army. market reforms and more intimate interna- cooptation. For the party’s leaders, the daily tional involvements. dialectic is a tension between fear and greed: In a separate article, Kristof provided some After Deng transformed the People’s Re- though they trust their ability to survive historical context: public into a quasi-capitalist setup, many of intra-party conflict, they also hedge their the party’s elite members became multi-mil- bets—not least by smuggling billions abroad The last two weeks of demonstrations lionaires or even billionaires. But the same for safekeeping. have been an extraordinary humilia- political system that made them powerful At first blush this may seem a bizarremo - tion for the Government, and especial- and rich was also a perpetual threat: there dus operandi for a Communist regime. But ly for Deng Xiaoping, China’s senior was always the possibility that a loyal party Leninism, as an operational code, teaches leader.... [M]ore fundamentally, they man could find himself on the wrong side of flexibility above all. Its unchanging objective suggest that the Government may be party infighting and lose his fortune. This is is the perpetuation of the “dictatorship of the losing its grasp on what the emperors precisely what happened to many thousands proletariat”—that is, the rule of the vanguard called “the mandate of heaven.” Mr. of loyal party men when Xi Jinping, the new party, which itself is always a self-perpetuating Deng may be too good a Communist general secretary, took power in 2013 and entity. Since its creation in 1921, the Chinese to believe in such a mandate, but in his launched a so-called “anti-corruption” cam- Communist Party has been no different. But lifetime he has already seen the Qing paign. With due allowance for exaggeration, acquiring state power and then preserving a dynasty crumble in 1911 and the Na- the accusations involved staggering amounts monopoly on that power it is no simple matter, tionalist Government collapse in 1949 especially since sudden radical upheavals have because they lost the moral legitimacy always been modern China’s stock-in-trade. to rule. The desire for Deng’s fundamental changes in economic and democracy in China social policy caught all observers by surprise, We now know that Deng did not take well but the speed with which they were imple- to this. On June 4, 1989, he ordered the army is not some delicate or mented suggested that they were not the re- to clear the square at the cost of thousands of fragile flower but sult of some casual decision. Rather, the men lives. It is clear in retrospect that this atroc- in power must have been planning a major ity did not make the Communist Party’s grip a hardy and persistent shift for some time. What developments at on the mandate of heaven much firmer. In home and abroad convinced them such a shift the years after the June Fourth Incident, as perennial. was required? the memory of the massacre receded in most The answer lies, at least partly, in the ev- places, the party continued to make one tri- of money—$6 billion here, $14 billion there. er-increasing accessibility of Western ideas. umphalist pronouncement of self-congratula- But this was not a good-government initia- The advent of the internet age hastened this tion after another. But in their private delib- tive. Xi was going after those who, in his change. In the past, China’s democratic spirit erations, party leaders were far from sanguine. mind, had even the most remote connection manifested itself in mass public demonstra- In fact, they seemed prone to panic. to the rivals he had defeated in his rise to tions like those of 1919 and 1989 in Tianan- This decades-long story is the backdrop to power. men Square. But in our day, protests are the ongoing struggle for democracy and civil Xi was not warring against corruption as more likely to burst out in cyberspace—a vast, rights in Hong Kong. As the events there such. Mind-boggling corruption was and is wholly manufactured, yet very real expanse of have captured the attention of the world, the inevitable, because necessary, product of public space. Eric Fish, an analyst who tracks there has been a growing realization that the a system in which the Chinese Communist China’s millennials, wrote in the online maga- desire for democracy in China is not some Party reserves to itself the most privileged zine ChinaFile that delicate or fragile flower but a hardy and per- and influential position in the marketplace. sistent perennial. Since 1979, this has been the party’s standard By 2011, Sina Weibo [a microblogging operating procedure. Under Xi, corruption website]—which was overwhelmingly Trouble in Beijing remains instrumental—not only in steering used by people born after 1980—was the economy in the direction the party wants hitting its stride, with Internet vigi- he survival of the communist dic- it to go, but also in ensuring that high-level lantes felling a succession of corrupt tatorship in 1989 was a near-run thing, civilian and military officials have a stake officials and exposing government mis- Tand the party knew it. To begin with, in preserving the system. It is not a matter deeds and cover-ups.... In early 2013, the economic reforms that Deng had already of one audacious embezzler here or there. protestors both on and offline gave what instituted in 1979—though they would Rather, it is the entire Mafia-like system it- was perhaps the most significant chal- enable China to rise to worldwide promi- self, wherein each of the lower-downs kicks lenge to authorities since 1989 when nence—were beset with contradictions. The up to his boss until the money finally reaches they decried press censorship en masse administration’s reforms thereafter, which the most powerful body in the system—the after the staff of a liberal newspaper

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 74 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

went on strike over particularly egre- tianity. Also in the 19th century, millions of themselves as defenders of their own unique gious government censorship. others staged major rebellions inspired by cultural and religious traditions. They were Islam. In 1912, the millennia-old imperial not on a “civilizing mission” designed to sinify It was at about this time that Xi Jinping be- system finally succumbed to republicanism. barbarians. came head of the Communist Party and the Today, foreign-bred ideas both secular and re- The newChinese republic, to which the Central Committee circulated what became ligious continue to roil the Chinese polity as it Manchus ceded power, approached governance known as Document No. 9. This has turned clamors for democracy and flirts with Chris- in a way wholly different from the previous rul- out to be the roadmap for the brutal repres- tianity. Substantial contact with the world is ers. The Republic of China, true to its name, sion that is the hallmark of Xi’s tenure. Docu- necessary if China’s ascent is to continue, of resolved to create out of the multi-cultural and ment No. 9 was circulated secretly in April course. But such contact is always dangerous. multi-ethnic Manchu Empire what today’s Bei- 2013, but a copy was leaked about six months Warfare is Communism’s preferred po- jing regime, like the Republic of China before it, later. The directive identified the most omi- litical metaphor, and the concept of the calls “One China.” For decades, this has been nous “political perils” created by anti-Com- “ideological battlefront” has been central to a recipe for repression and violence. Tibet is munist “reactionaries.” Among these were: Leninist theory and practice for more than now under virtual lockdown because the Ti- a century. For Lenin himself, “reformism,” betan Buddhists who live there do not think 1. Promoting Western Constitutional “liberalism,” and similar notions were the of themselves as Chinese. Nor do the Turkic Democracy. mortal enemies of real and total revolution. Muslims of East Turkistan; and therefore the 2. Promoting “universal values.” His 1911 essay, “Reformism in the Russian Communist regime now holds at least a million 3. Promoting civil society. Social-Democratic Movement,” was once of them in concentration camps. Like today’s 4. Promoting Neoliberalism. required reading for all true Communists. Beijing regime, the Manchu Qing dynasty was 5. Promoting the West’s idea of jour- To this day, there is still an argument over brutal and violent in crushing opposition. But nalism, challenging China’s principle whether Stalin actually said something in other important ways, it was the polar op- that the media and publishing system widely attributed to him: “Ideas are far more posite of today’s Communist dictatorship. The should be subject to party discipline. powerful than guns. We don’t allow our dynasty did not enforce cultural conformity. 6. Promoting historical nihilism, trying enemies to have guns, why should we allow It was cosmopolitan and ecumenical, because to undermine the history of the CCP them to have ideas?” But Mao Zedong is un- that is what it decided it needed to be. In the and of New China. ambiguously on the record: event, a tiny Manchu elite held on to power for 270 years. The comparably tiny Communist The authors of Document No. 9 were well We stand for active ideological strug- elite is unlikely to equal that record. aware that the fight against these perils would gle.... Every Communist and revolu- take place largely in the realm of ideas. The tionary should take up this weapon. Making China Chinese Again writers exhorted good Communists to “pay But liberalism rejects ideological close attention to work in the ideological struggle and stands for unprincipled ntil the late 1990s or so, the sphere” and to “conscientiously strengthen peace, thus giving rise to a decadent, party relied exclusively on its Or- management of the ideological battlefield.” philistine attitude and bringing about Uwellian inversion of language— “Party members and governments of all levels political degeneration. “New China Newspeak,” as the Australian must become fully aware that struggles in the Sinologist Geremie Barmé has aptly tagged ideological sphere are perpetual, complex, and But perhaps the most subversive of the it. Barmé wrote in Shades of Mao (1995) that excruciating.” As Xi Jinping came to power, West’s ideological exports is “self-determina- this oppressive jargon was “used by the Party, the party was growing ever more afraid that tion,” because the People’s Republic of China its propaganda organs, the media and edu- the digital era would be one of permeable bor- is the last of the world’s great multi-national, cators to shape (and circumscribe) the way ders, or none at all, between China and the multi-ethnic empires. Briefly told: in Febru- people express[ed] themselves in the public West. ary 1912, the guardians of the five-year-old (and eventually private) sphere.” The Chi- boy, Pu Yi, who was formally the emperor, nese argument about world politics there- The World Is Too Much with Us arranged for his abdication in a way that fore turned on a definition of terms. The brought the Qing dynasty to an end by for- dispute was not about whether “democracy” he party knew whereof it spoke mally ceding power to a new “Republic of Chi- and human rights were good things. Rather, in Document No. 9, for the outside na.” That dynasty had been the creation, not in keeping with the dicta of Lenin and Mao, Tworld has always exerted formidable of the Chinese, but of the inner-Asian Man- it was the liberals’ implementation of these influence on China’s affairs. The Communist chus. Through alliances, warfare, and guile, concepts that needed to be exposed as fun- Party itself is the product of un-Chinese ideas the Manchus had added to China proper the damentally fraudulent. Thus, it fell to Com- that originated far away. When the People’s territories of East Turkistan (a tract of about munist authorities to distinguish between Republic took power in 1949, the accompany- 600,000 square miles which the Chinese call bogus democracy—that is, the bourgeois ing parade featured gigantic portraits of Marx, “Xinjiang”), Outer and Inner Mongolia, and democracy practiced in non-Communist Engels, Lenin, and Stalin—four un-Chinese- Tibet. At their height, the Manchus had con- states—and real democracy—that is, the looking men to say the least. To look at photo- stituted only about 2% of their empire’s 400 “people’s democracies” in power in Commu- graphs of that event is to grasp the full subver- million people. They had overridden a ven- nist states. Similar distinctions were drawn sive potential of “Westernization.” A hundred erable Chinese-dominated bureaucracy and between a bogus “rule of law” and genuine years before that, millions of Chinese fought pursued an agenda of their own: in particular, “socialist legality.” and died for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they never attempted to show a Chinese face The critical modifier, as in Stalin’s Russia, a revolutionary movement inspired by Chris- to their non-Chinese subjects. They projected was the word “socialist”—socialist democracy,

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 75 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm socialist legality, and all the rest. Sometimes, abroad. The party had flirted with concepts Chinese culture, embodies the cultural roots however, the modifier was “Chinese” or “Chi- like “the Pacific Century” or “the Pacific Rim,” of the Chinese people and is representative of nese characteristics,” which, when applied but these were too embracing of an oceans-fo- the Chinese people’s unique spiritual identity.” to words like socialism and democracy, re- cused maritime commercial order and its cos- And so China embraced a new and defiant ally meant no socialism or democracy at all. mopolitan political ideas. Indeed, these ideas provincialism. The political scientist William Confucius himself in the Analects advocated were outright dangerous and were already too Callahan, our foremost student of this lan- “the rectification of names,” that is, the effort well-established in what Beijing regarded as guage, calls it “Sino-speak,” in contrast to the to ensure that the meanings of words corre- its own bailiwick—the “Sinosphere.” There “Rimspeak” it is designed to supersede. In a sponded to the realities they described. To democracy was thriving in Taiwan and, even 2012 essay for the Journal of Asian Studies, he do otherwise was to invite disorder and, ulin next-door Hong Kong, Beijing’s subversive wrote: “In the 1980s and 1990s, the discourse timately, chaos. But disorder and chaos of a incursions were being resisted at every turn. of the ‘Pacific century’ and then the ‘Asian cen- certain sort have proven useful for the Chi- Beyond that, democracy prospered, too, in tury’ talked of the trans-boundary and trans- nese Communist Party, which has always the traditional Confucian strongholds of Ja- oceanic economic and social networks that taken a protean approach to language. It used pan and South Korea. knit together the Pacific rim.” Consequently, to be happy with words like “imperialism” All this persuaded leaders that New China “[i]n the 2000s the trend among scholars was and “anti-colonialism.” After all, China itself Newspeak was in need of refurbishment. In to see China’s values converging with West- was once somebody else’s colony: the struggle its customarily turgid way, the party signaled ern ones as its society became more and more against the Manchu Empire was, in modern its conclusion that Western-derived Marxism integrated into the international system.” The parlance, a war of national liberation. But that was no longer up to the task. A high-ranking trend toward internationalization peaked with trope does not well serve today’s Communist minister, Luo Shugang, said in 2014, “It is the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and the world empire, for it almost perfectly describes the necessary to learn from the essence of tra- financial crisis that occurred shortly thereafter. relationship between the colonized peoples of ditional Chinese culture, as it embodies the The new party lingo reverses that movement: Tibet and East Turkistan and the colonialist cultural roots of the Chinese people and is “[I]nstead of celebrating cross-border flows, Si- Han Chinese regime in Beijing—a relation- an inexhaustible resource for meeting the de- no-speak looks to China’s eternal civilization ship that the historian Bruce Jacobs has demands of ideological and cultural competition to determine social, cultural and territorial scribed as “classic colonialism.” in global discourse.” Party propagandists in borders.” “This is not simply a scholarly debate So how could the party justify its rule? China were put to work crafting and promot- because Sino-speak is heavily promoted by Proletarian internationalism was no longer ing an alternative vision of the world order government officials, state media, and official a potent intellectual force either at home or which “learns from the essence of traditional intellectuals in China.”

from FRANCIS J. BECKWITH

“A lucid and helpful application of Aquinas’ thought to contemporary issues of concern to both Catholics and Protestants.”

Books for Good | baylorpress.com

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 76 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Because the party has decided to move be- respondent Chris Buckley noted, Xi gave a ing conflation of Maoism with Confucianism. yond modernity by looking to “China’s eternal speech on that occasion in which he described Many decades ago, Mao’s Little Red Book was civilization,” it has become necessary—to use the Communist Party “as a defender of an- Beijing’s favorite literary artifact. Today it pre- some party jargon—to reverse verdicts. Back cient virtues, epitomized by Confucius and fers the seemingly less threatening Analects of in Mao’s day, the worst thing that one could his collected teachings.” He praised Con- Confucius. Since 2006, the Beijing regime has say about a political enemy was that he was a fucius and encouraged study of the Analects spent about $160 million supporting so-called “Confucian.” The official verdict, put forward alongside subsequent commentaries on the Confucius Institutes on dozens of American succinctly in a collection of propaganda articles classic. A year later, Xi gave the keynote ad- college campuses. It would not have been in the called Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Criticize dress at an international symposium in Bei- regime’s interests to give these establishments Lin Piao and Confucius (1976), was that jing marking the 2,565th anniversary of Con- the more accurate name of Mao Zedong Insti- fucius’ birth. It was the first time a Commu- tutes. Yet it is Mao’s purposes, not Confucius’, Confucius was a reactionary who dog- nist Party head had attended such an event. which such places actually serve. The Confu- gedly defended slavery and whose doc- “Confucianism, along with other philosophies cius Institutes are ostensibly about education, trines have been used by all reactionar- and cultures taking shape and growing within but they are really about keeping tabs on Chi- ies, whether ancient or contemporary, China, are records of spiritual experiences, ra- nese students in America, spreading propa- Chinese or foreign, throughout the tional thinking, and cultural achievements of ganda, meddling in American politics gener- more than 2,000 years since his time. the nation while it strived to build its identity,” ally, and performing espionage. As Barmé has The bourgeois careerist, renegade and Xi proclaimed. The next step was to link Mao written in China Heritage, “the Confucius In- traitor Lin Piao [once Mao’s Minister and Confucius, the world’s two best-known stitute network...treats Sinologues or students of Defense] was a thorough devotee of Chinese people. Xinhua, China’s official state- of things Chinese [as] akin to useful idiots of Confucius.... He used the doctrines of run news agency, reported that on the 120th the party-state, mimicking thereby a utilitar- Confucius and Mencius as a reactionary anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birth, “Chinese ian approach to exploiting naïveté and craven ideological weapon in his plot to usurp top leaders including President Xi Jinping ambition that had been devised by V.I. Lenin.” Party leadership, seize state power and visited Mao’s mausoleum, making three bows restore capitalism in China. toward Mao’s seated statue and paying their A Window of Opportunity respects to the remains of Mao.” Xi said Mao But that was then. Shortly after taking was “a great patriot and national hero.” inking confucius and mao zedong power in early 2013, Xi Jinping visited Con- These two highly scripted party displays is an impressive feat of dialectical leg- fucius’ birthplace. As New York Times cor- were meant to help institutionalize an ongo- Lerdemain. The term “Confucianism” is

NEW from

The Impoverishment of Nationalism: Get Out the Vote: the American College Student A Short History How to Increase Voter Turnout JAMES V. KOCH LIAH GREENFELD DONALD P. GREEN and ALAN S. GERBER 283 pages 158 pages 260 Pages $24.99 Paper $24.99 Paper $24.99 Paper 978-0-8157-3261-7 978-0-8157-3701-8 978-0-8157-3693-6

