Monica’s Story by Andrew Morton St. Martin’s Press, 1999, 288 pp., $24.95 In September 1998, when Congress released independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s referral to the U.S. House of Representatives, a rivulet of amateur cultural anthropologists and professional literary critics appeared …
The End of Utopia: Politics and Culture in an Age of Apathy by Russell Jacoby Basic Books, 1999 ,236 pp., $26 “If you can’t say anything nice,” my mother used to admonish, “don’t say anything at all.” Presumably Russell Jacoby’s …
Asian democrats, human rights activists, and scholars, including some whose essays are under review here, have debunked the idea that there is a set of values that are “Asian” in the sense that they span the continent’s diverse cultures.
The big thing about any New York neighborhood is its relationship to the center. The city center in Manhattan, with its spectacular cluster of big buildings and bright lights, has a magical aura. It is the focal point of every …
“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 …
The walls of Maurice Bishop’s prime ministerial office are still blackened from the flames that swept through Butler House during the U.S. invasion in 1983. Some Grenadians say the fire that engulfed the government compound high upon the bluff at …
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 …
