Roots of Fascism  

Until recently, the question of the origins of fascist ideology seemed a fairly academic affair. Not only have the events of World War II receded in historical memory, but the collapse of communism made it appear that the “age of …



Charles Taylor Responds  

A diaphanous screen seems to separate “liberals” from opponents, who are often grouped together (by “liberals”) in clumps called “communitarians,” or here “culturalists.” One of the things that doesn’t seem to get through the screen is the sense attributed to …



Layers of Paradox  

Not long ago I was part of a “focus group.” The idea of these things is that a publisher assembles some academics and asks them to assess the need for new materials in a given subject . . . to …



Conscience and Culture  

James Wilson contends that there is a universally human moral sense that makes possible the existence of stable human ‘societies. He divides his moral sense into four parts: sympathy, fairness, self-control, and duty.Wilson thinks that many prevailing doctrines in and …



Ferenc Fehér  

My friend Ferenc Fehér was a remarkably learned, eloquent, brilliant man. But he did not live a happy life, and suffered more than his share of injustice in three worlds. The Nazis murdered his father when he was still a …



Why Intellectual Conservatism Died  

The collapse of intellectual conservatism in America has been as complete as it has been swift. Consider a few contrasts. In 1984, the leading conservative spokesman in the media was George Will; by 1994, it was Rush Limbaugh. The basic …







Anti-Inflation Fanaticism at the Fed  

With the economy growing and inflation steady, why are so many people disgruntled? One reason may be that economic growth has not improved their standard of living. For example, in 1993, despite the economic recovery, the number of Americans below …



Illuminating a Cultural Mood  

On the first page of his introduction, Victor Erlich refers to Irving Howe’s “still resonant” essay “The Idea of the Modern.” It was Howe, many years ago, who suggested to Erlich that he was the right man to unravel the …



Responses  

David Bromwich writes powerfully and at length about the sins of “culturalism,” and my response here can only be brief and incomplete. But these are issues that we will continue to argue about in Dissent; I will look for occasions …







The Politics of Rescue  

To intervene or not?—this should always be a hard question. Even in the case of a brutal civil war or a politically induced famine or the massacre of a local minority, the use of force in other people’s countries should …



Remembering Rose  

In September 1945 Rose Coser and I were new graduate students in the Department of Sociology at Columbia. She was from the beginning a vivid and forceful presence who used to sit in the front of Robert K. Merton’s classes …