Brookings_Koch-Greenfeld-GreenGerber.indd 1 Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 7/1/19 4:18 PM Page 77 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm a way of describing two millennia of think- ety; the relation between virtue in individuals be in tension with the free world, Confucian- ing about politics and society—not only in and good order in the nation, between private ism is decidedly not one of them. China, but in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam also. economic activity and governmental regula- In April 2019, less than a month before the In years past, Confucianism was blamed for tion; and especially the limits on the arbitrary centennial of the May Fourth demonstration, China’s inability to cope with the modern power of the state. Historically, scholar-offi- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian John- world. Then it was used to explain Chinese cials trained in the Chinese classics debated son wrote from Beijing that successes in that same modern world, and not these questions. On one side stood advocates only in China itself but in the Chinese diaspo- of enlarging the government’s role in the something strange is happening in Xi ra as well. The prosperity of “Confucian” soci- economy, setting up the government in com- Jinping’s China. This is supposed to be eties in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, petition with private merchants and traders, the perfect dictatorship, the most sus- Hong Kong, and Singapore also prompted and, in general, refilling the emperor’s coffers tained period of authoritarianism since discussions about “Asian Values” as a form by more astute fiscal and administrative in- the Cultural Revolution ended more of pushback against the West’s repeated calls terventions. On the other side stood scholars than forty years ago.... And yet the past for multi-party democracy and human rights. who argued that bureaucracies were prone to few months have also seen...the most This gave Westerners the impression that bloat, that government interventions sopped serious critique of the system in more Confucianism is an opponent of our deepest up wealth and did not create it, and that, in than a decade, led by people inside Chi- beliefs about political and social life. any event, reliance on government rather than na who are choosing to speak out now, But the Confucian tradition, properly un- on the cultivation of individuals would prove during the most sensitive season of the derstood, is not a manual for tyrants. Rather, destructive. most sensitive year in decades. it is a natural ally of anyone interested in po- America’s greatest Sinologist, William litical liberalization. Chinese reformers who Theodore de Bary (1919–2017), spent decades We in the West can be proud that our ide- seek to argue against the excesses of their studying centuries of Confucian doctrine, and als of democracy and human rights have in- government do not have to rely exclusively on he found enough in it to speak of a “liberal tra- spired the brave souls who are standing up for Western liberal thought or Western religious- dition in China.” Among many other things, a civilized and humane polity in their country. based political ideas like natural law: they this tradition rejected authoritarian preten- But the West does not deserve all of the credit. have centuries of home-grown political the- tions, supported cultural diversity, and favored “[O]ver the past century,” Johnson reminds us, ory to draw on. Confucius himself (551–479 something akin to Western-style liberal edu- “even during the darkest times, the underlying B.C.) left only the sketchiest outlines of his cation. Columbia University Law School pro- humanism of Chinese culture has never been own thought in the form of pronouncements fessor Louis Henkin (1917–2010), who was, extinguished and has even, at critical mo- written down by his disciples. Like other during his lifetime, the most highly regarded ments, reasserted itself.” great teachers, he passed on a many-faceted scholar of international law in the world, ar- The Communist regime in China is betting legacy. But it is clear that he was not a political gued for the commensurability of Confucian- that the legitimacy of its dictatorship, which authoritarian. He thought that the presence ism and universally recognized human rights it once tried to derive from Western Marx- of harsh laws and severe punishments was the in his 1998 essay, “Confucianism, Human ism, can instead be derived from traditional mark of a state in bad shape. High taxes, large Rights, and ‘Cultural Relativism.’” “There is Chinese political thought. Leadership, in other armies, conscripted labor, and vainglorious no inherent tension between Confucianism words, has decided that it is time for Confu- aggrandizement were not good signs, either. and human rights,” concluded Henkin. “The cian Oldspeak to come to the rescue of Com- Indeed, the men in charge were supposed to ‘Asian values’ of Confucianism need not reject... munist Newspeak. In so doing, Beijing has edify and not intimidate. If they had a claim equality in rights, not equal protection of the wagered that our ignorance of what Confu- to rule, it was only because they were better, laws, not individual autonomy and liberty, not cianism really is will make useful idiots of us not more ruthless, than their subjects. economic and social rights, not the acceptance all. But there are many Chinese, in China and Over the centuries, these ideas influenced of the individual and his/her rights as funda- elsewhere, who object to the Chinese Com- both personal and institutional codes of con- mental values.... ‘Asian values’—‘Confucian munist Party’s hijacking of China’s political duct. The proper mandarin was obliged to tell values’—are universal values too.” tradition. We should help them make those truth to power, often paying with his head. None of this is in keeping with the image objections. Western leaders and scholars can And it was Confucian-minded scholars who of “oriental despotism” developed for us by encourage democratic sentiment in China not composed the long, detailed, multi-volume 17th- and 18th-century European philoso- only by promoting Western principles, but also histories that each new dynasty was obliged phers. But then they knew next to nothing by educating themselves and others about the to write about its predecessor. Twenty-four about actual Chinese political thought. Nor true meaning of Confucian mores. Those val- such accounts survive, each one a caution- does the Confucian tradition track very well ues—real Chinese values—do not justify high- ary tale about the need for rectitude and re- with our experience of Chinese totalitarian- handed authoritarianism nor mass imprison- straint, the threat of profligacy and decadence, ism post-1949. But for exactly that reason, ment, let alone genocide. Just the opposite: if and the fate of a state that overreaches itself. these ancient Chinese practices and ideas— treated properly, Confucianism could form the These themes reverberated in both high and these “Confucian values”—may end up loos- basis for a new flourishing of political and civil popular Chinese culture and helped create ening the party’s iron grip from the inside rights in the East. We should do everything we the beau idéal of the official as scholar, moral- out. Xi’s administration turned to ancient can to encourage that development. ist, poet, and artist. Chinese teachings in the hope they could help Confucians also argued among themselves keep China safe from corruption by “reaction- Charles Horner is a senior fellow of the Hudson about issues which have engaged Western ary” liberalism. But there is evidence to sug- Institute and the author of Rising China and political philosophers—the dividing line be- gest that they are doing exactly the opposite. Its Postmodern Fate, volumes 1 (University of tween public and private, state and civil soci- Whatever aspects of Chinese civilization may Georgia Press) and 2 (E.J. Brill).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 78 Open Prisoners of Politics Revolutionary Constitutions The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Breaking the Cycle of Mass Charismatic Leadership and the Immigration, and Global Capital Incarceration Rule of Law

Kimberly Clausing Rachel Elise Barkow Bruce Ackerman

“ Clausing’s comprehensive but “ Rachel Barkow powerfully argues “ After changing how we think crystal-clear new book shows that that the only way to end mass about the U.S. Constitution, Bruce ‘the fault lies not in our stars, but incarceration is to transform how Ackerman is doing the same for in ourselves’: if only the political criminal law is made. Instead of the rest of the world. This volume will is there, national policy can fear-driven anecdotes and pop- is a remarkable start for what is harness globalization as a force ular politics, we need law based certain to become one of the for inclusive growth. This is a on reliable data, expert agencies, most ambitious endeavors in con- message that thoughtful citizens constrained prosecutors, and stitutional scholarship: to under- of every political stripe need to judges who were once public de- stand the different beginnings of absorb.” fenders. If you care, as I do, about constitutionalism in the world.” disrupting the perverse politics of —Maurice Obstfeld, —Miguel Poiares Maduro, criminal justice, there is no better University of California, Berkeley, European University Institute and former Chief Economist, place to start than Prisoners of International Monetary Fund Politics.” BELKNAP PRESS —James Forman, Jr., Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Locking Up Our Own

hup.harvard.edu mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by John J. DiIulio, Jr. Reefer Madness Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, by Alex Berenson. Free Press, 272 pages, $26

egarding marijuana’s legal sta- What about the locally licensed marijuana Mental Illness, and Violence, he pleads: “The tus, America is now a house divided. merchants and state government taxmen United States should not legalize cannabis ROn one side stands the federal gov- themselves? nationally; it should move to discourage more ernment’s 1970 Controlled Substances Act In 1996 California became the first state states from legalizing, and it should consider (CSA), which classifies marijuana as a pro- to legalize marijuana for medical use. Sixteen pressuring those that have already done so to hibited Schedule I drug with a high abuse years later, Colorado and Washington State reverse course.” potential and no approved therapeutic uses. became the first to legalize it for recreational A former investigative reporter for the Additionally, 17 states have neither broadly use. Behind the war for marijuana were bil- New York Times, Berenson is an award- decriminalized marijuana nor legalized it for lionaire George Soros and several other rich winning spy novelist whose wife, a psychia- either recreational or medical uses. On the businessmen, who financed the politicking, trist, specializes in evaluating mentally ill other side are the 11 states and the District media-messaging, and coalition-building that criminals. He wastes no time dramatizing of Columbia that have legalized marijuana for united anti-drug war activists, left-wing radi- his core reason for insisting that legalization recreational purposes. Another 22 states have cals, and free-market conservatives. Their sav- is not worth the risk: psychoses triggered or either decriminalized marijuana or legalized vy, nonstop, hearts-and-minds campaign now worsened by pot use and resulting in murder it for medical uses or both. finds two-thirds of Americans supporting le- and mayhem. Tell Your Children opens with Can this house divided stand much longer? galization. Additionally, a 2017 Yahoo News/ a terrifying tale about a low-income, 37-year- The conflict between the CSA and 33 states Marist poll showed that 52% of Americans old paranoid schizophrenic Australian who (at last count) is a federalism Pandora’s Box. have tried pot, 22% use it currently but rarely, stabbed her own seven children and a niece For instance, federal “know your customer” and 14% use it at least once or twice a month. to death after becoming a heavy marijuana laws require banks to red-flag deposits de- user. He closes with a horror story about a rived from illegal trade. The CSA outlaws lex berenson would urge us all 26-year-old man who stabbed 19 people to marijuana sales. So, when bank officials -ac to look hard before we leap any farther death at a Japanese nursing home after being cept monies they know come from selling or Atoward legalizing marijuana. In Tell “hospitalized less than five months earlier for taxing cannabis, are they money laundering? Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, cannabis psychosis.”

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 80 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

isely, berenson assembles his Which way do the causal arrows fly among As discussed in “The Neural Correlates of anti-legalization brief not only by and between substance use (marijuana and Alcohol-Related Aggression,” a 2018 study Wmultiplying anecdotes and excerpt- other), mental illness (psychosis and other), published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral ing interviews he conducted, but also by sum- and other risk factors (genetic and other) that Neuroscience, the jury is starting to come in marizing numerous scientific studies. Unfor- might predispose one to be a substance-using regarding how boozing buzzes the prefrontal tunately, his book has no footnotes, endnotes, psychotic? On this “comorbidity” question, cortex and contributes to aggression. bibliography, or subject index. Too often, the the NAS report is expressly agnostic, as is mystery writer leaves his reader pining for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on- rime and public policy is a series clues about exactly where he got certain facts, line statement, which advises that marijuana featuring the latest and best policy- figures, or findings. Still, his in-text references is correlated with “anxiety, depression, and Crelevant research by leading crime to studies usually allow the diligent reader to schizophrenia, but scientists don’t yet know analysts, edited by the late, great conservative find them. whether it directly causes these diseases.” And, intellectual, anti-legalization hard-liner, and For example, Berenson writes, “Cannabis in its June 2018 “Drug Facts” research bul- my own mentor and friend, James Q. Wilson. use is likely to increase the risk of developing letin, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, The 2011 edition’s chapter on drugs and crime schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher an agency not known for hiding bad news concluded that “the cannabis market causes the use, the greater the risk.” That’s a direct about narcotics, states that while “[l]ong-term little violence,” adding that, “since cannabis quote from The Health Effects of Cannabis and marijuana use has been linked” to “worsen- intoxication does not lead to aggression, le- Cannabinoids, published by the National Acad- ing symptoms in patients” with schizophre- galizing cannabis would not be likely to cause emy of Sciences (NAS) in 2017. But Berenson, nia and “other mental health” diseases, “study much additional pharmacologic crime.” The who seems like a sincere soul, ignores the NAS findings have been mixed.” 2016 edition of Marijuana Legalization: What report’s caveats and qualifications regarding In other words, neither Berenson’s claims Everyone Needs to Know concluded the same. the cannabis-psychosis connection. The con- about cannabis and psychosis, nor those about Berenson praises Marijuana Legalization as clusion he quotes rests on just five studies, pub- cannabis-induced violence, are well supported. “a balanced look” at legalization, but asserts lished between 2007 and 2016, whose limita- For instance, he asserts that the link between that “it understates the violence risk.” I can’t tions include “self-report for cannabis use,” re- marijuana and violence is “[i]n many cases” see how. search design issues, a “lack of information on stronger than the link between alcohol and Likewise, he cites as “definitive” a 2009 ar- the frequency of use,” and others. And there violence. In fact, pot is a distant second to ticle on schizophrenia and violence in PLOS are “ecologic data” indicating that, “in certain booze when it comes to violence. Drunken- Medicine by Seena Fazel, an Oxford Univer- societies, the incidence of schizophrenia has re- ness figures in about half of all violent crimes sity forensic psychiatry professor. But in that mained stable over the past 50 years despite the (homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault, article Fazel and his co-authors stress that introduction of cannabis into those settings.” intimate partner violence, and child abuse). their overall estimates are based on dispa- Timely Topics of National Importance

September 2019, 176pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 October 2019, 190pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 November 2019, 164pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 June 2019, 194pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 Hardcover: 978-1-4408-7244-0, Hardcover: 978-1-4408-6977-8, Hardcover: 978-1-4408-6687-6, Hardcover: 978-1-4408-7240-2, $39.00 $39.00 $39.00 $46.00 Save 20% through December 31, 2019*, with promo code Q41920. * Discount applies to above titles only. O er is valid on U.S. direct purchases made via abc-clio.com for print products only and purchases are non-returnable. Standard shipping charges apply. This o er is not available through distributors. Cannot be combined with any other discount o ers.

ABC-CLIO, LLC | 147 Castilian Dr. Santa Barbara, CA 93117 | 800-368-6868 | abc-clio.com

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 81 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm rate findings from diversely designed studies. criminalization as a threat to public health and Still, he’s right that today “we are in the They note that when siblings are used as con- safety, and despite my never trying pot (unless worst of all possible worlds,” with marijuana trol groups, “the risk increase” for violence is you count not holding my breath through rock “legal in some states, illegal in others,” and “significantly less pronounced.” They conclude, concerts). In a 1999 Reason magazine article, outlawed outright by the federal government. far from definitively, that “how substance “Prison Conversion,” Jacob Sullum summarized So, what to do? abuse mediates violent offending needs fur- how my own research on the alcohol-crime Let’s start by cultivating common ground ther study.” nexus and “drug-only offenders,” mixed with on laws and taxing schemes that favor local I could find nothing in Fazel’s fascinating religious stirrings and Nadelmann’s influence, marijuana dispensaries and keep big pharma- work or related studies to undergird Beren- had changed my views. But I still also count type enterprises from doing with pot what son’s claim that marijuana is “a supercharger among my friends several largely unrecon- they’ve done since the 1990s with opioids for sudden, extreme violence.” To conclude structed drug warriors, including John Wal- and other prescription pain killers: lie, get otherwise, I’d have to believe that the max- ters, the wonderful public servant who served people hooked, lobby, and fiddle while people imum-security prison officials by the hun- as federal drug czar when I was on George W. die. Ditto for regulating marijuana produc- dreds whom I studied for more than a decade Bush’s White House staff, and with whom I tion, distribution, and sales (especially THC were misreading their own experience manag- had worked earlier on many projects. potency levels). We should discourage smoking violent criminals when they worried much In an extensive sit-down interview with ing anything in public or private places (fewer more about contraband booze than smuggled- Walters, Berenson waxed eloquent regard- joints, bongs, and blunts relative to edibles and in weed. ing his conviction that children and “vulner- drinkables). Top medical researchers need to able adults” are victimized when marijuana is do an even deeper dive into the health effects till, berenson deserves decent ubiquitous. “That risk,” he concludes in his -fi of cannabis and cannabinoids. Finally, lon- marks on several counts. With the help nal pages, “is the reason” most nations remain gitudinal studies tracking how, and whether, Sof Sanford Gordon, my own former “wary of marijuana.” He asks: “Why on earth laws legalizing cannabis have affected public Princeton graduate student and now a top so- would we want to encourage people to use this health and safety will provide essential clarity. cial science scholar, he deflates the claim that drug?” medical cannabis is a solution to the opioid ut first, let’s stop debating mari- overdose epidemic. (Earlier this year, Gor- e don’t—not him, not walters, juana legalization as if any one side don co-authored a Proceedings of the National and not Nadelmann. The real ques- Bpossesses the empirical and moral Academy of Sciences study reinforcing the ten-Wtion is: What marijuana public law truth, wholly and unequivocally. Sir Isaiah tative findings that are previewed inTell Your regime is most likely to achieve the greatest Berlin had a term for people who insist that Children.) good and minimize the most harm for the “the truth” is a knowable, single, harmonious In addition, Berenson is right “that occa- greatest number? The best (or least bad) pol- whole, such that to possess it is to be spared sional use of marijuana by people over 25 is icy must accommodate a national population the need to weigh competing facts, choose generally safe” and that levels of tetrahydro- that includes: security-first folks like me who between competing values, cope with uncer- cannabinol (THC) in marijuana have intell their children to eschew all illicit drugs; tainties, or tolerate people who think and live creased over the past few decades. He wisely freedom-loving folks like Nadelmann who otherwise. Berlin baptized them “monists,” as warns about higher-potency pot and a coming are more open to achieving altered states; and opposed to “pluralists.” cannabis industry that can maximize profits those who tell their own children and others Going forward, we need fewer marijuana by turning customers into addicts. that if they use marijuana at all they must monists and more pot pluralists. For all its To his great credit, Berenson reached out strive to use it responsibly. problems, Tell Your Children is a well-motivat- to pro-legalization leaders. The one he deems Berenson opposes repealing the CSA and ed attempt to rebut “dangerous myths about “more responsible for the legalization of can- extending state-level legalizing, but he also cannabis” and be a “bullhorn” for those who nabis in the United States than anyone else” opposes rolling back decriminalization laws, “have so much trouble being heard.” I suspect, is Ethan Nadelmann, the former Princeton calling them a “reasonable compromise.” Nor however, that Berenson knows “the truth” professor who founded the Soros-seeded Drug does he want to put anybody in jail for using about marijuana to be less certain, singular, Policy Alliance (DPA) and whom Rolling Stone pot, adding that if people “want to use in the and settled than he has rendered it. Indeed, I magazine touted in 2013 as America’s “real privacy of their own homes, so be it.” But that spy here a pluralist in monist’s clothing. It will drug czar.” “I like Ethan Nadelmann,” he con- “so be it” seems devilishly hard to reconcile be no mystery to me if his position on mari- fesses, noting that Nadelmann “didn’t join the with the 220-plus pages that precede it. Can juana evolves more than a little in the coming legalization movement to get rich—or high.” the supposed epidemic of cannabis-psychosis- years. Well, I don’t like Nadelmann…I love him. induced murder and mayhem be somehow For nearly 40 years he has been among my mitigated if people use pot only in the privacy John J. DiIulio, Jr., is the Frederic Fox Leader- dearest friends. He remained so even during of their own homes—homes that, presumably, ship Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil So- the two decades that I strongly opposed de- they will exit at some point? ciety at the University of Pennsylvania.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 82 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Joseph Epstein A Philosophe in Full

