All too often, the kind of essay in political thought that hits the bookstores wearing the wrapper of a distinguished university press makes one’s heart sink. As an academic production it is often admirable. It usually adds at least a …
The Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services threatened, infuriated, and activated women throughout the United States.’ Even before the decision was finally handed down, thousands rallied in Washington in the largest demonstration the capital had ever seen. …
Every society operates with symbols that impart meanings beyond their image. In America, the flag has become the repository of great emotion, in far greater measure than its simple cloth as a symbol of a country’s identity would suggest. For …
The Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies opened its doors in 1982 with seed money from Richard Dennis, Jr., an iconoclastic Chicago commodities trader and Mondale Democrat. The center called itself a “neoliberal” think tank, advocating free markets and a …
During the Gulf War, we heard a lot about the “simplemindedness” of the peace movement. But was it so simpleminded, really? Many of us who supported a policy of sanctions and multilateral containment did so not because we were naive …
I want to suggest that we should understand the wrong in sex discrimination as the imposing of a law of gender identity on lived possibilities—whether those oppressed are women who seek to be truck drivers or prison guards or homosexual …
By the usual standards of American politics, the evening was a smashing success. This spring’s fundraising dinner for the Democratic National Committee brought several thousand lobbyists, major donors, and other fixtures of the permanent government to the Washington Hilton. The …
“A very perfect gentile knight” —Sir Ralf Dahrendorf was born in the Weimar Republic, the son of a Social Democratic deputy in the Reichstag who suffered imprisonment under Hitler; he himself studied and taught at several Western campuses, entered West …
Family law has become highly controversial in the last two decades. Child custody, child and spouse abuse, and surrogate motherhood are the issues most likely to capture the attention of the media. But these are not the only troubling issues. …
George Bush hopes that his “new world order” in the wake of the Iraq war will include a measure of democratization in the Persian Gulf states and the larger Arab world. Calls for democratization have also come from people in …
The thirteen essays in this volume were originally commissioned by the American Historical Association as a series of pamphlets to acquaint schoolteachers with the latest trends in historical writing about the United States. The contributors are well known and highly …
“It is not a correct deduction from the Principles of Economics that enlightened self-interest always operates in the public interest.” Thus John Maynard Keynes in an essay written in 1926 whose title Robert Kuttner has borrowed for this stunning excoriation …
Justice William Brennan’s retirement from the Supreme Court was “exciting news” for Beverly LaHaye, president of Concerned Women for America, an organization boasting a God-given mandate to protect American families from feminists and other “liberal humanists.” Chief among Brennan’s sins, …
Adel Darwish is a London-based investigative journalist—a correspondent for the Independent and a regular contributor to the Economist—who has specialized in ferreting out European arms exports to Saddam Hussein. With “Gregory Alexander,” a pseudonymous British defense journalist, former army officer, …
This conversation on President Bush’s “bold new plan” for American education was conducted between Brian Morton, asking questions, and our co-editor Deborah Meier, who has gained nationwide praise as founder and director of the Central Park East public schools in …
