in a nation that has only justnbecome conscious ofnCommunism and still rejectsnsocialism. So, at every movenagainst Communism, liberalnviews come unglued, and liberalnvoices go shrill, fearing that, byndesign or error, the move maynbe against themselves.nYet if Chambers rejected 20thcenturynliberalism, he was not muchnmore sympathetic to the conservativesnof the 1950’s. He declined to attachnhimself in any way to Joe McCarthy,nless perhaps from dislike of the mannthan a belief that McCarthy wouldneventually taint his witness. He was notncomfortable at National Review andnfound preposterous the quaint dogmasnof classical liberalism dressed up asnconservatism. In a letter to Buckley inn1957, he called the free-market economistnLudwig von Mises “a goose,” andnFrank Meyer’s self-appointment as thenideological gatekeeper of the Americannright seems first to have amused, thennbored, him. The ideas of Meyer andnRussell Kirk struck Chambers asn”chiefly an irrelevant buzz.” Only withnBuckley himself and with JamesnBurnham did he seem to share anythingnlike a common outlook, and atnlast he resigned from National Review,nacknowledging to Buckley and himselfnthat he was not a conservative in anynserious sense, but “a man of thenRight.”nWhat exactly Chambers meant bynthis term is far from clear, butnhe contrasted it with “conservatism”nand seems to have identified it with andefense of capitalism. “I am a man ofnthe Right because I mean to upholdncapitalism in its American version. But Inclaim that capitalism is not, and by itsnessential nature cannot conceivably be,nconservative.” Yet despite his identificationnwith capitalism, almost nowherendid Chambers offer an explicit defensenof it, and in both his letters to Buckleynand in a National Review piece ofn1958 on federal farm policy, he wasnperfectly conscious of the contradictionnbetween capitalism and conservatismnand the link between capitalismnand the advance of socialism. Likenmost conservatives and like his neighborsnin rural Maryland, Chambers sawnthe freedom and independence ofnfarmers threatened by federal regulationnof agriculture. But he also believednsuch controls were “inescapable.”nThe problem of farm surplusesnis, of course, a symptom of ancrisis of abundance. It is the giftnof science and technology —nimproved machines, fertilizers,nsprays, antibiotic drugs, and angeneral rising efficiency ofnknow-how. The big farm,nconstantly swallowing its smallern’••^•^•IW'”‘n_ ANDTMr,nORDERINGnLIFEnTOGETHERnRICHARD JOHFinFIEUHAUSnThe EncounternSeries presentsnthe dialoguenof a diversengroup ofntheologians,nethiclsts,nphilosophers,nand publicnpolicy experts on issues involvingnthe relationship ofnreligion and public affairs. Thenindividual volumes, whichnarise out of conferences involvingnparticipants fromnacross the political and religiousnspectrum, include notnonly the essays presented atnthe conference but also anlively narrative of the subsequentndiscussion — a formatnthat allows the reader tonexperience more fully the actualndialogue that took place.nVolume 11nLAW AND THE ORDERINGnOF OUR LIFE TOGETHERnHas law become morally lawless?nHave the connections between lawnand moral legitimization beennsevered? This unfortunate possibilitynis the main concern of Lawnand the Ordering of Our Life Together.nEssays by Susan S. Silbey,nThomas L. Shaffer, Richard Stith,nand Bruce C. Hafen.nPaper, $13.95nnnneighbors, is a logical resultantnof those factors. … If farmersnreally meant to resist thesentrends, to be conservative, tonconserve “a way of life” (as theynoften say), they would smashntheir tractors with sledges, andngo back to the horse-drawnnplow. Of course, they have nonintention of doing anything sonprankish. . . . Controls of onenkind or another are here to staynso long as science andn”‘”–eZ’^’^^…n”The Encounter Series will contributengreatly to our understanding of the partnthat faith plays in the continuing Americannexperiment.” _George Gallup, Jr,nVolume 12nREINHOLD NIEBUHR TODAYnThe Christian address to the great moral,npolitical, and cultural issues of America’snplace in the world has for decades had referencento the work of Reinhold Niebuhr. Innthis volume Niebuhr’s legacy is assessednby a number of authorities. The essays arenby Richard Wightman Fox, Michael J.nSandel, and Ralph Mclnerny.nPaper, $10.95nAt your bookstore, or call 800-633-9326nIn Michigan, call collect 616-459-4591nFAX 616-459-6S40nWM. B. EERDMANSn^ PUBLISHING CO.n2SJ lEFFEKSOS! AVE. S.E. / GRAND RAPrDS, .MICH. +95OJnAPRIL 1990/29n