oltaire, rousseau, and montes- continuous financial struggle. Among theEn - their zeal for the best interests of the human quieu are the names most readily as- cylopédie’s more than 150 contributors were race and a feeling of mutual good will.” Vsociated with the 18th-century French D’Alembert, Helvétius, d’Holbach, Turgot, The Encylopédie’s true intention was to Enlightenment. But Denis Diderot, though Quesnay, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon, secularize thought during a time when the less well known, ultimately may have had a Condorcet, and Voltaire, an 18th-century Church and monarchy were supreme in greater effect on the formation of the Enlight- all-star literary and philosophical vaudeville. France and in much of Europe. What Diderot enment than any of them. Diderot’s name Diderot himself wrote, among others, the ar- and his confreres thought “the best interests generally falls under the rubric of “philosophe,” ticles “Nature,” “The Will,” “The Soul,” “Po- of the human race” were not shared by the never to be confused with the title “philoso- litical Authority,” “Eclecticism,” “Dictionary,” Church, monarchy, and much of the aristoc- pher.” “In the eighteenth century,” writes and “Encyclopedia.” racy. To make their views prevail the estab- James Fowler, editor of New Essays on Diderot, The Encylopédie was read and discussed lishment had the weapon of censorship on its “the word ‘philosophe’ connoted a man of ideas both abroad and in Paris, where, in the words side. Censorship in that day had real muscle but also a man of action, a would-be agent of of Harold Nicolson, “in the drawing rooms behind it; prison, even execution, could ac- social and political change, a champion of of Madame de Lambert, Madame de Tencin, company it. Before he took up editorship of progress.” Madame du Deffand, Madame Geoffrin, and the Encylopédie, Diderot served three months This is how Denis Diderot saw himself. Mademoiselle de l’Epinasse the intellectuals in prison for an early essay called “Letter on The author of novels, plays, philosophical di- discussed little else.” More than a source of the Blind for the Use of Those Who Can See,” alogues, art and theatre criticism, and more, information, the work was a sub rosa political and never afterward wrote without looking he was a literary man of all work, the intel- document, and as such a significant agent of over his shoulder. lectual par excellence. His most substantial change. The purpose behind it, Diderot wrote, work was that which has come to be known was “changer la façon commune de penser,” or to The Ultimate Freelance as the great French Encylopédie. As its chief change the manner in which people thought. editor over the course of a quarter of a century, In his article “Encyclopedia,” Diderot wrote orn in 1713 in the town of lan- Diderot saw its 17 volumes containing 71,818 that “this is a work that cannot be complet- gres, Champagne, Denis Diderot was articles and 11 further volumes containing ed except by a society of men of letters and Bthe son of a cutler who specialized in 2,885 plates through to publication against skilled workmen, each working separately on knives and surgical instruments. His father the always looming threat of censorship and his own part, but all bound together solely by was set on Denis one day joining the priest-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 83 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm hood, and at ten years old he was sent off to a the physical side. Diderot was haunted by the monarchy tout court, certainly all monarchy Jesuit college. At 12 he went through the cer- possibility that the woman he loved more than justified by the divine right to kingship. “No emony of tonsuring (the practice of shaving any other might have been in a lesbian rela- man has received from nature the right to part of one’s head, popularly associated with tionship with her younger sister. He would go command other men,” he wrote. “Freedom is medieval monks). But the anti-authority im- on to other love affairs, his relationship with a gift from the heavens, and each individual pulse in the youthful Diderot was too strong Sophie Volland cooling and settling into the of the same species has the right to enjoy it as for him ever to become a priest, and, though platonic. But their love for each other never soon as he is able to reason.” he completed the education required for the died out. In her will she left him her eight- priesthood, he dropped away before taking volume set of the Essays of Montaigne and a Uneven Fame final vows. He next took up the study of law, ring she loved. but with similarly incomplete results. When In the early pages of his Catherine & Diderot n his even-handed and well-writ- asked what he wanted to do with his life, Robert Zaretsky calls Diderot a “mensch,” a ten biography, Curran portrays a tireless Diderot is supposed to have replied, “Noth- Yiddish word with richly complex meanings. IDiderot, a battler under the flag of reason, ing, nothing at all. I like to study; I am very A cognate with the German word for “human carrying lifelong a torch for freedom. He ac- happy, very content. I don’t ask for anything being” (Mensch), the Yiddish mensch is a clear counts for Diderot’s uneven fame, even in our else.” He was, as the future would bear out, approbative, describing a person of honor and time, through his strangely erratic publishing the ultimate freelance. integrity whose character has been developed history. Diderot wrote no one great book— As a freelance, the young Diderot scrab- through hardship. And so it seems with De- no Social Contract, no Spirit of the Laws, no bled out a living. He did translations from nis Diderot, who most of his days feared cen- Candide—that might ensure his popular or Greek and English (among them Lord Shaft- sorship, underwent financial struggle until permanent reputation. Much of what he did esbury’s An Inquiry Concerning Virtue, or Catherine the Great bailed him out by buying write, out of worry about the persecution that Merit), a bit of writing of his own (his essay might come his way through censorship, was on blindness; his book, contra Pascal, Philo- published posthumously. “Diderot’s unedited sophical Thoughts), tutored the children of the Books discussed in this essay: books, essays, and criticism,” Curran writes, rich, and read widely in literature, philosophy, “far surpassed what he had published during and science. Isaac Newton, with whom it is New Essays on Diderot, his lifetime.” Many of these, Curran adds, sometimes said the European Enlightenment edited by James Fowler. only “trickled out over the course of decades.” began, was, with his emphasis on experimen- Cambridge University Press, Rameau’s Nephew, doubtless his best-known tation, a potent influence on him. 280 pages, $47.99 (paper) work, made its first public appearance in Ger- Diderot claimed that the two great mis- man, translated by Goethe in 1805, well be- takes of his life were his marriage and the 25 Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, fore it appeared in its original French, and years he gave to steering the Encylopédie to by Andrew S. Curran. even then the true manuscript in Diderot’s completion. His marriage at the age of 30 to Other Press, 528 pages, $28.95 hand wasn’t recovered until 1891 and printed Anne-Antoinette Champion was opposed by as he intended it until much later. both their parents, and eventually, alas too late, Catherine & Diderot: The Empress, Many of these writings were censorable in came to be opposed by each of them. A harri- the Philosopher, and the Fate of the Diderot’s day, and a few would get an R-rating dan, relentless in her complaints, jealous, with Enlightenment, by Robert Zaretsky. in ours. All three of his novels are of interest, yet a violent temper, she was, to put it gently, no Harvard University Press, none is quite a success. The first,The Indiscreet comfort at all. They had four children, three 272 pages, $27.95 Jewels, is a fantasy about a Congolese sultan of whom died; the one surviving child, their who is given a magic ring that, when aimed at a daughter Angélique, Diderot loved dearly. woman, grants her vagina (her jewel) uninhib- Mistresses in 18th-century France were his library and appointing him its salaried li- ited speech. An amusing idea, but the prob- nearly as common as cellphones today. Ev- brarian, and returned at night to a complain- lem is that it turns out the jewels haven’t all erybody seemed to have one, and Diderot ing wife. Diderot was indeed a mensch, some- that much interesting to say. Some jewels de- had several. Some of his love affairs lasted thing one would never think to call Voltaire cry being overused, some underused. Muzzles longer than others. One of his mistresses, a or Rousseau. for jewels are soon invented to prevent their 38-year-old spinster named Sophie Volland, Diderot had his enemies—personal, insti- indiscretions. Diderot later inserted a few is said to have been the love of his life. Not tutional, ideological. He loathed superstition, further chapters to give the novel philosophi- notably attractive physically, she had a lively a category under which he placed much of the cal weight: one in which the sultan’s consort and penetrating mind. In his recent biography, religion of his time. “Religion,” he declared, dwells on the question of the residence of the Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, Andrew “is a buttress which always ends up bringing soul in the body; another in which the ring S. Curran writes that Diderot “cherished the the house down.” He went from seminar- is turned on the sultan’s favorite mare, which fact that he could treat her as he might an- ian, to deist, to atheist, though he was never presents a problem in translation from animal other (male) philosophe: she was honest and a proselytizing atheist. (The word “agnostic,” to human language. Loftier critics than I see brainy, and blessed with, as one of Diderot’s it turns out, did not enter the language unin Indiscreet Jewels a fable about hermeneu- Encylopédie colleagues put it, the ‘quick wit of til 1869, when it was coined by T.H. Huxley.) tics, or interpretation, but as fiction the book a demon.’” So much did Sophie Volland meet Diderot was an early opponent of colonialism doesn’t quite really come off. the desideratum of a male mind in a woman’s and of slavery in all its forms, from Russian to Diderot’s next two novels, Jacques the Fatal- body that she was known, as Curran reports, American. He thought liberty a gift bestowed ist and His Master and The Nun could scarcely as the “hermaphrodite.” The relationship, he upon all; unlike Voltaire who didn’t mind a be more different from each other. The latter adds, was stronger on the spiritual than on benign monarch, Diderot was opposed to was written under the influence of Samuel

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 84 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Richardson’s Clarissa, the former under that be devilishly dull” and posits that the point of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Dider- of life is “to keep emptying one’s bowels eas- ot’s fiction was more strongly influenced by ily, freely, pleasurably, copiously every night.” N E W F R O M English than French literature; and Goethe In A Conversation between a Father and His thought his true affinity was with German Children, the father reports discovering a N O T R E D A M E P R E S S literature. long lost will that deprived poor relatives of The Nun, written in the mode of natural- an inheritance and does the conventionally ism, is about a young woman forced to live her correct thing by turning it in to the authori- life in a convent, presumably to expiate her ties, which gets from his son—called in the mother’s sin of having had her out of wedlock, dialogue Diderot the Philosopher—the re- and is grimly anti-theological in its message. sponse that “[p]hilosophy is silent when the Jacques the Fatalist is, like Tristram Shandy, a law is absurd.” At the dialogue’s close Dider- satire on the very notion of storytelling. In ot whispers in his father’s ear that “the truth both novels, characters’ stories are always be- is, there are no laws for the wise man.” This ing interrupted, and most never get finished, is the subversive Diderot, always interesting, to remind the reader how arbitrary the telling never easily dismissed. of any tale is. Diderot pops in from time to time to remind his reader that he neglected Counselor to Sovereigns to inform him of important details, or one character will ask another why he loathes id diderot think himself primar- "Tells the story of one moment in which the fail- character studies. At one point the reader (ad- ily an artist, a philosopher, a social ure of good men to act made all the difference dressed as “You”) is told that he is “the one scientist avant la lettre? We cannot in the world.” —National Review D with the dirty mind”; at another the Master know. We do know that toward the end of tells Jacques that “I doubt if there’s another his life he thought himself, in the tradition head beneath the vast canopy of heaven that’s of Plato and Seneca, a counselor to sover- stuffed as full of paradoxical notions as yours.” eigns. (Recall that Plato’s mission to Syra- If Diderot’s fiction has a central flaw, it cuse to advise the tyrant Dionysius II ended is that it is too obviously driven by ideas. In in failure and Seneca’s to advise Nero ended the best fiction, ideas arise naturally out of in his own forced suicide.) Diderot’s mission the moral conflict, out of the development to Catherine the Great, empress of all Rus- of fictional characters and their tribulations sia—described with great economy and ironic and victories and defeats and what they learn penetration by Robert Zaretsky in Catherine from them. With Diderot’s fiction one has the & Diderot—is another record of the failure of sense that ideas, not story, are driving the bus. philosophy to alter the path of power. Which is perhaps why those of Diderot’s Catherine assumed the throne of Rus- "Poignant and profound, this book is a needed compositions known as dialogues often sia in 1762 after the suspicious death of her reminder that hope springs eternal even in the show him at his best. In these dialogues— husband, Peter III. The initial reason given face of overwhelming evil." —Foreword Reviews among them Rameau’s Nephew, Supplement for the altogether inadequate Peter’s death , was hemorrhoidal colic. We learn from Za- to Bougainville’s Voyage D’Alembert’s Dream, A Conversation between a Father and His Chil- retzsky, though, that Peter was in fact assas- dren—Diderot often plays the mischievous sinated by Alexei Orlov (the brother of one intellectual, questioning such fundamental of Catherine’s lovers) and his fellow castle beliefs as the necessary outlawing of incest, guards. Catherine was 33 at the time, well- the importance of living up to the law, the read, thoughtful, and not in the least shy of superiority of the virtuous life. Supplement power—ready to rule. to Bougainville’s Voyage, Diderot’s addition to Francophile in her intellectual interests, the travelogue of Louis-Antoine de Bougain- German by birth, Catherine had earlier es- ville, who circumnavigated the globe from tablished connections with Voltaire and the 1766-69, for example, is a conversation be- sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet (who did tween a Tahitian wise man and the chaplain the grand equestrian sculpture of Peter the "The kind of book that every American should from Bougainville’s ship. When the chaplain Great that stands in Saint Petersburg); she read in the run-up to the next presidential elec- tells the Tahitian, whom Diderot gives the was an admirer of the writing of Montesquieu. tion.”—Robert Costa, The Washington Post name Orou, about the nature of the Euro- She knew Diderot through his art criticism pean God, Orou answers, “He sounds to me and commissioned him to buy many of those Available wherever books are sold like a father that doesn’t care very much for paintings that would later become some of the his children.” In Rameau’s Nephew, the ne’er- central works of the Hermitage. do-well nephew of the famous musician, Diderot recommended Falconet to Cath- who openly avows a life given over to plea- erine, and so when in 1776 she called on him sure, says to his Diderot-like interlocutor in to visit her in Saint Petersburg it was not al- the dialogue, “Imagine the universe good together a surprise invitation. She had earlier and philosophical, and admit that it would bought his personal library, which she allowed

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 85 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm him to keep in Paris until his death. Diderot Enlightenment program. He felt his message nected with Benjamin Franklin, though it viewed the invitation as an opportunity to put was getting across. The empress, he noted is less than clear that the two men ever met. his own ideas into action through an already “loves the truth with all her soul, and al- He allowed that he had failed to produce a half-enlightened monarch. In his relation with though I have at times told truths that rarely single masterwork, yet, according to Cur- Catherine, Zaretzsky writes, Diderot “sought reach the ears of kings, she has never been ran, held out the hope that his ideas “would the role not of Solon, but of Socrates.” He also wounded.” Fascinated by him Catherine may change society for the better.” Toward the assumed powers of persuasion and charm he have been, but he sensed that, as Andrew end he summed up his final views: “There ultimately did not possess. Curran puts it, “she was not taking his ideas is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to The reviews on Diderot’s charm are mixed. to heart.” When he queried her about not make oneself happy; only one corollary, not The salonnière Madame Geoffrin, who eventu- having put any of what he told her in effect, to exaggerate the importance of one’s life and ally outlawed Diderot from her salon, report- she replied: “In your plans for reform, you not to fear death.” Earlier he had written: “I ed to a friend that “[h]e is always like a man in forget the difference between our two roles: will be able to tell myself that I contributed a dream, and who believes everything he has you work only on paper which consents to as much as possible to the happiness of my dreamed.” The playwright and literary critic anything: it is smooth and flexible and offers fellow men, and prepared, perhaps from afar, Jean-Françoise de La Harpe found Diderot no obstacles either to your imagination or to the improvement of their lot. This sweet altogether too delighted with his own con- your pen, whereas I, poor empress, work on thought will for me take the place of glory. versation and, in Zaretzsky’s paraphrase, “his human skin, which is far more prickly and It will be the charm of my old age and the own most ardent and attentive listener.” This consolation of my final moment.” view seems to have been partially seconded Toward the very close of Catherine & by Diderot, who of himself said, “I’m high- Would Diderot have Diderot Zaretzsky notes that Montesquieu minded and, on occasion, come across great portrayed society as it was, Diderot as it and powerful ideas that I convey in a striking recognized that his ought to be. Diderot, his mind always on the fashion.” Note the “on occasion.” beloved reason alone, future, may be said to have lived in the ought. Once arrived in Saint Petersburg, Diderot He died five years before the French Revolu- met each afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 with as far as it goes, tion, which subscribed to many of his central Catherine. She was initially much taken with never goes far ideas, yet he could hardly have approved of him. “Diderot’s imagination, I find,” she told the Terror. What would he have made of the Voltaire, “is inexhaustible. I place him among enough? fate of these same ideas in the centuries since the most extraordinary men who have ever his death, centuries that featured the demise lived.” He in turn described her as possess- of monarchy, the lessening of the power of ing “the soul of Caesar and all the charms of sensitive.” After a five-month visit, which religion, the rise of democracy, but also the Cleopatra.” During their sessions together he ended in March 1774, Diderot departed eruption of world wars, the emergence of in his intellectual passion often grabbed her Russia, writing to his friend Madame Neck- murderous totalitarianism, the invention of arms, slapped her legs, and she soon com- er that “I would be an ingrate if I spoke ill of weapons of mass destruction? Would he have plained that “I cannot get out of my conver- it, and I would be a liar if I spoke well of it.” recognized that his beloved reason alone, as sations with him without having my thighs far as it goes, never goes far enough? bruised black and blue. I have been obliged to First Step Diderot’s daughter remembers the last put a table between him and me to keep my- words she heard from her father: “The first self and my limbs out of range of his gesticula- iderot seems to have spent his step towards philosophy is incredulity.” Were tion.” In his rambles, she reported, “at times final decade under the shadow of Denis Diderot alive today to consider the he seems to be one hundred years old, but at Dfailing health. This, though, did not world of our day, he might wish to add that others he doesn’t seem to be ten.” greatly reduce his high literary productivity. the final step toward philosophy also happens About what did Diderot harangue the em- He wrote a 500-odd page study of Seneca; to be incredulity. press? About the evils of serfdom, the need he is said to have contributed substantially to do away with censorship, the centrality to Guillaume Thomas Raynal’sHistory of Joseph Epstein is an essayist, short story writer, of law, the baleful effects of religion, the im- the Two Indies. He held out hope that his and the author, most recently, of Charm: The portance of education, in short, the standard ideas would find seed in America. He con- Elusive Enchantment (Lyons Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 86 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by J. Eric Wise Christian Science? Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science, by Edward Feser. Editiones Scholasticae, 515 pages, $29.90

