In his essay entitled “The Call to Service,” John Erskine posed these questions: Do you look on the unfortunate as your brothers, in temporary distress, or do you see in them objects of charity? Do you think your function is to serve, and their function is to be served? If by a miracle they should...
Thomas H. Landess died from a sudden illness on January 9, 2012. He was 80 years old. His death was a shock to his family and his many friends. I last heard from Tom two days before his death, an event that was out of mind, so warm and hopeful were his comments. I had...
“A politician . . . one that would circumvent God.” —William Shakespeare Initially, Kevin Phillips intended his new book, American Dynasty, to be a study of the Bush-related transformation of the U.S. presidency into an increasingly dynastic office, a change with profound consequences for the American Republic, given the factors of family bias, domestic special...
Until the advent of the long-playing record, almost all of the music of Hector Berlioz was, for most Americans, a silent enigma, available only to those who could read a score and really hear it. Otherwise reasonable critics wrote of his “half-crazy ideas.” Some argued that he achieved his effects, both good and bad, “by...
In recent years, there has been a spate of valuable books on Soviet espionage, subversion, and penetration of the West—books inspired or prompted by the opening of Soviet secret files, the publication of the Venona intercepts (communications between Soviet agents and Moscow), and the writings of former KGB officials. Among these are Stephen Koch’s Double...
Though more reminiscent of the Middle Ages than of recent times, the marriage ceremony of General P.C.T. Beauregard’s niece. Bertha Hall, the daughter of Angele Beauregard and Frederick Hall, took place in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans only 100 years ago. According to a contemporary newspaper account, the “evening was a scene of much...
“Every honest man is a prophet.” —Blake Whittaker What is now known as the Hiss case exploded across the front pages of the nation’s newspapers on August 4,1948. The day before, Whittaker Chambers—a short, stocky man in a rumpled grey suit—had taken the stand before the House Un-American Activities Committee to...