The editors’ statement raises three questions. First, should the United States practice an active policy for the defense of human rights abroad? The answer, in my view, is yes. It would be best if such a policy were multilateral, and …
Socialist internationalism was originally based on beliefs that few of us hold anymore: that the workers of the world have no country; that the struggle against oppression is the same everywhere; that, even if there are different national “roads” to …
The academic tendency called cultural studies fiercely disbelieves that there are any unmoved movers at work in history. So proponents of cultural studies should not be taken aback by the view that cultural studies itself can be analyzed as an …
Expecting Bill Clinton to do something about human rights in China is like expecting him to do something about campaign finance reform—what we will actually get is a flood of morally earnest talk followed by more morally earnest talk. At …
Should the word “left” matter any more? Identify with it nowadays and the reaction is apt to be a perplexed, crinkled nose. As if to say, “The word’s in bad odor, why use it? In any event, you’ll be taken …
Someone at Columbia University owes David Denby an honorary degree. As matters now stand, he’s already received a B.A. from Columbia College, where, in 1961, he began his undergraduate career by taking Columbia’s pair of required courses in Western literature …
The early New York intellectuals have written so much about themselves, and so many others have written about them, that it seems superfluous to sketch out who they were, where they came from, and which issues most engaged them. It …
On February 22, 1996, two hundred Barnard College clerical workers, members of UAW Local 2110, walked off their jobs, protesting the college’s insistence that they pay more for health insurance and switch health plans. Barnard, and Columbia University with which …
The November elections produced, at best, mixed results. Apart from the marginal Democratic gains in the House and the marginal Republican gains in the Senate, the political landscape looked the same the morning after Election Day as it had the …
Above the Law: Secret Deals, Politics Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice by David Burnham Scribner, 1996. 444 pp. $27.50. David Burnham is one of America’s most distinguished investigative writers. During his years as a reporter …
“Weak,” “toothless,” “worthless” and “a farce”—these were some of the epithets applied to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) labor side accord negotiated by the United States, Mexico, and Canada in 1993. Trade unionists and labor rights supporters were …
What do left intellectuals do when they know that they are too marginalized to change the world? They get busy interpreting the world, of course. And interpreting how we interpret the world, and how the non-Western “Others” interpret it, and …
Tangled Loyalties: The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg by Joshua Rubinstein Basic Books, 1996. 482 pp. $35.00. Finding a good subject is a biographer’s first hurdle, and in choosing Ilya Ehrenburg, Joshua Rubinstein flew right over the bar. What …
Is American feminism about to become interesting again? The June 3, 1996 issue of the New Yorker opened with Betty Friedan’s comments on the Stand for Children event in Washington, D.C. Under the subhead, “A gathering heralds a shift toward …
Democracy’s Discontent by Michael Sandel Harvard University Press, 1996. 417 pp. $24.95. Much of what follows will be rather critical of Michael Sandel’s new book. It would be particularly wicked therefore not to begin by praising some of its many …