“Archers Shooting at a Herm,” after the original drawing by Michelangelo, c. 1530

he word “revenge” comes from from what they were in ancient times.” Ma- logical view of the universe.... The teleo- the old French revencher, which in chiavelli sought to reclaim for the politics of logical view of the universe, of which the Tturn comes from the Latin revindicare, his time an ancient way of thinking in which teleological view of man forms a part, meaning to assert or demonstrate (dicare) there were no wholly impermissible political would seem to have been destroyed by power or supremacy (vis) in return (re-) for actions any more than there were impossible modern natural science. some perceived injustice. In both origin and observable phenomena in physical science. present usage, then, “revenge” is a political Strauss intimated that the problem of nat- word. Edward Feser’s Aristotle’s Revenge: The our and a half centuries later, ural right could not be resolved without ad- Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Bio- Leo Strauss also wished to reclaim for equate reconciliation between two seemingly logical Science is a dense work of scholarship Fhis own time an ancient political ratio- incompatible cosmological visions: that of about physical and biological science. But it is nalism. Strauss wrote in Natural Right and modern science and that of classical antiquity, also, albeit inadvertently, a political book. History (1953) of the tensions among revela- particularly Aristotle’s. Man could not have Feser is not by any stretch the first for tion, natural right, and modern science: objective ends or purposes, knowable by hu- whom politics and science have proven in- man inquiry, in a universe purely mechanical terrelated. In his Discourses on Livy, Niccolò Looking around us, we see two hostile and arbitrary in origin. Machiavelli drew a connection between physi- camps, heavily fortified and strictly Although Strauss’s teaching appears dif- cal and social science when he lamented that guarded. One is occupied by the liber- ferently (often radically so) to different stu- readers of history seemed uninterested in ap- als of various description, the other by dents, a rudimentary assessment of Strauss’s plying lessons from the past to the problems the Catholic and non-Catholic disciples work may categorize his “reconciliation” be- of the present day. Such readers, Machiavelli of Thomas Aquinas. But...[t]hey all are tween these two visions as Platonic. Averting wrote, behave “as though heaven, the sun, the modern men. We all are in the grip of direct confrontation with the cosmological elements, and men had changed the order of the same difficulty. Natural right in its perspective of modern science, Strauss, like their motions and power, and were different classic form is connected with a teleo- Plato, did not himself assert a definitive cos-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 87 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mology. Rather, Strauss’s work may be seen as includes five books of Aquinas, including the Newtonian physics in the suitable domain a dialectical inquiry only. He questioned the massive Summa Theologica and Summa Contra (motion in fluids), in the same technical sense opinions—exoteric and, especially, esoteric— Gentiles. It is not merely the bibliographic pau- in which Newton’s theory is an approxima- of antiquity’s great philosophers to find what city of Aristotle compared to Aquinas; it is the tion of Einstein’s theory.” Given that Aristo- permanent political wisdom, if any, might be scope of the cited works. The twoSummae set tle’s observations were limited to solid objects revealed. Strauss’s agora is the library of great out a comprehensive account of the whole of moving through air or liquids exhibiting the books, his interlocutors the most sophisti- creation and being. Aristotle’s Physics is only a effects of drag, lift, and buoyancy, Rovelli cated thinkers on political philosophy of the part of Aristotle’s larger thought. shows that many of Aristotle’s conclusions ancient and modern world. On the point of were provisionally correct. To do this, Rov- cosmology and metaphysics, however, one can n citing physics alone of aristotle’s elli reduces Aristotle’s account of motion to fairly say that Strauss claimed to know only work, Feser has chosen the text of Aristot- mathematical expressions, illustrating the that he knew nothing. Ile that has suffered the greatest derogation proximity of Aristotle’s physics to Isaac New- A Straussian reading of Aristotle thus by modern critics of classical thought. Aristo- ton’s. Indulge, for a moment, an argument emphasizes the divide between practical tle’s physics contains a number of conclusions from authority: Rovelli is no hobbyist in the and theoretical wisdom described in Book about physics that have been widely mocked. field of science. He is a senior statesman of VI of the Nicomachean Ethics. This divide Bodies fall to the earth through the air be- theoretical physics and a savant of loop quan- makes possible the evaluation of Aristotle’s cause of gravity, not because they have a “natu- tum gravity theory, which aims to harmonize political teaching, without a definitive view ral place” towards which they are impelled to Albert Einstein’s equations of special and gen- of Aristotle’s physics or metaphysics. Noetic return. The material universe is made up of eral relativity with quantum physics. heterogeneity—the accessibility of different many, many more than four elemental kinds phenomena to different capacities of rea- of particle. The fact that Aristotle, using the n attempting to reconcile aristo- son—suggests the possibility of an adequate rudimentary instruments of his age, could tle and Newton, Rovelli explicitly rejects understanding of politics, or social science, not experience these things has so affected Ias a “vulgata” the American philosopher coexisting with an uncertain or indefinite thought about him that even devotees of his Thomas Kuhn’s thesis of scientific structural understanding of physical and metaphysi- teaching have dismissed his physics. Indeed, revolution. Kuhn argued that major intel- cal science. In this sense Strauss sought to one of the foremost interpreters of Aristotle lectual developments—such as the Coperni- restore, not classical rationalism tout court, of the last century wrote: can change from geocentric to heliocentric but only classical political rationalism. To astronomy—fundamentally overturn rather paraphrase Martin Heidegger, Strauss sanc- One can hardly imagine an enterpris- than amend the ground rules of scientific tioned the continued neglect of the study of ing astronomer investing serious effort thought. By calling this view a vulgata, I un- Being. on Aristotle’s treatise On the Heavens, derstand Rovelli to mean that it has become when he knew that a glance through the a widely (and unthinkingly) accepted doc- renowned contemporary writer telescope would disprove the major con- trine which is nevertheless at odds with ex- on philosophy and Christianity, Fe- clusions of that work. perience. “Science,” Rovelli writes, “generates A ser is no Straussian—I believe he will discontinuities and constantly critically re- freely admit this. But Feser, in my view, is and evaluates received ideas, but it builds on past not a consistent Aristotelian, either—and knowledge and its cumulative aspects by very this I believe he will vigorously contest. It would, of course, be absurd for some- far outnumber its discontinuities.” Aristotle, I suspect that Feser will take umbrage at one to study those parts of Aristotle’s Newton, and Einstein can each be correct my assertion that he is not a consistent Ar- physical theories that have been dis- in a certain way. This idea of continuity and istotelian because he will maintain that Ar- proven by the empirical data of modern cumulative science is similar to a concept in istotle’s thought is enlarged by its integration physical science because he was dissat- Book IV of Aristotle’s Metaphysics: with Christianity. Where Aquinas and the isfied by the empirical data of modern later schoolmen apprehend Aristotle differ- physical science. [W]e should not say that two and three ently from the way the ancient Lyceum did, alike are both even, nor that both he I presume Feser will say the differences are Harry V. Jaffa wrote these words inThomism who regards four to be five and he who not fundamental, but mostly represent clari- and Aristotelianism (1952) with the rehabili- regards one thousand to be five are alike fications and corrections of Aristotle’s errors, tative intention of distancing Aristotle the mistaken. And if they are not alike mis- omissions, and ambiguities. The essential core political scientist from Aristotle the physical taken, it is clear that the first man is less of Aristotelian doctrine is unchanged, Feser scientist. Feser too renounces certain of Ar- mistaken and so thinks more truly. will say, by the advances of Thomas Aquinas istotle’s conclusions in physical science, such and the scholastics. as the doctrine of natural place, with a similar Aristotle deploys this argument in rebuttal of This explains several features ofAristotle’s intention. So as not to destroy Aristotle the ancient doctrines that denied the possibility Revenge. For one, Feser tends to use the terms “philosopher of nature,” Feser distances him- of a thing being made objectively definite by “Aristotelian,” “Aristotelian tradition,” and “Ar- self from Aristotle the physicist. thinking. istotelian-Thomistic” somewhat interchange- It is, however, not necessary to treat Aris- Aristotle’s account of truth allowed, against ably, suggesting that any differences among totle the physicist so roughly. Carlo Rovelli, in these doctrines, for each of two or more ac- them are minimal. His impressive bibliogra- an ingenious essay from 2013 entitled “Aris- counts of experience to be partly true and for phy—a resource in itself for the curious—in- totle’s Physics: A Physicist’s Look,” makes the one to be nearer to the truth. The truth about cludes only one book of Aristotle, the R.P. Har- astounding case that “Aristotelian physics is a thing may be understood adequately with- die and R.K. Gaye translation of Physics. Yet it a correct and non-intuitive approximation of out being understood exactly.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 88 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Einstein popularized his new and truer Appendix V subsequently became the revelation holds that the cosmos has a begin- physics in 1916 with Relativity: The Special ground of loop quantum gravity, which main- ning and an end. The genesis of the whole is a and the General Theory. This highly readable tains that space has a real existence. In fact, it creative act of God; the terminus of the whole book questioned whether space has a real ex- is “quantal”: the theory posits that there is a is described in a revealed eschatology. Aristo- istence, or whether all space consists simply of smallest quantity of space, from which there is tle’s eternally cyclical prime motion and the relationships between different material bod- no linear decrease to zero. Space in loop quan- prime mover (pure actuality or thought think- ies. This is a very important question for Aris- tum gravity can overlap, like loops of chainmail, ing about thinking) are incompatible with this totle. In Metaphysics, especially Books III and with each loop overlaying another to a greater description, and in scholastic treatment the VII, the concept of location requires space to or lesser degree. One implication of the theo- prime mover becomes a “first” mover. The -di have a real existence or substance: there must ry is that there exists a limit to the expansion, vine is defined not by the most simple continu- be an actual thing called “space,” consisting of compression, and distortion of space. A second ous motion, but (and only partly) by the initial points within an absolute frame of reference. implication is that singularities—the compres- motion which imparts motion to all the rest. Aristotle is explicit that if space has no real sion of space and matter to a single point hav- existence or substance, then no thing has being a spatial value of zero—do not occur in the here are many other features of ing. The issue is also important for Aquinas way the generally accepted model of a black scholastic Aristotle that are different and for Feser. Feser devotes considerable ink hole would predict. A third implication, which Tfrom unalloyed Aristotle. For example, to discussing and criticizing “relationalist” in- follows from the first and second, is that the a doctrine of angels must be accommodated, terpretations of space. cosmos may be undergoing a cyclical motion, elevating Aristotle’s notions of the incorpo- so that it will eventually reverse its current ex- real to a plane that simply cannot be found in n aristotle’s revenge, however, feser pansion and return to its pre-big-bang state of Aristotle’s system of thought. Indeed, Feser, in does not discuss an important develop- compression in what is termed the “big crunch.” a sidebar, briefly discusses the knowledge of Iment pertaining to this problem. In 1952, This would be followed by another expansion (a angels as the instantaneous and incorruptible less than three years before his death, Einstein “big bounce”), followed by another big crunch, knowledge of incorporeal beings. He doesn’t changed his mind about space. To the 15th edi- and so on for eternity. Such a series of circular digress into these more theistic concepts, but tion of Relativity Einstein added an Appendix motions might remind one of the recursive, cir- the serious secular reader is bound to react al- V. There he conceded, in the course of an ex- cular motion that Aristotle identifies inMeta - lergically to supernatural data in the science amination of pre-scientific experience as it re- physics as the prime motion. of Aristotle’s Revenge. As another example, the lates to time and space, that the field-equations Here is where all this butts up against Aris- scholastics added the notion of prime matter, of relativity are consistent with the notion of totle’s Revenge: the scholastic view of prime mo- which they thought Aristotle’s hylemorphism space having a real existence. tion is different from Aristotle’s. The Christian implied (i.e., his theory that every being is a

Get Kreeft’s latest at www.staugustine.net

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 89 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

compound consisting of some form and the and to a lesser extent physics, into a single thought that began with Machiavelli, Thomas matter out of which that form is made). Fe- category. Feser’s philosophy of nature advises Hobbes, René Descartes, and Francis Bacon, ser deploys prime matter throughout Aristo- as to “what any possible empirical and mate- Aristotle was attacked, often viciously. tle’s Revenge as a plank against reductionism. rial world must be like. What must be true Feser sees Enlightenment hostility to- Prime matter is the universal stuff of things, of any possible material and empirical world ward Aristotle as motivated by the desire to or matter with no substantial form of its own in order for us to be able to acquire scientific undermine the Church. But he might con- out of which all other matter is composed. knowledge of it?” This branch of metaphysics sider whether such attacks were less against Aristotle has no such concept of prime matter. (as Feser identifies it) thus forecloses thought the Church and Christianity per se and more A concept of prime matter would confine the of some phenomena (some undiscovered and against falsely pious doctrines that inhibited examination of things to an ultimate, single, some observed) as impossible. Such a foreclo- both political prudence and the desire to speculative, and unobservable category of sure is, however, not Aristotelian. Aristotle is know, frustrating the actualization of human matter, and Aristotle’s science is rooted in ob- open to reflection on new observations in a potential in both reflection and choice. servable experience, which lends it great flex- way that Feser’s account, which invites the de- ibility to examine new experiences. velopment of doctrine, is not. How else could ne may admire aquinas’s philo- the truth and data harmonize in a world sophic thought and yet ask these here are, in addition, scholastic aflood with new data? This foreclosure thus Oquestions without impiety. Perhaps modifications to Aristotle’spsychē , the makes the Aristotle of Aristotle’s Revenge a what began with Aquinas as disputed ques- Tform of a living thing which gives it life— weak competitor with modern science, which tions intended partly to moderate Church imperfectly translated as “soul.” Unalloyed has no such limitations. A less rigid approach doctrine had become a drumbeat of “I answer Aristotle’s psychē is eternal for human beings would, in fact, be more Aristotelian, more that,” lending a patina of rationality to what only in the very limited respect of the isomor- consistent with the notion of cumulative sci- was no longer reasoned. The value of Aris- phism—the structural or formal similarity— entific knowledge, and make a superior chal- totle’s thought, as well as of Christian piety, of humanity’s active intellect and the eternal lenge to the reigning scientificvulgata . might have been obscured by their transub- prime motion: all humans participate in a kind stantiation through three centuries of school- of motion called contemplation, which is the n book i of the metaphysics, aristotle men’s alchemy. same as the prime motion. But though this describes metaphysics as a distillation of Insofar as Aristotle’s Revenge is an attempt to motion goes on eternally, our personal partici- Ithe desire to know—a science that exam- cause modern science to acknowledge or em- pation in it does not: each particular intellect, ines the first principles of things, their being, in brace Aristotelian thinking, I do not judge the the individual form of a human being, ceases a way that is “not instrumental to something book to exact much in the way of vengeance. to exist upon that human being’s death. Scho- else” but rather an object of pure study as an Modern science is—and modern scientists lastic Aristotle’s human soul (rendered in Latin end in itself. Aristotle accordingly saw physics are—mostly materialist. Modern science and freighted with new meaning as anima) is as a science which could competently assume does informally employ, and indeed, as Feser immortal and retains its particular knowledge the correctness of commonsense experience in observes, depends upon, many concepts bor- for eternity—an essential feature of eternal the study of nature, without investigation of first rowed from the four causes which Aristotle ex- punishments and rewards for bad and good principles. Such investigation was simply not amined. Indeed, one will find that small pock- particulars. Scholastic Aristotle sees all human necessary to physics. If it had been, Aristotle’s ets of modern science are deep into some varia- purpose—indeed all creation—as organized metaphysics would have been instrumental to tions on incorporeal substances. String theory, toward this end of immortality and happiness something else, advising on what could and for example, has a notion of branes (short for in the next life. could not be considered in physics. membranes), conjured from the mathemati- The coming into being of man thus requires Feser frequently asserts that proponents of cal demands of the theory but never observed, a doctrine of providence, because a specific various modern scientific theories “owe” a re- which are imagined to propagate through intervention—a miracle—is needed to create sponse to his arguments about the philosophy space-time. Branes would be in good company a human being with a particularized immor- of nature. But this is not a business they con- with the angels of the 13th century. But most tal soul. Feser expressly discusses this concept sider themselves to be in: natural scientists are of today’s physicists and biologists will not ex- of Aristotelian theistic evolutionism, writ- not concerned with what should not or may not amine or acknowledge their debt to the philos- ing: “special divine action would be required be. They are concerned with what is, according opher if they are scolded with medieval argu- to introduce a distinctively human substantial to their best efforts at observation. Aristotle’s ments about the impossibility of phenomena. form.” But there is no basis for this in Aris- metaphysics establishes no debtor and creditor Only a few of Feser’s arguments, Aristotelian totle’s system of thought, nor in any system relationship in thought. Metaphysics, for Aris- or otherwise, are likely to be compelling for of thought parallel to Aristotle’s absent rev- totle, has the fewest dependencies, because it is anyone not already committed to an orthodox elation. In the final analysis, the schoolmen’s undertaken for its own sake. appreciation of Christian revelation. If Aristot- Aristotelianism is changed from a flexible ac- This brings us full circle to Machiavelli and le is to have “revenge” in metaphysics—if that is count of the whole consistent with common his critique of the thought of his time. The so- even desirable—I suspect it will come not from sense and empirical fact (“with a true view the cial science of the early 16th century ground- reiterations of the positions of the schoolmen, data harmonize”—Nicomachean Ethics, Book ed itself on interwoven doctrines of Aristotle but from the re-characterization of Aristotle in I) to a highly doctrinal system that derives its and Christianity which deemed certain politi- ways that illustrate, in terms modern science truth from divine authority. cal actions to be impermissible. The natural understands (e.g., in math and symbolic logic Feser opens his book by setting out what science of the era similarly grounded itself on and the like), the relevance of his thought to he calls the “philosophy of nature.” Although blended doctrines which deemed certain phe- modern humanity. Aristotle does not write of a philosophy of na- nomena—even those actually observed, like ture, Feser finds this category useful because the earth’s revolutions around the sun—to be J. Eric Wise is a partner in the law firm of Gib- it isolates discrete concepts of metaphysics, impossible. In the eruption of Enlightenment son, Dunn & Crutcher.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 90 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Carnes Lord Saving Persuasion Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric, translated by Robert C. Bartlett. The University of Chicago Press, 288 pages, $40

