The French philosophes, so the schoolbooks usually say, were mighty champions of liberty; they preached the defense of freedom against the arbitrary powers of the state. Did not Diderot write, “Each century is characterized by a specific spirit. The spirit …
In the first quarter of the 19th century, secret societies of English working men banded together to defend themselves against the machine. Determined to destroy the looms that were displacing them, they roamed through West Riding and Lancashire and Nottingham …
I envy the Russians. They destroy their discarded leaders. If a Khrushchev has to be deposed, he is utterly done in, made into an unperson, prevented from speaking in his own behalf, rendered incapable of hurling accusations against former associates …
Five years ago it was widely believed that the British Labor Party had become a permanent minority. Unable to compete with Tory affluence, burdened with an “old-fashioned” ideology, dependent on a working class doomed to long-term numerical decline, the party …
For radicals, it is good news. The civil rights movement is undergoing a change; the grit of protest is becoming a political pearl, as predicted by those who see the movement as a potential catalyst for broad social change. CORE …
At first the 1964 election seemed to promise a new politicized atmosphere, but these expectations were hardly fulfilled. The results were less a mandate for a program than an overwhelming rejection of Goldwater madness. Democratic campaign propaganda either appealed to …
Dear _______, In this first letter after the election you doubtless expect us to gloat over the margin, or ride you about the decline of your party, to say that it serves you right, and “that settles that.” Of course …
Well, the nation has saved itself from the disgrace of Goldwaterism. Mostly, it seems, because the fear of atomic war proved to be decisive: it’s one thing to rant and rumble about getting tough with the Commies, quite another to …
Within the past decade a group of “New Civilian Militarists” has arisen to supply the Establishment with some natural and social scientific armor—Teller, Kahn, Kissinger, many others. Slowly a counterforce to the NCM has been growing on the American campus, …
Your readers will be interested in a most significant political contest in Massachusetts. Noel Day of Boston is Independent Candidate for U.S. Congress, 9th Congressional District. Mr. Day’s Democratic opponent is John W. McCormack, the Speaker of the U.S. House …
James Forrestal: A Study in Personality, Politics, and Policy by Arnold A. Rogow Macmillan, 1963, $6.95 Arnold Rogow is seriously concerned about the impact of psychological disorder on politics and examines it through the career of James Forrestal, who began …
Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form by Lionel Abel Hill and Wang, 146 pp., $1.45 Heretofore most theorists of high drama have usually offered us this choice: Sophocles or Shakespeare. Critics who all their lives had pondered the Greek …
On Dealing with the Communist World by George F. Kennan Harper and Row, for the Council on Foreign Relations, 1964, $3.00 Winning Without War by Amitai Etzioni Doubleday, 1964, $4.95 With his customary precision, forcefulness, and expository elegance, George Kennan …
The recent revival of social criticism in America ought to be welcomed, of course. But social criticism is too easily separated from the rest of the political process; one notices in the…
In a recent essay (“In Defense of Inconsistency” DISSENT Spring 1964), the Polish writer Leszek Kolakowski characterizes the consistent man of action as one who is ready to impose his views “by war, by aggression, by provocation, by blackmail, by …
