“Please leave your threat after you hear the beep.” This was the message on Slobodan Milosevic’s answering machine as rendered by a French cartoonist back when Bosnia was being “ethnically cleansed.” The sorry point of this witticism finally became moot …
Left-of-center parties now hold or share power in most North American and West European countries, calling a halt to a conservative era that lasted from the end of the 1970s through the beginning of the 1990s. Much of their success …
In 1956, Mao Zedong completed one of his proudest achievements: the abolition of private property in China. Over forty years later—March 17, 1999, to be exact—the Chinese Communist Party, led by Jiang Zemin, formally reversed course. The National People’s Congress …
In 1996, Congress conditioned federal aid to sex education programs on their adoption of “abstinence only” pedagogy. Instructors must teach that “sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects,” and that …
Prozac Diary by Lauren Slater Random House, 1998, 203 pp., $21.95 In the rich but little-known literature of mental illness, Prozac Diary shines. This slim, elegant memoir, a pastiche of journal entries and meditations, describes the transformative powers of Prozac …
Now that the dust has started to settle, it’s time to assess why the congressional Republicans, in the face of overwhelmingly hostile public opinion, pursue the impeachment of President Clinton to the bitter end. Overwrought idealism was partly responsible, as …
At this writing, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia continues, and the Serbian destruction of Kosovar society also continues. Yes, the Serbian campaign must have been planned before the bombing began; the logistics of moving forty thousand soldiers are immensely complex. …
Every year the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) publishes a monograph titled Economic and Social Progress in Latin America. Most years the reports address a particular theme, some of them of narrow interest. Reading them can be tedious; they are written …
Begin by considering a thing of indisputable beauty and spiritual depth: the High Mass of the Roman Catholic Church. Does its obvious grandeur mean that the state should subsidize its performance? For those who say yes, the case for a …
As I write, the United States has all but entered into full-scale war in Yugoslavia. Almost forgotten in the current preoccupation with the Balkans is the endemic, smoldering combat being waged by America and its allies with Iraq. Ordinary Americans …
Two time honored beliefs about the media were dented by our impeachment year: the right-wing notion that the press has a “liberal bias” and the left-wing theory that the media control public consciousness. Thanks to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, both …
When Transition 51 appeared in 1991, its editors could not have expected many readers to be acquainted with the magazine. Not only had its editorial offices migrated from East Africa to the northeastern United States, but it was emerging from …
The 1970s to 1990s era has witnessed a new archaeology of the African American intelligentsia. This has involved a steady growth of conservatism among black intellectuals and, more recently, some ideological differentiation within conservative ranks. The early set of conservative …
There is not space enough to answer all of Martin Kilson’s characterizations of myself and my essay. Some of these go to the heart of the question as to why I wrote the essay itself. Let me say in this …
With most European countries run by parties that identify themselves as social democratic or socialist, the French left faces a dual challenge: establishing sufficient cooperation with its neighbors in order to shape general European policies, and producing a blueprint for …