merica has a rhetoric problem. ristotle’s art of rhetoric (circa writes, that Aristotle’s “rhetorique and dis- Our political rhetoric has never been 336 B.C.) is the earliest surviving course of animals was rare.” But Hobbes’s ad- Aparticularly decorous, but in recent AWestern treatise on the subject and miration was directed primarily to Aristotle’s years, fueled by the internet and social me- continues to be studied as a living work to- analysis of the passions, rather than to his larg- dia—and especially by the accelerating de- day. Aristotle makes clear at the outset that er defense of rhetoric. Hobbes viewed the rhe- cline of American education—public dis- he shares Plato’s dissatisfaction with the state torical disputes of classical Greece and Rome course has collapsed into a slough of name- of the discipline, and offers a corrective to it. as a prime source of political instability—an calling, pervasive obscenity, hysterical claims, As Robert C. Bartlett, Behrakis Professor of attitude that became characteristic of the mod- and unashamed irrationalism. Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College, ern Enlightenment, with its revisioning of the Oddly enough, rhetoric’s prestige in the makes clear in an interpretive essay appended relationship between politics and science or academy is at its highest in centuries. This re- to his splendid new translation, Aristotle’s philosophy. The new public authority enjoyed flects postmodernism’s dominance of contem- Rhetoric is itself a rhetorical tour de force. The by science necessarily devalued the role of rhet- porary intellectual discourse. In a world lack- novelty of Aristotle’s approach lies in his em- oric in political life. This remains very much ing objective truths there can only be a variety phasis on the centrality in rhetoric of “argu- the story in contemporary America—despite of “narratives,” deployed as instruments of ment” or “reasoning” (logos), as opposed to the fact that in the early days of the republic, personal or political power—and the master extraneous appeals to a listener’s sentiments. political rhetoric enjoyed a golden age. science of the narrative is rhetoric. As his own argument develops, however, Ar- This situation bears more than a passing istotle quietly rehabilitates much of rhetoric’s ontemporary political speech’s resemblance to that of classical Greece be- dark side that he initially seemed to dismiss. most characteristic failure is its in- fore the Socratic revolution of the late 5th The dangers coexistent with rhetorical ability Cability to construct coherent argu- and 4th centuries B.C. The sophists and can be kept in bounds—but only if rhetoric is ments. This is not just a failing of our politi- rhetoricians pilloried by Plato in dialogues properly understood not as an autonomous art cal class, but reflects a wider cultural malaise. such as the Protagoras and the Gorgias prided or science, but as subordinated to the study of Schools no longer teach English grammar or themselves on their ability to make persua- human or political affairs, particularly “ethics” composition in any formal way. Logical fal- sive speeches in defense of any cause, and sold or the study of character. lacies can properly be employed as part of a their skills to prospective litigants and poli- Tellingly, when Aristotle addresses the larger rhetorical strategy—but only if such ticians. It was rhetoric’s claim to “make the “modes of persuasion,” he makes clear that ar- fallacies are perceived as such by their au- weaker argument the stronger”—to make gument or reasoning by itself is insufficient. thors. (Colleges could do worse than require the weaker case prevail, whether in courts or An orator must also present himself—his a course in logic.) The social justice warriors’ public assembly. Such rhetoric employed de- “character”—in a certain way, so as to gain the weaponization of words to destroy adversar- liberately fallacious arguments (“sophistry”) audience’s sympathy and establish his own ies personally and advance political causes in as well as ad hominem attacks and emotional credibility (hence his recommendation to be- non-democratic ways is deplorable. From this manipulation. gin a speech with a formulaic opening known perspective, Hobbes was not wrong to see Because of this, Plato’s Socrates conclud- as the captatio benevolentiae). Most important- rhetoric as a potentially destabilizing force ed, rhetoric was no art but merely a “knack.” ly, he must go to school on the human pas- in republican polities. To recover a fresh and What aspiring young politicians really needed sions. Anger, envy, hatred, pity, indignation, salutary perspective on these issues, there is wasn’t (simply) skill at speaking, but a sub- and other emotions need to be understood so no better place to start than Bartlett’s transla- stantive knowledge of human affairs, available as to enhance the persuasiveness of one’s argu- tion of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. only through the disciplined study of philoso- ments, whether in response to the manipula- phy. But this apparent dismissal of rhetoric tions of others or even in an offensive mode. Carnes Lord is professor of strategic leadership could not be Plato’s last word—after all, Pla- Thomas Hobbes, who regarded Aristotle’s at the U.S. Naval War College and translator to’s Socrates was himself a master of rhetoric, ethics and metaphysics as dangerous drivel, of Aristotle’s Politics (The University of Chi- even as he spoke contemptuously of it. nonetheless held, as biographer John Aubrey cago Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 91 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Spencer A. Klavan Twilight of the Gods Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, edited by Jan H. Blits. Hackett, 200 pages, $15 (paper)

Antony & Cleopatra, by William Shakespeare, edited by Jan H. Blits. Hackett, 296 pages, $16 (paper)

wo summers ago, new york city’s Julius Caesar, out last year; Antony and Cleopa- Octavian hid his tears but, Blits argues, there Public Theater staged the assassination tra, which appeared this September; and a is a reason why Shakespeare makes his bud- Tof Donald Trump. Their production forthcoming Coriolanus. Blits treats the tril- ding monarch flaunt his magnanimity in vic- of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar styled the title ogy not as a parable for 16th- or 21st-century tory. The trilogy as a whole contrasts such character as a Twitter-happy blonde bloviator politics, but as a searchingly philosophical de- ostentatious demonstrations of egotistical whose gory deposition looked to many like piction of the pagan world’s anguished trans- benevolence with the old-fashioned Roman a savage display of hostility toward the com- formation into Christendom. brand of Stoic fortitude and self-sacrifice. mander-in-chief. That venerable code of honor is passing from Well-spoken cultural authorities emerged lits, a professor emeritus at the world because Rome, in Blits’s words, “has from the heavens to assure us that, of course, the University of Delaware School ceased to be a city or a community.” Shake- the play in no way endorses political violence. Bof Education, is clearly indebted to speare saw in Rome’s massive territorial ex- Harvard University’s Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare’s Politics (1964) by Allan Bloom pansion the death of its old civic values: if known for his popular scholarship on Shake- and Harry V. Jaffa, as well asShakespeare’s Rome is everywhere then it is nowhere, too speare, called it “kind of amusing, in a slightly Rome (1976) and Shakespeare’s Roman Trilogy abstract to love or to die for. grim way,” that silly conservatives would get (2017) by Paul Cantor. These books gainsaid up in arms about a harmless instance of free a trendy strain of historicist thought which nd so, as act v of antony and artistic expression. held that Shakespeare could have no real in- Cleopatra opens with Octavian’s vic- True, Julius Caesar leaves us suspecting that sight into any time other than his own Eliza- Atory, Blits shifts to a new frame of the conspirators’ ends may not have justified bethan England. reference: he believes that Shakespeare is their means. But America’s artistic landscape By contrast, Cantor and Blits see in the now concerned less with Plutarch than with has been relentlessly dominated by political Bard a serious scholar of antiquity grappling the Book of Revelation. Empire calls forth “a revenge porn. Comedienne Kathy Griffin -ap with the same question that haunted Edward new heaven and a new earth” wherein all the peared in a 2017 photo op with a Trump mask Gibbon and Friedrich Nietzsche: how did the universe must bow to one authority. Either made to look like the president’s severed head, noble champions of Roman liberty succumb men will worship Caesar, or they will submit and every awards show features a stirring call to the universalizing quietism which made their hearts to the gentle yoke of a strange to resistance. Right-wingers may be forgiven both Augustus and Christ into plausible rul- new peasant king who comes barefoot from for wondering whether the overwhelmingly ers of the world? the East. Either Rome or Christ must now be liberal New York theatre community didn’t Blits therefore juxtaposes each play with all in all. relish slaughtering the president in effigy. primary texts from the Roman imperial pe- Ironically, Blits’s excellent reading of the More than anything, though, Caesar-as- riod in notes at the bottom of each page. He play—so ostensibly distant from our modern Trump was a desperate grasp at relevance— frequently cites the 1st-century-A.D. essayist Trumpian anxieties—turns out to be deeply a forced attempt to shoehorn a great play- Plutarch, whom Shakespeare read carefully in “relevant” after all. What happens when a rag- wright into a modern staging. Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas North’s translation. Blits points tag rebel nation sprawls outward into a global- play is concerned with the terrible dilemma out that even small details (e.g., the “distinc- ist superpower whose newfound dominance that faces patriots when a real constitutional tive mincing diction” of the minor lackey dilutes the fellow feeling of its citizens? What crisis necessitates drastic measures—not just Gaius Maecenas) are faithfully drawn from force is strong enough to unite the hearts of when the guy in office happens to be unpalat- ancient accounts. Because these parallels be- countrymen separated by geographical and able. Trump is no Caesar. Kathy Griffin is no tween history and drama are so closely ob- ideological chasms? These are Shakespeare’s Shakespeare. served, the editions also reveal meaning and real questions. They are also our own. If we What if, instead of making Shakespeare’s significance in moments when Shakespeare avoid mining his plays for punditry and slo- historical dramas into tortured analogues for does depart from his source material. ganeering, the Bard may help us find some our present moment, we considered them as For example: Shakespeare has Octavian, answers. earnest attempts to penetrate the issues of the soon to be the Emperor Augustus, weep in past? That is the premise behind Jan H. Blits’s public when he hears that Marc Antony, his Spencer A. Klavan is assistant editor of the new annotated editions of the Roman plays: ally-turned-nemesis, is vanquished. Plutarch’s Claremont Review of Books.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 92 Claremont Fellows: Keepers of the Founders’ Truths

Tom Cotton Laura Ingraham James O’Keefe Mark Levin U.S. Senator Host, e Laura Ingraham Founder and President, Host, e Mark Levin Show Show and e Ingraham Project Veritas and Life, Liberty, and Levin Angle

Mollie Hemingway Michael Anton Marion Smith Justin B. Dyer Senior Editor, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Executive Director, Director, Kinder e Federalist; Hillsdale College's Kirby Victims of Communism Institute on Constitutional Commentator, Fox News Center; Senior Fellow, Memorial Foundation Democracy Claremont Institute

Claremont Fellows are the political and intellectual leaders of the modern Right. ey apply the Founders’ principles to our problems today, inuencing policy and decision-making at the highest levels of government, law, media, culture, and academia. ey are on the frontlines in the battle of ideas with progressivism and the modern Left, delivering strong, persuasive arguments in defense of America.

: claremont.org/page/fellowships mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Robert R. Reilly Lend Me Your Ears The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music, by Robert Philip. Yale University Press, 968 pages, $50

ale university press has published Collection from 1994, to find works similar of what I call the “basic repertory-itis” from a nearly thousand-page book on classi- to Philip’s. The behemoth, biannualPenguin which the classical music world suffers today. Ycal orchestral music by Robert Philip, Guide to Recorded Classical Music ceased For example, WETA, the local Washington, a British scholar, broadcaster, and musician. publication in 2010. The rest is silence—so I D.C.-area classical music station, leans so heav- This is good news for a number of reasons. I thought. No one, it seemed, was very much ily on the repetition of the basic repertory that had thought books like this had gone the way interested in classical music anymore. Or if I suspect its mind-numbing, soul-killing proof the dinosaur. That was the hard lesson I they were, they simply read online and didn’t gramming is done by a bot, behind which lurks took away when my own 500-page book on bother with books. an evil genius intent on destroying everyone’s 20th- and 21st-century music, Surprised by love of Beethoven, Brahms, etc., by replaying Beauty, went nearly extinct the same year it hope philip’s classical music lover’s their compositions ad nauseam. Now that the was published in 2016. Before that, one has Companion to Orchestral Music proves me National Symphony Orchestra has fallen vic- to reach back to Ted Libbey’s NPR Listener’s Iwrong, because it deserves to succeed as a tim to the same plague, I seldom attend its con- Encyclopedia of Classical Music from 2006, or guide to the basic orchestral repertory. I was, certs. Therefore, I was not disposed to welcome to his NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD however, prepared to dislike this book because a book about the basic orchestral repertory.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 94 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

et even with my jaded tastes, i composer Carl Nielsen, remarking upon the the entry and the importance of the music.” could not resist something as well done technical skills of the German and Austrian Even better, he explains, “some of the greatest Yas this. And as I happily discovered, composers of his day (e.g., Arnold Schoen- works are so transparently self-explanatory this is not a book for beginners only. Despite berg), accurately predicted, “I cannot help that they need little from me.... On the other my familiarity with this music and these thinking that all this delight in complication hand, there are works that tie themselves in composers, I found much to learn and enjoy. must exhaust itself. I foresee a completely knots and need some unpicking.” The latter Philip covers 400 works by 68 composers new art of pure archaic virtue.” In the brief sentence certainly applies to Webern. from Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) but excellent introduction to Schoenberg’s One more irritant. As usual, the obligato- to Anton Webern (1883–1945). My first controversial works, Philip quotes British ry British nod to American music is confined assumption was that this must be a collec- conductor Adrian Boult, who premiered to Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, George tion of a lifetime’s worth of program notes Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra in Gershwin, and the perennially overrated written for concert booklets. Program notes, London and remarked on his experience re- Charles Ives, who is inexplicably called “one however, are often done by musicologists visiting the work three years later in Vienna: of the great figures of American music” and who provide ponderous accounts of what is “when I opened the score I found nothing in whose work receives eight pages of explica- technically taking place in a piece of music it to remind me of the previous performance, tion. This is a prime example of repertory-itis while neglecting what the music is trying to and actually said to myself that if someone that leaves unsaid anything about David Dia- express. Philip’s accessible and lucid writing had told me it was an entirely new set of mond’s 11 symphonies, William Schuman’s is the exact opposite. He lets us know how variations on a different theme, I could’ve 10, or Roy Harris’s 12. But then, British 20th- the music ticks, but in laymen’s terms—and, believed him.” This confirms what American century symphonic composers don’t do so most importantly, he relates these musical composer Stephen Albert told me about 12- well either. There’s not a word about Edmund techniques to the composer’s expressive ends. tone music: “the past has no meaning. What Rubbra, Robert Simpson, Malcolm Arnold, When I went back to read the book’s intro- was going on was the massive denial of mem- or Ireland’s John Kinsella. The answer to this duction, I discovered one reason he does this ory. No one can remember a 12-tone row. The complaint might be that these composers’ so well. It was not for concert audiences, but very method obliterates memory’s function works are not in the basic repertory, to which for the BBC Radio 3 that he began writing in art.” Then there is this wonderful quote my reply would be: that’s the problem with about classical music. He explains, “An au- from Igor Stravinsky: the basic repertory—you can’t get in it unless thor can have no better training than writ- you’re already part of it. ing for speech. Radio demands clarity, sim- without music in its best sense there But it is not fair to criticize this book for plicity, and vividness, and these are valuable is chaos. For my part, music is a force being something that it doesn’t pretend to be. qualities to carry over into the writing of which gives reason to things, a force It excels at the author’s aim of introducing and books.” Philip’s broadcast experience shows. which creates organization, which at- explicating in a comprehensible and insightful He seems to be talking to us, rather than at tunes things. Music probably attended way many of the major orchestral works with us. He states that he tried “to describe each the creation of the universe. which one ought to be acquainted in order to piece of music so that listeners can find their be culturally literate. Philip will help you en- way through it, hear the most important fea- y appreciation is tempered by a joy and understand Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, tures and events, and gather a sense of what few minor reservations. The atten- Mahler, Mozart, and the other greats of the the whole piece consists of. I have aimed to Mtion given to various composers no basic repertory. I wish that space had allowed include enough background and biographi- doubt reflects either the author’s or his em- him to give his recommended recordings of cal information to illuminate what makes ployer’s (BBC’s) interests. Some of it seems the music he knows so well but, after 1,000 the composer tick.” At this, Philip admirably lopsided. For example, 20th-century Czech pages, that would be asking too much of any succeeds. composer Bohuslav Martinů gets little more publisher today. I will not look this gift horse I was particularly delighted by a number than three pages with nary a mention of his in the mouth. of quotations he has unearthed which I’d not violin, viola, and cello concertos, five piano encountered elsewhere. Here are a few delec- concertos, and six symphonies. Meanwhile Robert R. Reilly is the author of Surprised by table examples. I did not know that Claude Anton Webern gets eight pages for his few Beauty: A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Debussy had called my favorite English works. Philip gets off the hook by saying, “I Modern Music (Ignatius Press) and the forth- painter, J.M.W. Turner, “the finest creator would not like readers to think that there is coming America on Trial: A Defense of the of mystery there could be in art.” Danish a direct relationship between the length of Founding (Ignatius Press).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 95 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Book Review by Kyle Smith Breaking Bad Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream: Con Men, Gangsters, Drug Lords, and Zombies, by Paul A. Cantor. University Press of Kentucky, 224 pages, $40

