John Cort has taken on a vexed and interesting topic: the politics of Christianity. As intellectual history, Christian Socialism deserves a straight A-even if, as political advocacy, it’s less easy to grade. Cort has subtitled his book “An Informal History,” …
Warsaw in early September 1988 was a city swept by an air of excitement, hope, and nervous anticipation. The government had just announced a course of action designed—or so it would seem— to set Poland on the road to economic …
China, one has been told since Deng Xiaoping’s market-oriented reforms began in the late 1970s, is becoming capitalist. So is the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, similarly with Hungary, Angola, Vietnam, and all the other economies that were once centrally planned …
For the past two years Soviet newspapers and magazines have used the unexpected freedom made available by glasnost. Once, editors had to clear all questionable material with the censors; now, if they ask, they are told to decide for themselves. …
The case for an increase in the federal minimum wage has long been persuasive. The wage floor of $3.35 an hour has not been raised for eight years; adjusted for inflation, its purchasing power has fallen to its lowest level …
Steven P. Erie’s Rainbow’s End is a major study of Irish-American political organizations in eight cities. Although the focus of Erie’s book is on the forces behind the successes and failures of such powerful figures as Richard Daley, James Michael …
Julius Lester is one of the tiny number of blacks to convert to Judaism, thereby placing himself in double jeopardy. Lovesong, the autobiographical tale of Lester’s journey from minister’s son to Jewish convert, shows him beset by prejudice and misunderstanding …
The voices of labor have always expressed caution at the introduction of new technology in the workplace. Some have been muted responses from those willing to wait and see. Others have been loud and organized cries against known or feared …
Every socialist knows how to fantasize; it comes with the territory. Even reading the newspaper becomes an exercise in imagining what should be rather than what is. But who develops the capacity to fantasize and who doesn’t? What—beyond genes and …
Something of major importance happened in the recent presidential election, though it has its roots, of course, farther back in time. We are living through the degradation of democratic politics. The procedures of democracy remain intact, perhaps even improved, but …
“Buddy once said something reasonably sensible to me a couple of years ago,” he said. “If I can remember what it was.” He hesitated. And Franny, though still busy with her Kleenex, looked over at him. When Zooey appeared to …
American unions have been generally more interested in pension benefits than pension funds. The employer-pension system originated in the late 1880s as a management device to ensure worker loyalty to the firm. Most pensions weren’t portable (and still aren’t); the …
This timely book deals with events that seem to be receding into a distant past. But it was as recently as the sixties that Junius Irving Scales, once a leader of the Communist party (CP), served in Lewisburg penitentiary for …
On my third day in Manila I saw a woman weeding her temporary patch of the park along the bay. One wall of her house, a squatter’s plastic-sacking and drift-plywood hovel, consisted of a hand-painted sign. It said, “10-PESO ACROSS …
This is the year of the Tory tickets. All four of the men selected to run are the sons of millionaires. The fathers of three of the four were millionaires many times over. They are being generously supported by their …
