Preventive Detention – and Psychiatry  

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. –Benjamin Franklin   It’s no suprisee that our society contains people who support the idea of preventive detention. What is surprising is …





Politics Across the Country: Ohio  

At the time the political pot should have been stoked, summer was cooling the campuses of Ohio and soothing its streets which, if not exactly safe, at least in the main were without barricades. Because the deadline for voter registration …



The Militarization of Fidelismo  

When René Dumont published the book Cuba: Est-Il Socialiste? earlier this year in France, it created a sensation throughout Europe. A distinguished agronomist who occupies a chair at the Institut National Agronomique in Paris, Dumont (born 1904) is also a …



Politics Across the Country: California  

A note for liberals and radicals who have decided to give politics in America yet one more “last chance,” as well as for those committed for the duration, win or lose: Jess Unruh’s campaign against Ronald Reagan is the most …



The Problem of Imperialism  

The Question Asked: Clearly, a superpower that maintains bases and troops on foreign soil, wages war in faraway countries, provides others with arms worth $3 billion a year, and influences their foreign as well as domestic policies; • a country, …



Politics Across the Country: The South  

The eleven states of the South will be electing 7 governors, 5 U.S. senators, and 106 representatives in 1970. Whatever improvements might come in the elections of lesser officials, it seems a safe bet that the quality of those in …



Politics Across the Country: New York  

A mid-summer look at the prospects for “new” or “radical” politics in the New York-New Jersey region produces mixed reactions. At one end of the political spectrum is a not very attractive candidate for governor of New York, Arthur Goldberg, …



Paris, Capital of the 19th Century  

Selections from the writings of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), the distinguished social and literary critic, have recently become available in a volume entitled Illuminations (Harcourt, Brace & World), edited and with a lengthy biographical and critical introduction by Hannah Arendt. There …



Vietnam and Israel  

August 3, 1970 This article was written before negotiations for a temporary cease-fire in the Middle East were concluded. Naturally I hope that this temporary cease-fire will become a permanent one, and that in turn will lead to a peace …



The Two Nihilisms  

We are living in a period of nihilism, of cultural nihilism—no doubt there are many who would prefer to describe it as one of cultural revolution, of cultural change. But many of those who prefer the word revolution are also …



Vivid Pictures of Bad Old Days  

The Great Depression, b. 1929, d. 1939 (?)—you have to think about those hard times in a context of chronology and generations. For anyone 45 and over the Depression happened too recently; the memory is still painful, we can still …



A Pre-Leninist Theory of American Imperialism  

This is an important, and, in a way, a moving book. Professor Williams is well-known as the author of three hard-hitting works: The Shaping of American Diplomacy, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, and The Contours of American History, which defined …



A Splendid Novel  

It is hard to imagine a contemporary novel making life as difficult for itself, and then performing as creditably, as Waiting for the News. Consider: an unfashionable subject—a Jewish labor organizer in Detroit in the late 1930s fighting on two …



The UAW Speaks Out Against Cambodia  

A few days before his tragic death, Walter Reuther presided over a session of the board of the United Automobile Workers. A major point on its agenda was the Nixon policy regarding Cambodia, and as a result of its discussion, …