f i told you belief in the american fortuitous circumstances of birth or posi- it’s there. He does a brilliant job sussing out Dream stands today at 70%, would you tion.” The American Dream assumes freedom, how his artists raise important and unsettling Ibelieve me? It’s true. You might raise an fairness, meritocracy. A “European Dream” questions about the credibility, durability, eyebrow because you’re aware the American would be a vastly different thing, in the past and internal tensions of the American Dream. Dream is made possible by our glorious in- involving feudalism and serfdom and today a I’d say Cantor’s subjects “interrogate” or even stitutions, none of which is looking so spiffy, lot of bowing to the wishes of Angela Merkel. “subvert” the American Dream—but that except maybe the military and small busi- Europe is about knowing your place. America, would make the book sound more academic ness. As for the others, according to Gallup gloriously, is about creating any damn place (and boring) than it is. Cantor holds a chair only 25% of Americans express “a great deal” you like—if you can get away with it. in the English department of the University or “quite a lot” of trust in big business, 30% in of Virginia, but you’d never know it. This is a banks, 36% in the medical system, and 11% s paul cantor observes in pop cul- compliment. in Congress. Having faith in the American ture and the Dark Side of the American Consider Huckleberry Finn, a novel about Dream while scoffing at its constituent parts ADream: Con Men, Gangsters, Drug liars, mountebanks, and flim-flammers writ- seems like being blithe about putting an as- Lords, and Zombies, that “if” has fascinated ten under a phony name by a judge’s son who tronaut on Mars while scoffing at physics, -en our writers going back at least to Mark Twain. dressed like a Southern plantation owner. gineering, and courage. Cantor’s latest is a lively, astute, and infec- The Duke and the King, lowlifes with fancy, Historian James Truslow Adams coined tiously enthusiastic consideration of works made-up European titles of nobility, capital- the phrase “the American Dream” in his ranging from Huckleberry Finn to today’s tele- ize upon the American Dream’s wide-open 1931 book The Epic of America. His framing vision zombie sensation The Walking Dead. possibilities. Freed from Europe’s rigid so- remains serviceable: “a dream of social order The connective tissue linking these works, via cial hierarchies and even from any particu- in which each man and each woman shall be the intervening subjects of W.C. Fields’s com- lar chunk of land, Americans can create new able to attain to the fullest stature of which edies, the Godfather films, and AMC’s Shake- selves. But the flip side is that almost nobody, they are innately capable, and be recognized spearean drug tragedy Breaking Bad, may not in Twain’s eyes, can be trusted. European liv- by others for what they are, regardless of the immediately be obvious, but Cantor proves ing is anchored to a village in which every-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 96 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

one knows everyone; American living glides Cantor’s chapter on the Corleones doesn’t as well as the effect of broken people. When along the rollicking, fertile, ever-changing break new ground (last year Jonah Goldberg’s the American Dream’s promise is seen as null Mississippi—a dynamic, vigorous, com- Suicide of the West offered a similar take) but and void, bad things happen. petitive environment of ever-shifting status. it’s a marvelous account of how the rise and fall Fortunes are won or lost, sometimes in ac- of Vito and Michael reflects the breakdown of antor’s final chapter asks cordance with merit, sometimes not. In the the American Dream. The first words spoken whether our focus on material bet- words of V.S. Pritchett, “scroungers, rogues, in The Godfather are “I believe in America,” by Cterment has trapped us on a hedonic murderers, the lonely women, the frothing a petitioner named Amerigo Bonasera—liter- treadmill and distracted us from an earlier revivalists, the maundering boatmen and ally, “Goodnight America.” Bonasera’s request conception of the ideal American existence— fantastic drunks of the river towns” are “the for old-world-style revenge against the men rugged self-sufficiency in small communities human wastage that is left in the wake of who attacked his daughter begins a detailed of like-minded folk. Perhaps we just need a a great effort of the human will…. These indictment of the corruption of the Ameri- hearty zombie plague to remind us. people are the price paid for building a new can spirit. Michael, the Ivy League golden boy, Small, tightly-knit, heavily-armed bands country.” Twain wouldn’t have it any other was supposed to become the first truly New of survivors roam a desolate zombie-ravaged way—he thinks European aristocracy at World Corleone as he completed the transi- landscape in The Walking Dead, AMC’s sci- least equally fraudulent—but there is a lot tion into lawful business dealings and reached fi neo-Western. “A disaster in material terms,” of crookedness along that river. Out on the a governor’s mansion or the Senate. Instead Cantor argues, “turns out to have some good Mississippi, far from the established cities of he followed Bonasera’s lead back into vendetta results in emotional terms…. [F]amily bonds the East, institutions are fragile, and oppor- culture, at the cost of his soul and eventually grow tighter and people learn who their real tunities for exploitation everywhere. “The even his daughter. Released three months be- friends are.” Maybe the zombies are a warn- democratic world Twain portrays in Huck- fore the Watergate break-in, The Godfather is ing about a brainless, soulless existence—the leberry Finn is filled with impostors,” Can- of a different, less cynical era. Yet it was ahead latest incarnation of T.S. Eliot’s hollow men. tor writes. They’re self-made men in more of its time in beguiling its audience with the They also serve as an amusing allegory of the ways than one. Grifters assume European notion that, if rules were being flouted every- red-state/blue-state cultural rift. A devastat- titles because it works on their marks, who where, rules were for suckers. ing satiric series interlude takes place in a cos- at some level long for the certainties of the seted Beltway burb in Alexandria, Virginia, Old World. ne such sucker who has had where the roaming band of coarse gunsling- enough is Walter White, the high- ers takes shelter in a gated community among hat tension is at the heart of the Oschool chemistry teacher in Break- a coterie of clueless gentry liberals who de- Godfather and its (first) sequel, both ing Bad. Walter epitomizes both the middle- mand that all guns be locked away “for safe- Tof which Cantor explicates beautifully. class fear that increasingly desperate striving ty.” As in other “Redneck Renaissance” TV (He disdains Part III and excludes it from his is required just to stay in place as well as the shows—Duck Dynasty, Mountain Men, Ice analysis.) Francis Ford Coppola’s films are a modern family man’s daily humiliation. Wal- Road Truckers—The Walking Dead glories in mischievous look at how Old World thinking ter works part-time in a car wash to pay for practical solutions over vacuous progressive pollutes the new when our ideals fail. With his son’s medical expenses, and for this he is shibboleths. “[T]he spirit of the Wild West four devastating words—“Who’s being naïve, mocked by his ungrateful students. He em- triumphs over the spirit of Beltway liberalism,” Kay?”—Michael Corleone spoke for every bodies the collapse of faith in institutions: Cantor writes. cynic, relativist, and outright gangster who public education (his students are punks and The series plays on our fears about the fail- holds that senators are no different from Si- don’t pay attention), the medical establish- ure, if not outright malice, of the federal gov- cilian dons, even when it comes to disposing ment (he is staggered by bills associated with ernment: the Centers for Disease Control in of enemies. If our most esteemed tribunes his son’s cerebral palsy), and Silicon Valley Atlanta cooks up a zombie plague then pro- and the institution they stand for don’t play (he helps found a startup that becomes a huge tects only itself against the consequences. Can- by the rules, why recoil at the Corleones? It’s business yet nets only $5,000 from the ven- tor may be right to detect a submerged libertar- self-serving for Michael to believe this but, as ture). By discarding all norms and turning to ian hope in the carnage: Hey, the country may Cantor points out, Coppola seems to believe it the drug trade, Walter becomes a caricature have been overrun by zombies, but at least we got too: perhaps the most rebarbative character in of American entrepreneurship and masculine the federal government off our backs. If a little bit either film is the corrupt senator Pat Geary in bravado, a middle-class fellow who realizes of apocalypse is the price we need to pay for re- The Godfather, Part II. At least the Corleones his fullest stature as an individual by the only storing family and federalism, I’m all ears. uphold the sanctity of family and honor, and means available to him. The story of Walter can make a nice red sauce. White is that broken systems can be the cause Kyle Smith is critic-at-large for National Review.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 97 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Essay by Jacob Howland Odysseus Against the Matriarchy

Battle of Amazons and Greeks: fragment from the temple of Apollo at Bassae, 5th century B.C.

rimeval forces of the human The Odyssey unfolds in the chaotic after- and expanding internally in the accumulated psyche, mysteriously inflected by sex- math of the Trojan War, a long and bloody memory of suffering. He himself inflicts pain Pual differentiation and far too deep to conflict that traumatized and destabilized or death on virtually everyone he associates be tamed by any projects of social construc- the whole Mycenaean world. The situation in with, friend and foe alike. He fails to bring tivism, have once more erupted from their un- Ithaca is typical: the prolonged absence of the one generation back from war, personally derground vaults and are struggling for domi- king and his followers has produced a crisis dispatches the next (Penelope’s 108 suitors nation of our public spaces and institutions. of moral and political authority. Inevitably, are all young noblemen from Ithaca and the Many women are gleeful at the prospect that women have stepped (or been pulled) into surrounding islands), and would gladly have men, now widely understood to be agents of the power vacuums left by their men. It is killed their aggrieved fathers, too, had the sexual violence and cultural patriarchy, may not for nothing that Agamemnon’s murder by gods not stopped the slaughter. But he also soon be subjected to an ultimate “reckoning.” his wife Clytemnestra and cousin Aegisthus must fight for hispsychē —his soul, and some- For one who knows the Greeks, this language haunts the epic from start to finish. TheOdys - times his very life—against smothering, be- is as revealing as it is ominous. sey is another kind of war story, one in which witching, and homicidal females. The funeral Homer’s epic poems explore fundamental a collapsing civilization’s internal contradic- shroud Penelope weaves for Odysseus’s father tensions inherent in civilization: the conflict- tions take the form of a pitched battle of the Laertes signifies the burial of an entire epoch, ing claims of family and polity, individual sexes. a past and future slain by violent passions no freedom and social necessity; the tragically The Odyssey focuses on a solitary man who longer constrained by ancestral ways. TheOd - tangled struggle of love and aggression. The must find his way in the new post-war reality. yssey is a drama of cultural and political sui- Iliad explores these contradictions in the con- The verbodyssasthai , George Dimock argues cide that plays out between vicious extremes text of war. Few passages in literature are as in his essay “The Name of Odysseus,” means of masculinity and femininity—jagged shards moving as Andromache’s desperate plea, child “to cause pain [to oneself and others]…and of a broken human wholeness. in arms, for her doomed husband, Hector, to to be willing to do so.” Odysseus earned his remain within the safety of Troy’s walls; or name—“Trouble,” Dimock suggests—when Femmes Fatales Achilles’ pitiable lament—having learned too gored while hunting a wild boar. The charg- late that his friendship with Patroclus was ing boar is a Homeric image of reality. It is arly in the poem, the goddess infinitely more precious than King Agamem- a hard and wounding reality that Odysseus Athena claims she saw the eponymous non’s respect—that he is but “a useless burden rushes to confront in the Odyssey, taking its Ehero hunting “a man-slaying poison” to on the earth.” measure through suffering, and deepening smear on his arrowheads. (All translations

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 98 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

from the Greek in this essay are my own.) unenchantable because he knows the roots Such craftiness is barely a match for feminine of things, the hidden nature from which they charms and potions as lethal to the soul as any grow. But coming to know nature, including New From poison is to the body. On his homeward voy- one’s own, involves a certain Socratic hard- age Odysseus encounters the Sirens, vaguely ness, a willingness to tear things (even if only female creatures—a red-figure vase in the in speech) from the soil that nourishes them. SUNY Press British Museum depicts them as birds with As Plato makes clear through his famous im- women’s heads—surrounded by the rotting age of the cave, the return to light and life cadavers of men unable to resist their “hon- from confusion and darkness is painful for all The Parthenon eyed voices.” This is a fair image of Odysseus involved. This necessary suffering is a major and Liberal Education himself, notorious both for his deceptive source of hostility to the full development of sweet-talk (he is punished in Dante’s Inferno the individual self in the Odyssey. for his guileful abuse of trust) and for the multitudes he directly or indirectly sends to Nostalgia Hades. Nor is this the only way in which the Sirens—who sense rather than see approach- emales in the odyssey are an oedi- ing sailors, and adjust their song to the sailors’ pally overdetermined group, sexually deepest desires—imitate Odysseus’ nature. Falluring as well as maternally control- Geoff Lehman & Michael Weinman Their seductions of Odysseus are specifically ling. Circe is not the only one who resists the intellectual; they offer the hero, who in his suffering associated with spiritual and intel- Discusses the importance of the early history wanderings “saw the towns and knew the lectual rebirth. The nymph Calypso, loathe of Greek mathematics to education and civic mind of many human beings,” the knowledge to give up Odysseus, the mortal plaything life through a study of the Parthenon and dialogues of Plato. that he craves above all. “We know all that the she has subjected to seven years of sexual 4 color process Typeface: Castellar MT & ITC Franklin Gothic Argives and Trojans suffered in broad Troy by servitude on Ogygia—an island surrounded the will of the gods,” they sing, “and we know by vast stretches of ocean—is another such. all that comes to pass on the much-nour- Kaluptein means “to eclipse”; Calypso’s love ishing earth.” (H.J. Draper’s 1909 painting cave is a kind of black hole, one of several Ulysses and the Sirens got it just right: naked into which Odysseus vanishes only to emerge maidens besiege his ship from the sea as Od- again after difficult labor. The hero arrives on ysseus, transfixed by some inner vision, rolls Ogygia having already visited the dank pit of his eyes wildly toward the heavens.) Doug- Hades, in which wretched shades swarm and las Frame observes that nostos—homecom- gibber like bats. Yet when Calypso offers him ing—is philologically related to nous, mind; the seemingly safe harbor of ageless immor- both words derive from the Indo-European tality and unstinting comfort and pleasure, he root nes, meaning something like “return to chooses to return to his wife, Penelope. Un- light and life.” Little wonder that Odysseus like his unfocused and irresolute crew, Odys- Bridges Western and non-Western narrates his encounter with the Sirens at the seus never loses sight of his goal—even if, as political thought to address the problem center of the Odyssey, for here everything he Alfred, Lord Tennyson, suggests in his poem of democracy and political decadence in hazards to become who he is—memory and “Ulysses,” it is only because he always wants contemporary Iran and, by implication, similar Islamic societies. identity, homecoming and intellect, life and to be somewhere else. His mindfulness pro- light—hangs in the balance. tects him in another way. Binding himself to Odysseus survives the Sirens because he is a goddess is a bad bargain: what if the nymph counseled by the divine Circe, who marvels at should tire of his company? his “unenchantable” nous. She should know. Helen, a daughter of Zeus and mortal Property Attracted by her song, his men had found her Leda, is a particularly significant contrast to Rights in Contemporary working a great loom (females weave many a Odysseus. Her story in the Odyssey shows Governance web in the Odyssey). She’d served them drug- that she who controls memory controls men. Edited by Staci M. Zavattaro, Gregory R. Peterson, laden wine that washed away all memory of When Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, visits the and Ann E. Davis their fatherland, and then she’d turned them Spartan King Menelaus seeking news of his into swine. Odysseus drains the same cup, yet father, the old warrior’s recollections of Od- Circe’s “baneful drugs”—reminiscent of the ysseus bring everyone to tears. But his wife, memory-laundering pharmakon ingested by Helen, has a remedy for this sadness: she se- the Lotus-eaters Odysseus encounters else- cretly slips into the wine a drug that “banish- Examines how our diverse where—have no effect on him. For Hermes es pain and sorrow and allays anger, causing understandings of property impact had previously equipped him with a mysteri- forgetfulness of all ills.” Here is history’s first real-world governing strategies. ous prophylactic: moly, a plant the god had deliberately constructed safe space, an anal- pulled from the ground—something “hard gesic realm where words lose their sting and for mortal men” to do—so as to show him suffering is wiped from memory. In blocking its nature. Jenny Strauss Clay points out that access to the deep feeling of the past, Helen’s this is the only occurrence of the word “na- ploy is self-serving as well as emotionally ma- Available online at www.sunypress.edu ture” (physis) in Homer. Odysseus’s mind is nipulative. For the story Menelaus goes on to or call toll-free 877-204-6073

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 99 Rediscover # Library of America // Fall 2019

# JOAN DIDION The 1960s & 70s 900 pp. // $39.95 cloth // LOA #325 Run River • Slouching Towards Bethlehem • Play It As It Lays • A Book of Common Prayer • The White Album David L. Ulin, editor // Library of America inaugurates its multivolume edition of Didion’s works with this deluxe collection of her ﬁrst ﬁve books.

