“Above all, no program,” was Disraeli’s classic prescription for conservatism. It would serve as well today for many among us who relentlessly assert their radicalism. Their programmatic sterility is surely a bizarre chapter in our political history. What has long …
Imagine a day in the life of a socialist citizen. He hunts in the morning, fishes in the afternoon, rears cattle in the evening, and plays the critic after dinner. Yet he is neither hunter, fisherman, shepherd, nor critic; tomorrow he …
Almost half of the population of the United States is now under twenty-five years of age. This unprecedented demographic fact is well on the way toward changing completely the texture of American politics, as the McCarthy campaign has shown in …
What exactly was about to happen in June 1967, before Israel’s decisive counterstroke, has been the subject of much debate in the European press.
Michael Harrington’s article in the March-April DISSENT admirably presents the moral-political issues involved in various forms of “resistance.” The American Civil Liberties Union has recently been compelled to grapple with these same problems from its own special angle. Which practices …
Max Freedman, the editor of this volume, tells of a visit to Felix Frankfurter on February 20, 1965, just two days before the latter’s death: “Tell the whole story. Let people see how much I loved Roosevelt, how much I loved …
As we learned after Hiroshima, a number of the scientists who had worked on the bomb were concerned about its implications from the outset. After 1945, many people in various countries sought to reorient their way of thinking about war …
The literate’s schadenfreude over reviews of Norman Podhoretz’s autobiography certifies Making It as the most provocative book so far in 1968. This very fact might be said to attest to the validity of Podhoretz’s theme: that nothing counts quite so much among …
When people say “the Negro struggle,” they usually have in mind those groups and activities that represent the effort to achieve the democratic integration of American institutions, an effort inspired by the belief that the Negro, whatever his differences, is as …
Right now, a bimonthly is not exactly the most convenient medium for commenting on the rapidly shifting and enormously exciting political events of the past few days. It would be foolish, a few weeks before these words reach print, to …
Kudos for Abel Editor: Thank you for Lionel Abel. On an exacting day, when fire and brimstone rained down from heaven, rigorist judgment had stipulated for ten. But I believe the March–April issue of Dissent can be saved by just this …
For some time now I have been teaching in a Harlem elementary school and trying to understand the attitudes shown by the parents toward the school. Last September, the teachers’ strike forced me to speculate on how the hostilities of …
In the 1890’s Kansas—dominated by Republicans since Civil War days—fell to the control of the Democrat-People’s party. Political passions were fired so high that armed conflict in the capital was threatened. This state of affairs became known as “The Matter with …
What is most interesting about Felix Greene’s new film—Inside North Vietnam, now showing in New York and theatres throughout the country—is that, for all its claims to truthfulness and humane feeling, it employs a strategy of propaganda not radically different …
This past fall, peace groups in over a dozen cities across the nation sought to place the issue of the Vietnam War before the voters in the November municipal election through use of the initiative petition or referendum.* This novel …
