In Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy launched himself into the spotlight with a warning to the nation that the Department of State employed 205 Communists. He declined to offer those names to the public. On November 28, 1994, Brent Staples revealed on the New York Times editorial page that our … Read more
Walker Percy was certainly a gentleman, but not necessarily the last one. He probably thought it a gentleman’s duty to try to ensure he’s not the last, and so he was magnanimous enough to leave a legacy to his fellow travelers in the cosmos: six novels, three books of non-fiction, and now, thanks to editors … Read more
(with apologies to P.G. Wodehouse) “I say, Jeeves, these Wodehouse books are ripping. He’s got the stuff, what?” “Indubitably, sir.” “These dashed critics, complaining he writes the same thing over and over. Well, what I want to know is, what sort of a beef is that?” “Man is an ungrateful animal, sir.” “I mean, with … Read more
Conversions have figured prominently in Walker Percy’s life. He trained as a physician, but contracted tuberculosis during his internship and found himself confined him to bed for three years. While convalescing, he read widely and, as his friend and admirer Flannery O’Connor put it, “he and St. Thomas became friends.” His reading converted him first … Read more
Partisans of liberation theology have accepted Phillip Berryman’s Liberation Theology (Pantheon, 1987) as a strong statement of their own beliefs. Yet in that book Berryman makes a crucial admission. He writes of liberation theologians: “If their social theory is fundamentally wrong, their whole enterprise is in jeopardy.” The liberation theologians did not develop this social … Read more
I have worked with Michael Novak on five books and countless articles, speeches, and columns. Like my predecessors, I occasionally wonder whether reviewers are reading different versions of Novak’s books than mine. Criticizing his, or anyone else’s views is usually helpful; such debate is the essence of civilization. But little is served by ignoring or … Read more
[The U.S. under Carter] tried very hard to build that new relationship [with the Sandinistas]. But the effort failed, principally, I believe, because the Sandinistas could not live with a positive image of the U.S. government. They did not try at all. And many in the United States cheered them on. (Lawrence E. Harrison, “We … Read more