# THE AMERICAN CANON Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon 440 pp. // $32 cloth Harold Bloom // David Mikics, editor // Our nation’s foremost literary critic surveys a pantheon of forty-seven great American writers.

# WHERE THE LIGHT FALLS Selected Stories of Nancy Hale 372 pp. // $26.00 cloth Lauren Groff, editor // Major literary rediscovery: a selection of the haunting stories of a forgotten midcentury master of the form.

“A stunning, crystalline collection. . . . Hale writes with a crisp realism that is almost deceptive in its simplicity; the power of her prose sneaks up on you.” Vogue

# AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s Two-volume boxed set (shown) // $75 Gary K. Wolfe, editor // In a two-volume collector’s edition boxed set, eight novels from science ﬁction’s most transformative decade.

I. Four Classic Novels 1960–1966: The High Crusade by Paol Anderson • Way Station by Cliﬀord Simak • Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes • . . . And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny 752 pp. // $37.50 cloth // #321

II. Four Classic Novels 1968–1969: Past Master by R. A. Laﬀerty • Picnic on Paradise by Joanna Russ • Nova by Samuel R. Delany • Emphyrio by Jack Vance 752 pp. // $37.50 cloth // #322

# CORNELIUS RYAN The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far 1,008 pp. // $45 cloth // #318 Edited with an introduction by Rick Atkinson // A deluxe collector’s edition of two World War II classics, with America’s pages of photographs and full color endpaper maps, plus a selection of Ryan’s hard-to-find war dispatches. nonprofit “Military history at its best. . . . Every paragraph leaps with action.” Winston Groom, The Wall Street Journal publisher # # # # # JEAN STAFFORD Complete Novels 900 pp. // $40 cloth // #324 Boston Adventure • The Mountain Lion • The Catherine Wheel Kathryn Davis, editor // Gathered for the first time in one volume, three brilliant novels by a Pulitzer Prize– www.loa.org winning master of social satire and psychological portraiture. Distributed by Penguin Random House, Inc. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

tell about how Helen (then “of Troy”) tried to King Alcinous (Mighty-Mind) and Queen racks of fresh cheese. But this nurturing sound out the Greek warriors hidden inside Arētē (Prayed-For): the mind seeks out real- lactarian is also a man-eater. More than one the Trojan Horse by ventriloquizing the in- ity, while prayers—like those the Phaeacians Greek vase depicts as a massive phallus the dividual voices of their long-lost wives contra- desperately raise to Poseidon, just before he sharpened, fire-hardened stake that Odys- dicts her claim to have been longing for home rings their island in mountains as retribution seus and his men grind into the Cyclops’ eye. by this point in the war. On that occasion, she for their kindness to the man who put out his The hero engenders himself in an act of vir- attempts to produce rather than to allay nos- Cyclops son Polyphemus’s single eye—aim tual rape; Polyphemus’s cave is a birth-canal talgia, the pain associated with the recollec- at salvation from its depredations. Alcinous from which Nobody (mē tis) issues by the tion of home. When a soldier tries to cry out probes Odysseus, attempting to learn his true strength of his cunning intelligence (mētis) to in response, Odysseus brutally silences him; identity; in the end, however, the Phaeacians assert his identity as Odysseus and lay claim had he not done so, the Greeks would have don’t need to go looking for trouble. Trouble to a world of suffering. been burned alive, aborted before they could comes directly to them, a salt-streaked strang- The tale of the Cyclops takes the infantiliz- issue from the great wooden womb. Helen’s er rising naked from the turbulent waters. ing and manipulative tendencies of females in witchy pharmacopeia kills more than pain. That’s the way of reality: you can run from it, the Odyssey to an especially malignant (but but you can’t hide. not unimaginable) extreme. Man is a political Leaving the Cave Cut off from the outside world by a venge- animal, but, Aristotle observed, Homer’s Cy- ful god, it’s as if the Phaeacians have been clopes are pre-political: their existence reflects he temporary realm of oblivion swallowed up by the sea. Joseph Conrad’s the primitive stage of isolated, self-sufficient Helen fashions in her home at Sparta Stein echoes a piece of ancient wisdom in families. Only when politicized males leave Tis a prelude and microcosm of the great Lord Jim: “The way is to the destructive ele- home and hearth to meet and debate on the island safe space of the Phaeacians, who of ment submit yourself, and with the exertions middle ground of public life—one thinks of all of Homer’s peoples most resemble us late of your hands and feet in the water make the the men Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn saw walking moderns. (Names incorporating the Greek deep, deep sea keep you up.” Those who will to a cantonal election at Appenzell “all carry- aei, “forever,” abound in the fantastic middle ing swords, a sign of the right to vote”—does books of the Odyssey; Circe’s island is Aeaea, the household reveal itself to be a special do- Ever-Ever Land, and Odysseus visits the Aeo- The matriarchal main kept and protected by women. A beast lian island of Aeolus.) The Phaeacians, “close social reckoning who thinks he is a god, Polyphemus cares kin of the gods,” once lived in the vicinity of the lovingly for domesticated animals but cannot Cyclopes but fled from their brutal neighbors. now afoot in the abide independent men. His homicidal mis- They found refuge on a blessed isle, where United States aims andry is a nightmarish figuration of the total they dwell untouched by the wasting effects disappearance of political life—the life of free of time and history. Scheria, Cut-Off Land, is to produce a society individuals who dare to declare themselves a paradise “out of nature” (as William Butler composed essentially publicly, to stand up and speak their minds— Yeats says of Byzantium) where fruits are al- into the maw of matriarchal tyranny: the het- ways in season, feasts and entertainments flow of domesticated erozygous twin of the blood-lusting patriar- on without end, and gold and silver dogs “im- chy that haled young men to Troy and sent mortal and ageless all their days” guard the children. them back to their mothers as ashes, packed royal palace. Yet though the Phaeacians live in tight in ceramic urns. many ways like Freudian infants in obedience not risk destruction are doomed to drown. to the pleasure principle, they are not wholly Born into trouble, we purchase a false security The Levelling Calculus ignorant of the reality principle. They long in refusing to see that the warm anonymity for reality, but only in the virtual form of aes- of the womb is just another deadly seduction. he metopes of the parthenon me- theticized experience: their bard sings of the As Dimock observes of the Cyclops’ promise morialized legendary scenes of violence: Trojan War, and Odysseus’ tales of terror and to Odysseus, “Nobody [the name Odysseus TGreeks battling barbarians, Athenians misery reduce them to a spellbound silence. gives himself] will be devoured in the end, clashing with Amazons, Lapiths (Greeks The wounding boar, too, gives them pleasure, though last of all.” from Thessaly) assaulted by drunken centaurs but it must be cooked; they cannot take it raw. Polyphemus’s words are prophetic but, be- they’d invited to a wedding feast. The com- The Phaeacians’ tragedy is that their at- ing monocular, he cannot gauge their depth. mon theme of these sculptures—the struggle tempt to hold reality at a safe distance ulti- When Odysseus tells him to respect the god of civilization against chaos—reflects a deep mately collapses in contradiction. Their life of strangers, Polyphemus replies that the Cy- understanding of the moral and political or- embraces two opposing principles, reflected clopes “take no heed of aegis-bearing Zeus, der’s fragility. One of the Elgin Marbles de- in the two activities in which they excel. “As nor of the blessed gods, for we are better [or picts a muscled centaur rearing triumphantly much as the Phaeacian men are skilled above ‘stronger’] than them by far.” Euripides’ play over a supine man. A velvety lion skin is all others in driving a swift ship across the sea, Cyclops sheds light on this boast: Zeus can draped over the centaur’s arm, its suppleness so are the women cunning at the loom”: the thunder and pour all he likes, but Polyphe- perfectly captured in folds of smooth marble. men risk their lives on the watery waste, an mus keeps dry and warm in his cave. Caves The lion’s extended claws and the gaping jaws image of chaos in the Greek tradition (as in in the Odyssey are strongly associated with of its spatchcocked head loom over the felled the Hebrew), while the women weave cover- females; Polyphemus’s is a distinctly mater- Lapith, whose garments have fallen open to ings that protect the body from the world’s nal space. Full of lambs, kids, and sucklings reveal his naked body. The sculpture is a pe- harshness. This gendered division is repli- pulling at swollen udders, it is packed with culiarly refined and moving expression of the cated in the names of the Phaeacian rulers, brimming buckets of milk and whey and sudden collapse of civility and culture when

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 101 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm law, custom, and conscience—weakened, in chthonic forces harnessed by #MeToo, and men and women whose cautious sensitivity this instance, by an excess of wine—cease electronically volatilized into outraged mobs, to the feelings of others will in fact be rooted to constrain the wild impulses of the human fly the banners of social justice and progres- in fear and psychological dependency. To this soul. sivism. But so, too, did the Bolsheviks, from end, it considers human beings strictly in ag- The prospect of a revenge of the primitive whom today’s feminist militants, schooled in gregate, as interchangeable members of a cer- was never far from the minds of the ancient “intersectionality,” have borrowed the nihil- tain group (like the indistinguishable math- worshippers of Athena, who is said to have istic habit of thinking in crude and divisive ematical units that make up any given num- tamed the Furies that hounded the matri- categories forged in the smithy of cultural ber when summed), singling out particular cide Orestes. That prospect still ought to and historical forgetfulness. They are in fact individuals when it is thought that targeting weigh heavily on our minds. Sexual violence, more oblivious than their ideological fore- them—which it does by a variety of malicious which is mostly (but not exclusively) perpe- bears, whose catastrophic record in the 20th methods, including public shaming, “doxing,” trated by males, and which is found in every century lies in the plain view of anyone not slander, libel, and physical confrontation— social institution and across the political blinded by extreme indignation. will help suppress nonconforming speech and spectrum, is politically destructive as well as Today’s fiery ideologists, male and female action. And it seeks to rationalize collective morally deplorable. In Kill All Normies: On- alike, have forgotten that human life is a memory by anathematizing past words and line Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to whole greater than the sum of its parts—one deeds (and sometimes relocating or destroy- Trump and the Alt-Right (2017), Angela Na- that is rounded, sustained, and protected by ing monuments thereof) that are judged to gle notes that internet chat rooms of the so- the natural union of these parts. Lear’s clown be incommensurable with the desired social called “manosphere” have spawned a vicious compares the two crowns of his divided king- totality. “anti-feminist masculinist politics.” Carried dom to the halves of an eggshell that once en- All of this evokes revulsion in my male to its logical conclusion, this radical misog- cased a golden yolk. That is a good image of friends—those who retain a vital connec- yny would terminate in a sterile, doomed the thin calcification of humanity, devoid of tion with the past, and a sense that thinking patriarchy: the tragic fulfillment of the life and growth, that is all that remains when and speaking for oneself and standing surety dream of Euripides’ Hippolytus and Jason, the vital, complementary strengths of males for one’s own judgments and deeds are non- who longed for a world without women. But and females are sundered from one another. negotiable elements of a dignified human Nagle also observes that this online hateful- Plato was fond of comparing individual existence. Of course, this revulsion is almost ness “developed in the context of evermore human souls to irrational numbers, whose never voiced in public. The age of Homeric radical liberal gender politics and increas- expression in the modern notation of a deci- heroes—of men in full, so much better than ingly common anti-male rhetoric that went mal series is unrepeating and interminable. us and so much worse—is dead and gone. But from obscure feminist online spaces to the Yevgeny Zamyatin borrows this image in his we know that a society that punishes those mainstream.” Extremism breeds extremism, great dystopian anti-Soviet novel We (1924), who attempt to articulate reality as they see and it becomes increasingly difficult to hew set in a dystopian future after a world war has it will eventually go insane. We know that hu- to the middle line. killed 80% of all human beings. The ideologi- man life will never again be whole and healthy With respect to today’s surging “gender cal calculus of the One State aims forcefully if men and women are unable to recognize politics,” it is insufficient to observe that the to rationalize all individual spiritual infini- and respect their natural differences. Bur- equation of speech with violence and the ties and integrate them into a closed and fi- dened with this knowledge we make shift as insistence on safe spaces and trigger warn- nite social totality, one in which violence and we can, like people condemned to witness a ings are particularly infantilizing extensions suffering have been eliminated along with riotous crowd slaughtering their livestock and of the overprotective impulses of what for at individual freedom. Like the One State, the pillaging their homes. least 50 years has been called the “nanny state.” matriarchal social reckoning now afoot in the Mature adults with even a trace of spirited United States springs from a sense of histori- Jacob Howland is the McFarlin Professor of individuality must find that relatively benign cal trauma. It also employs a similar leveling Philosophy at the University of Tulsa and the locution laughably inadequate to the scold- calculus for a similar purpose. It aims to pro- author, most recently, of Glaucon’s Fate: His- ing, smothering matriarchy our present-day duce a society composed essentially of do- tory, Myth, and Character in Plato’s Repub- Furies seem hell-bent on establishing. The mesticated children: mild and unthreatening lic (Paul Dry Books).

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 102 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

A Tale of Two Markets

hat on earth has happened to Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways to Marriott, would screen movies like these in every the- the movies? Why is it so hard to Tiffany, the Gap, Versace, Coach, and now ater, on the ground that their ugly, amoral vi- Wfind a compelling human drama, a the Houston Rockets. But these are newbies sion makes excellent propaganda supporting genuinely amusing comedy, or even a clever compared to Hollywood. Although it doesn’t the official Chinese view of America as a civi- and visually pleasing animated feature in a get much attention in the U.S. media, Hol- lization in decline. theater nowadays? When did the big screen lywood has come to realize, just in the past Then there’s television. It is too late to ask get taken over by comic books and video two years, that the People’s Republic is not what happened to the networks. They sold games? Who brainwashed Hollywood into Shangri-La but a 21st-century Brave New their birthright 30 years ago, when compe- churning out endless wannabe blockbusters World—a digital dystopia where the rulers tition from cable and the VCR led them to about superheroes blasting away at super- use entertainment to distract and indoctri- replace their costly “scripted” programs with villains? Why are the multi-million-dollar nate the masses. cheap “unscripted” talk and reality shows. special effects in these movies so cheesy Unfortunately, these unscripted shows proved that even this non-gamer wishes she had a For America, Darkness and Trash easier to clone than the scripted ones, and joystick, gamepad, or light gun just to keep soon there were hundreds of them compet- from nodding off? eanwhile, back in the states, ing for eyeballs, not only on the networks but One obvious culprit is China, the first over- the main alternative to superhero also on cable and in syndication. Some reality seas market in history to shape decisively the Mtedium is a cult of “darkness” ex- shows—American Idol, for example—spoke priorities of the American film industry. For emplified byOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, to the aspirations of young people in the the past several years, Hollywood has seen Quentin Tarantino’s nostalgic tribute to pro- United States and around the world. But ow- China as a glittering Shangri-La where cin- miscuity, alcoholism, drug abuse, brutality, ing to the cutthroat nature of the competition, eplexes sprout like mushrooms and 1.4 billion and murder in the summer of 1969. Typical the overall trajectory of these shows has been consumers are insatiably eager to spend heaps of Tarantino, the decadence and violence are downward, toward crude voyeurism. There of money on mindless blockbusters. Yet gain- accompanied by a soundtrack of upbeat pop can be little doubt that “trash TV” like The ing access to that pot of gold has been tricky, music, a gimmick that by creating a cheap and Jerry Springer Show (1991–2018) and Keep- because movies are not like other products. instant feeling of irony impresses a certain ing Up with the Kardashians (2007-present) Each new release is a unique cultural expres- type of critic (generally speaking, the type has contributed to the coarsening and incivil- sion, which may or may not appeal to audi- who revels in the film’s depiction of a wild ity, not just of American television but also ences, never mind the censorious guardians of party at the Playboy Mansion while prais- of what used to be called American political the Chinese box office. Hollywood has long ing Tarantino for breaking off his long-term discourse. dreamed of inventing a dependable, risk-free friendship with Harvey Weinstein). Back in the 1980s, when China was ex- widget that will appeal to vast audiences and Another recent film,The Joker, borrows tending its state TV system to every corner of generate a consistently high return on invest- heavily from the 2008 Batman movie, The its vast territory, it imported American shows ment. The pressures exerted by the Chinese Dark Knight, but omits the superhero and to attract viewers. (When visiting Beijing market have brought this dream closer than gives top billing to the supervillain. Ann in the late 2000s, I met several people who ever. All it takes is an assembly line stamping Hornaday of the Washington Post accurately fondly recalled The Brady Bunch as their first out loud, vapid movies that have nothing to skewered The Joker as “a flagrantly seedy introduction to American culture.) But after say except what Beijing allows—or encour- movie, one that constantly evokes the garbage, crushing the pro-democracy movement in ages—them to say. vermin and social apathy that New York was 1989, the regime began encouraging Chinese This assembly line has slowed since Xi Jin- known for at its worst. Welcome to Gotham companies to produce what might be called ping came to power. Outwardly confident but City, where the weak are killed and eaten.” “U.S. entertainment with Chinese character- inwardly insecure, the Communist Party has Neither Once Upon a Time in Hollywood istics.” This included talk and reality shows been playing rougher than usual with a wide nor The Joker has been allowed into China, and, in 2006, the finale of anAmerican Idol- range of independent companies, from Hong although if the party were a little savvier it style singing contest called Super Girl that at-

