After Afghanistan: Round Three  

Here is another piece continuing the informal discussion among Dissent editors on foreign policyissues after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Different views appeared in the previous two issues; there may be others in the next one. — EDS. The election …



Mao vs. Marx in China  

To those who force all political shadings into a Right-Left spectrum, China’s “cultural revolution” looked like a further move to the “Left,” a more radical expression of Communism. Such facile judgments should have been checked against the more detailed information …





Understanding Comes First  

The Spring Time of Freedom: The Evolution of Developing Societies  by William McCord Oxford University Press, 1965, 330 pp., $6.00 Favelados, the slum dwellers in Sao Paulo’s shantytowns, are the subject of a moving autobiography, Child of  the Dark, by …



In Praise of 1984  

I envy the Russians. They destroy their discarded leaders. If a Khrushchev has to be deposed, he is utterly done in, made into an unperson, prevented from speaking in his own behalf, rendered incapable of hurling accusations against former associates …





Politics And The Rule Of Law  

POLITICAL JUSTICE. THE USE OF LEGAL PROCEDURE FOR POLITI CAL ENDS, by Otto Kirchheimer. Princeton University Press, 1961, 452 pp. At the outset, Dr. Kirchheimer explains that his title refers not to “the search for an ideal order” but to …



A Marx One Can Love  

MARX’S CONCEPT OF MAN, by Erich Fromm (with a translation from Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts by T. B. Bottomore). Frederick Ungar, New York, 1961. 260 pp. Hearing the old Lutheran chorals in a Bach oratorio, one is astonished to …









Economics Or Political Economy?  

THE STAGES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH, by W. W. Rostow. A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press. A pretentious title leads to a pretentious foreword, which leads to a very unpretentious introduction in which the author disclaims what he is doing. Having …



Paradoxes of Foreign Aid  

When the Roman Empire had grown old and tired it began to rely, for the defense of its ramparts, less and less on the prowess of its citizens; instead, it paid subsidia to its minor allies, and even tributum to …





A Critical Comment  

In publishing this article more than one year after it was written, the editors are most uncharitable to the author. But they may be doing a service to those who shared his illusions during the time of the million flowers. …