sumed within biolog)’. Wilson grew uprnas a devout Southern Baptist; in his adultrnyears, however, he has “put away childishrnthings” and found in his consilientrnworldview adequate solace and sense ofrnpurpose. He is not an atheist: “On religionrnI lean toward deism but consider itsrnproof largely a problem in astrophysics”!rnNevertheless, God—whatever He mayrnbe —has nothing to do with our life onrnearth.rnMr. Wilson fails once more to slay therntranscendentalist dragon. In a well-writtenrndialogue between a Transcendentalistrnand an Empiricist, he has the formerrnsay:rnWhere do the laws of nature comernfrom if not a power higher than thernlaws themselves? .. . Put anotherrnway, why is there something ratherrnthan nothing? The ultimaternmeaning of existence lies.. . outsidernthe province of science.rnHere, for once, is excellent philosophy;rnunfortunately, Mr. Wilson passes byrnthis argument entirely when the Empiricistrnspeaks. The imperatives of consiliencernand reductionism will not be denied.rnWhen Wilson sticks to science, hisrnwork is valuable and illuminating. Hernquickly demolishes a key tenet of Freudianrnpsycholog)’, using the “Westermarckrneffect,” and he has wise things to sayrnabout the excesses of Franz Boas and liisrnschool of anthropolog. If only he hadrnleft philosophy alone!rnDavid Gordon is a senior fellow of thernLudwig von Mises Institute and therneditor of the Mises Review.rnFeeling LikernRussians Againrnb}’ ]ames George ]atrasrnThe Russian Question:rnNationalism, Modernization, andrnPost-Communist Russiarnby Wayne AllensworthrnLanham, MD; Rowman & Littlefield;rn368 pp.. $69.00rnThe status of the American Negrornis that of an oppressed nationalrnminority, and only a Soviet system canrnsolve the question of such minorities,”rnWilliam Z. Foster, long-time chairmanrnof the Conmiunist Party, U.S.A., wroternin his 1932 book. Toward Soviet America.rn”Who are we?” is a question that hasrnhaunted Russians for centuries. The crisisrnof identity that underlies Russia’s efforts tornanswer that question and the country’srnattempts to grapple with modernity—therninventions of an alien civilization—arernexplored in this timely book. Russia’srnresponse to the universal challenge posedrnby modernization’s erosion of communityrnhas been to fall back on that most enduringrnbond of human association—the kinshiprntie—as Allensworth here definesrnnationalism. The author draws on rarernRussian sources to explore the variousrnways nationalists have responded tornmodernization and to chart a likely coursernfor Russia’s future development. FromrnNational Bolshevism to Christianrnnationalism, from Zhirinovskiy tornSolzhenitsyn, this study ties the ideas andrnideologies of nationalism to the questionrnthat produced them and cements theirrnconnection to the crisis of modernity.rn$69.00 hardcoverrn$23.95 paperbackrnTt7ernRU SSI AMrnquesTiOMrnM^ ife„rnNationalism, Modernization,rnand Posl-Communist RussiarnTo order, please contact:rnRowman & LittlefieldrnPublishers, Inc.rn4720 Boston WayrnLanham, IVID 20706rn1-800-462-6420rnAccordingly, the right of self-determinationrnwill apply to Negroes inrnthe American Soviet system. Inrnthe so-called Black Belt of thernSouth, where the Negroes are inrnthe majority, they will have thernfullest right to govern themselvesrnand also such white minorities asrnmay live in this section.rnThus, by sheer sleight of hand, an ethnicrnmajority would be transformed into a minorityrnon its own home territory.rnThankfully, Foster and company neverrngot the opportunity’ to enact their programrnfor rectifying what they believed tornbe America’s irredeemably racist past.rnBut suppose they had? Following thernmodel actuallv put into effect by the SovietrnUnion on the territor)’ of the formerrnRussian empire, it is not hard to see howrnthis principle would have worked out inrnpractice: an African-American republicrnin the Deep South, a Spanish-speakingrnrepublic in most of the Mexican Cession,rnlarge territories in the West assignedrnto various Indian nations (“NavajornAutonomous Republic”), smallrnfrancophone enclaves in Louisiana andrnnorthern Vermont and Maine, and sornforth —all under the tight control of anrna’owedly non-national, even anti-national,rnregime determined to efface anyrnmemor)’ of the former American nation.rnA truncated “American” (i.e., white, English-rnspeaking) republic would occupyrnmost of the Midwest, Upper South, andrnNortheast, itself riddled with autonomousrnregions for Indians and real orrnimagined ethnic minorities, like PennsyK’aniarnGermans, Chicago Poles, andrnCape Cod Portuguese. Even within thernborders of this rump America, the residualrnnon-minorits’ American identity, stillrnsuspect as the former oppressing power,rnwould be subject to unblinking scrutinyrnfor any signs of reawakening chauvinism.rnAnd now, suppose that—after the betterrnpart of a century—the whole systemrnwere to collapse, and all the arbitrarilyrndrawn lines to become the borders of internationallvrnrecognized states. The resultingrn”America”-that is, the territon,-rnthat had not been assigned to one or anotherrnof the formerly oppressed minoritiesrn—finds itself the mutilated remnantrnof its former, pre-Foster domain, whilernmillions of non-minority Americans, literallyrnovernight, find themselves “foreigners”rnunder the not-too-tender rule ofrnAfrican-American, Hispanic, etc., governments,rnwhich consider their veryrn28/CHRONICLESrnrnrn