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 103 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

tracted the largest audience in Chinese tele- ity to keep viewers hooked with a steady sup- vision history. But instead of being pleased, ply of bizarre plot twists that continue as long the party objected to the fact that millions of as advertisers stay interested. The first such viewers had been encouraged to take the po- program was created in 1930 by Irna Phillips, in the litically forbidden step of voting for the winner. a second-generation immigrant who worked High-level meetings were held, and this simu- at radio station WGN in Chicago—and yes, next issue lacrum of democracy was condemned as “vul- one of the sponsors was a soap company. In gar” (which it wasn’t) and canceled just before 1937 Phillips went to NBC radio and created the 2008 Beijing Olympics. the longest-running soap in history, Guiding Last month, during the lead-up to the 70th Light, which ran on television until 2009. anniversary of the founding of the People’s That’s 40 years longer than CBS’sThe Bold Republic, the Central Propaganda Depart- and the Beautiful, which premiered in 1987 and CRB Winter 2019/20 ment, which now controls every aspect of the aired its 8,000th episode this past January. But media, instructed all TV outlets to refrain after the first 30 years, who’s counting? Osten- from airing “any period or ‘idol dramas’ that sibly about the world of high fashion and the Conrad Black are too entertaining” and instead fill their class divide between wealthy and middle-class schedules with shows extolling the “different Americans, this convoluted saga’s real subject is Brett Kavanaugh stages of the Chinese people’s road to inde- the sex life of a woman called Brooke Logan, pendence, prosperity, and strength.” The stat- who keeps marrying and divorcing various Angelo M. Codevilla ed goal, to provide programming “appropriate men, especially members of a family named Real Fascism for the whole environment during this period,” Forrester who own a successful fashion house contained a distinct—and, for many Chinese, in Los Angeles. Last I checked, Brooke had an alarming—echo of Maoist totalitarianism. been married three times to the family patri- Helen Andrews arch, five times to the eldest son, and once to The Age of Entitlement Getting from Point A to Point Z the younger son. As in any long-lived soap, the various stories are not woven together so much Brian A. Smith ased on what i’ve said so far, this as bent, crumpled, and pretzeled to the point America’s tale of two markets looks bleak. On of resembling the old novelty song in which a Revolutionary Mind Bthe one hand, the Chinese market is man’s family relations get so tangled that he a place where the cost of doing business in- ends up being his own grandfather. cludes total submission to the party line. On In the 1980s, “prime-time soaps” such as Daniel J. Mahoney the other, the American market is in thrall to Dallas, Knots Landing, and Dynasty attracted Liberalism & a pseudo-sophisticated “dark” sensibility that huge and diverse audiences in the networks’ Its Discontents insists on portraying America as a sick society lucrative evening time slots. But these shows, suffering death throes, and dismisses as feel- too, were engineered for longevity. Taking good pabulum any effort to depict the country their cues from the daytime soaps, they resort- Ralph Lerner in a more positive, or even a balanced, light. ed to all sorts of contrivances and cliffhangers Edmund Burke Fortunately, there is more to tell. In 1995, (“Who shot J.R.?”) to keep people tuning in. when New York Times literary editor Charles By the time these began to wear thin, viewers Forrest Nabors McGrath suggested that “TV is actually en- were already discovering the more satisfying What Was joying a sort of golden age,” he was not refer- alternative of the limited series, which had ring to talk and reality shows. Instead, he had been around since the 1970s, when PBS be- Reconstruction? in mind a new TV genre then gaining cultural gan airing popular British series such as such influence and market share. That genre, best as Upstairs, Downstairs, and later The Duchess Ronald W. Dworkin described by the British term “limited series,” of Duke Street and the original House of Cards Trusting Our Doctors departed from the traditional practice of hav- (much superior to the later Netflix version). ing each episode of a TV series tell a stand- The chief virtue of the limited series is that Mark Bauerlein alone story. The purpose of that practice was it does not contort itself to stay on the air for- to produce self-contained units that could be ever. Instead, it stays no longer than necessary How We Read watched in any order, aired as re-runs, and to tell a particular story. In the words of Vince sold to other broadcasters. The limited series Gilligan, creator of the acclaimed limited se- Algis Valiunas does the opposite: it weaves several stories to- ries Breaking Bad (2008-13), the secret is not Percy Bysshe Shelley gether over two or more episodes, and expects to keep the “characters in a self-imposed stasis” viewers to keep track by watching all the epi- but to move them “from point A…to point Z.” sodes in sequence. This may not be a sufficient condition for great Subscribe today. A somewhat similar expectation has long television, but it is a necessary one. This for- existed for viewers of the humble soap opera, mat is roomy enough, but also shapely enough, www.claremont.org/subscribe but in that case keeping track is made easier by for a rich development of character and plot airing a new half-hour episode each day. The while also adhering to the classic structure soap, which began in the early years of radio of beginning, middle, and end. No wonder then moved to television, is known for its abil- many of the most esteemed network shows,

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 104 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

from Roots in 1977 to Lonesome Dove in 1989, new content on the Netflix home page, a lot dark comedy about women in prison (Orange were limited series. In the early 2000s the for- of it is going unwatched. Is the New Black on Netflix), and a raunchy mat was taken up by the cable channel HBO, This is pure speculation, I admit. But dark comedy about women not in prison which gained prestige (and subscribers) with Netflix is notorious for not publishing view- (Fleabag on Prime Video). such outstanding productions as The Sopra- er data, except to throw the occasional fat The rest of the shows are pretty formulaic. nos (1999–2007), Band of Brothers (2001), and figure to the media, where it gets recycled so There are the “historical” dramas whose plots John Adams (2008). often, people begin to believe it. My specu- consist largely of setting the stage for the mo- lation is somewhat supported by the fact ment when hunky heroes rip the bodices off How Will the Streaming Wars End? that in July Netflix reported a major de- witty, empowered heroines. There are the cline in the number of subscribers, and one “noir” detective sagas that follow the descent oday, the limited series is the of the main explanations offered was that a into madness of chronically depressed sleuths most prominent feature in an enter- fair number of people had been logging on tormented by the hideous crimes they are in- Ttainment landscape transformed by to Netflix not to watch its original content vestigating. There are the small-town myster- drastic changes in technology and viewing but to access their favorite movies and TV ies that start with nice, blond, smiling families habits, most notably among digital natives shows from (you guessed it) NBC, Warner then plunge them into swirling maelstroms of (i.e., people who text with their thumbs). Most Bros., and Disney. occult evil. And so forth. digital natives do not own TV sets, because It is worrisome and annoying that the ma- With regard to liberty—specifically they watch everything via streaming video on jority of reporters who cover the streaming America’s vexed tradition of free speech and their laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other wars focus narrowly on the question of which expression—it is necessary to consider that, mobile devices. Whether or not this change U.S. company is going to make the most although none of these American streaming constitutes cultural as well as technological money in the U.S. market. Amid the welter of services will ever be allowed to operate in Chi- progress depends on what is being watched. na, as producers of content they are all desper- Streaming video seems the natural home of ately eager to sell their wares to their Chinese the limited series, and on a good day I would American producers counterparts. And because of the restraints argue that, because this genre has come to oc- under which they must operate, the Chinese cupy the vital space between popular and elite of content are all streaming services are just as desperately ea- taste once occupied by the novel, it makes per- desperately eager to ger to buy American content, provided it can fect sense that we are accessing it on devices be brought into alignment with Xi Jinping roughly the size of books. sell their wares to Thought. With this oxymoron in mind, I will But that is on a good day. On a bad day— their Chinese now end my tale with a brief glance at how the for example, a day spent pondering what Chinese streaming wars are playing out. the trade papers, pundits, and mainstream counterparts. At first glance, the competition for stream- media are calling “the streaming wars”—I ing dominance in China looks similar to the worry about the competition now heating one occurring in America. The Chinese up between the best-known streaming plat- informed speculation about pricing schemes, equivalent of Netflix, a streaming service form, Netflix, and a slew of potential rivals: possible acquisitions, projections of consumer called iQiyi, is facing stiff challenges from an Amazon’s Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, behavior, and a zillion other bottom-line-re- existing rival, Tencent Video, and a newly es- HBO Max, Peacock, YouTube TV, and Face- lated concerns, it is hard to find more than a tablished one, Youku Tudou. Like their U.S. book’s Portal TV. passing reference to that other market, China, counterparts, these streaming warriors are The effects of that competition can -al which is still decisively shaping the landscape. owned by large corporations—iQiyi by Baidu ready be felt. For example, Netflix made its And it is impossible to find any serious reflec- (the Chinese equivalent of Google); Tencent name as an “aggregator” of streaming content tion on the larger implications of the stream- Video by Tencent (the Chinese equivalent of produced by others. But in the last year or so, ing wars on American culture and liberty. Google, Facebook, and Apple combined); and would-be rivals such as NBC, Warner Bros., With regard to culture, the situation does Youku Tudou by Alibaba (the Chinese equiv- and Disney have been pulling their films and not bode well. Competition may be a good alent of Amazon). But appearances can be TV shows from Netflix in order to stream thing, but as we have seen time and again, deceiving, because none of these companies them on their own newly created platforms. when media competition is not regulated ac- is in fact the equivalent of Netflix, Google, Netflix is trying to make up for this loss by cording to certain standards of quality and Facebook, Apple, or Amazon. On the con- becoming a producer in its own right. Forti- probity, it quickly becomes a race to the bot- trary, they are all fully vetted subsidiaries of fied by the success of the first “Netflix Origi- tom. Again, Netflix does not publish viewer the Communist Party’s Central Propaganda nal Series,” a remake of the British show data. But that is not the point here. We don’t Department. And while their competition is House of Cards, the company pumped $12 need statistics to see that the company’s multi- real, the outcome will be very different from billion into new content last year and has billion-dollar investment in original content the outcome in America. The winner will take budgeted $15 billion for 2019. But to judge seems to be yielding a sorry crop. The two all, and that winner will not be one of these by the noisy and aggressive promotion of this most popular streaming series are a raunchy companies. It will be the regime.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 105 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

What Iran Sees

n a not exactly churchillian 2012 foreign affairs cover majority, and Islam the dominant, unforgiving belief system. Active story, “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb,” distinguished professor with extraordinary chutzpah in the politics of Western nations (per- IKenneth Waltz argued that “a nuclear armed Iran would be…the haps “chutzpah” is the wrong word, but how else to describe the work best possible result,” as Iran is rational, and a balance to Israel’s nuclear of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?), adherents of aggressive Islam ap- weapons would stabilize the Middle East. pear to Tehran the way American pioneers appeared to Bostonians, as Iran is indeed rational—according to its aims. Reason ascends from advance agents of manifest destiny. postulates. Accepting the postulate that the Jews must be exterminated, the Final Solution was rational. And as for stabilizing the Middle East, he islamic doctrine of taqiya, fundamental to shia the- we see every day, even absent a nuclear backstop, Iran’s depredations. ology, allows lying to unbelievers. Iranian Foreign Minister Ja- Those who posit that Israel’s certain nuclear retaliation would keep Tvad Zarif: “When did we say we want to annihilate Israel?” The a nuclear Iran in check ignore, variously, the Shiite theology of martyr- answer is: all the time, such as when Ahmad Alamolhoda, a deputy of dom; a gamble that Israel’s retaliatory capacity would be eliminated in the supreme leader, said in September, “Israel will be totally demol- a first strike; and, more pertinently, in a conventional battle that Israel ished within half a day,” or when the commander of the Iranian Revo- was losing, the neutralization of its nuclear deterrent. Only Israel’s re- lutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, claimed “the capability to an- gional nuclear monopoly saved it in 1973, when little stood between nihilate” Israel, which “must be wiped off the world geographic [map].” the Egyptian army and Tel Aviv. Monsieur Salami tellingly followed this with: “In the second step A nuclear armed Iran would dominate the Middle East even more we will be thinking of the global mobilization of Islam.” Apparently, than it now does. The threat to Europe would further cleave European Mr. Alamolhoda concurs: “Iraqi Hashd al Sha’bi, Lebanese Hezbol- and U.S. interests in the area, America would be further expelled, and lah, Yemeni Ansarallah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Palestine, and the Sunni states subordinated or conquered. Not surprisingly, conven- the Syrian Homeland Front are all part of Iran,” because “Iran is no tional wisdom fails to foresee this outcome just as it failed to foresee longer limited to its borders.” today’s Iranian domination from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, a The Islamic, Mongol, Spanish, Napoleonic, and Hitlerian conquests trick the United States at the height of its postwar hegemony could not may seem remote to that subset of Americans aware of them. Even the accomplish via the failed Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) Treaty. most knowledgeable among us cannot entirely escape the traditional Among other things, the conventional wisdom takes no account of the fallacy that we are perfectly shielded by the oceans. And a quick glance broader context, which in this case is what Iran sees when it looks at the at relative strengths renders any idea of an Iranian threat to the U.S. world, and therefore what it wants, expects, and will try to accomplish. seemingly ridiculous. A cowardly Gallic insight—valuable in that it dovetails with Ira- But couple a medieval sensibility, thirst for payback, the tradition of nian conceptions—was recently expressed in the Le Figaro headline, martyrdom, and absolute belief in religious destiny, with nuclear weap- “Une leçon à méditer pour Trump: même Rome n’a pas réussi à conquérir ons, ICBMs, and even lesser-range missiles sea-launched from freighter la Perse!” (A lesson for Trump to meditate upon: even Rome did not decks or over the side, and you have the kind of imaginative, asymmetric succeed in conquering Persia!) scenarios that have changed history from the beginning of time. Only Unlike most Americans, who—though it is they who will ultimately one or two relatively low-yield nuclear detonations over the United States decide American policy toward Iran—cannot find it on the map, Iran could produce an electromagnetic pulse that would in a relatively short looks upon the world and sees a demographically hot Muslim popula- time destroy the nation. Unless Iran is stripped of its nuclear potential— tion heading toward 2 billion, Islamic countries stretching from Indone- a gift of multiple American administrations, some far more than oth- sia through Morocco, 141E to 17W—almost half the globe—and from ers—in the near future we will be facing a new and perilous front. Kazakhstan through sub-Saharan Africa. Large Islamic populations Throughout history, great convulsions have required inspiration, elsewhere include 44 million in Europe. Though they are often savagely will, mobilization, and resources approximately balanced with those divided and, on the whole, predominantly peaceful, in Iran’s eyes Mus- of the order to be overturned. The advent of nuclear weapons, other lims share the common goal of a unifiedummah and the Islamization of means of mass destruction, and the technological fragility of advanced the world. We may perceive permanent schism, but, like either the Allies states means that resources need no longer approximate those of the or the Axis in World War II, Islamists see unity after future victory. intended target. Therefore, it is essential to know the mind and intent The tide of Islam once surged to the gates of Paris and Vienna; of enemies that not so long ago could be justifiably dismissed. Spain and Sicily were Arab, the Mediterranean a pirate lake. Now, in a Persia was once master of most of the classical world, and Islam had declining Europe emasculated by the world wars and wolfing down the in its sights dominion over the known world. Iran sees this not as some- suicidal poisons of modernity, Muslims have a fair bid at becoming the thing forever remote, but as the inevitable and beckoning light ahead.

Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2019 Page 106 Uc23778 Claremont Review 1 page jal 9/18 New from CHICAGO

Leo Strauss on Hegel Edited by Paul Franco This volume of the Leo Strauss Transcript Series reconstructs Strauss’s seminar on Hegel, supplemented by passages from an earlier version of the seminar from which only fragments of a transcript remain. The Leo Strauss Transcript Series Cloth $45.00

Dangerous Counsel Accountability and Advice in Ancient Greece Matthew Landauer “This is a clever, thought-provoking, and knowledgeable work that makes a signiﬁ cant contribution to the understanding of ancient Greek political thought.” —Melissa Lane, Princeton University Paper $30.00

Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in Translation A History from the Thirteenth Century to the Twentieth Edited by Josef Stern, James T. Robinson, and Yonatan Shemesh “No other volume has taken up the reception history of the Guide of the Perplexed through a focus on the translations themselves. The Guide is vastly inﬂ uential in the history of Jewish as well as Christian scholastic philosophy and this will make an important contribution to scholarship.” —Adam Shear, University of Pittsburgh Cloth $55.00

Now in Paperback Nietzsche’s Final Teaching Michael Allen Gillespie “This is a beautifully written account of Nietzsche’s ‘ﬁ nal teaching,’ engaging the rich intersection of Nietzsche’s thinking with the major twentieth-century interpretations of his thought from Heidegger and Klossowski to Lampert and Strauss.” —Babette Babich, Fordham University Paper $28.00

The University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu “A fascinating and important book, “Erudite, enlightening, and wonderfully “Weitz, one of the foremost historians written in an engaging style and provocative, Escape from Rome of human rights and genocide, brings a packed with intriguing examples.” is destined to become a classic.” lifetime of research to bear in —Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge —Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire this sweeping and accessible book.”

Cloth $27.95 Cloth $35.00 —Kathryn Sikkink, author of Evidence for Hope Princeton Economic History of the Western World Cloth $35.00 Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity

“These writings of Plutarch are surprisingly “In translating [Smith] for our times, “The story of the Habsburg Empire, which relevant to political life in twenty-first-century Hanley offers a gem of a book, a guide shaped key episodes of European history for democracies and deserve to be better known. to a great thinker that is full of insights several centuries, is one of endurance and How to Be a Leader brings these works to about the practical pursuit of living well.” finesse. A gripping and insightful work that modern readers in an accessible way.” —Darrin M. McMahon, author of yields lessons for statecraft in our own time.” —Timothy Duff, University of Reading Happiness: A History —Henry A. Kissinger

Cloth $16.95 Cloth $17.95 Paper $24.95 | Cloth $35.00 Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

Social icon Rounded square

Only use blue and/or white.

For more details check out our Brand Guidelines.