Book Reviews

Hayek's masterpiece, The Road to Serf dom, it has been generally accepted that it is always "the worst" who get to the top in an interventionist/socialist society. But so do some of the best and the brightest. We know about the thugs and sadists who sur rounded Adolf Hitler. But architect Albert Speer was also close to Hitler. Yet he has gained the reputation of being different somehow-intelligent, better than the oth ers, and not directly involved in the Nazi cabal. Speer was among the top National Social ists put on trial at Nuremberg. There he incurred the wrath of his co-defendants by blaming Hitler and admitting personal guilt for having contributed to his evil regime. This sincerity on Speer's part may have saved him from the hangman's noose, for when the penalties were announced, he was not condemned to death, but "only" to twenty years in Spandau prison. In his two books (Inside the Third Reich and Spandau), both based on notes written in prison and smuggled out, he portrays himself basically as "unpolitical" and gen erally unaware of the Nazi atrocities. But now to set history straight, we have Gitta Sereny's account.

Sereny, Austrian-born, educated in France and England, and married to an 1 Gitta Sereny's father died when she was just two years old. She and her older brother were raised by their mother, Margit Herzfeld Sereny, in chaotic, inflationary Vienna of the 1930s. In 1938 their mother remarried and became Mrs. Ludwig von Mises. As a student and friend of Professor and Mrs. Mises, I came to know Gitta personally. 183 American, has lived for years in London and is a British joumalist. 1 Into That Dark ness, her book about Franz Stangl, Nazi Commandant of the Treblinka death camp, attracted Speer's attention when it was published. He wrote Sereny in 1977, and after some correspondence and months of lengthy phone calls, they collaborated on a profile of him for the London Sunday Times Magazine. They spent almost three weeks in conversation working on the profileand in the course of this decided to work together on a book.

Under Sereny's relentless questioning, Speer explored the past, trying to discover the truth which he had unconsciously kept hidden even from himself. Sereny gained respect for his sincerity in his personal "battle with truth." Four years into their relationship, in September 1981,Speer died. Sereny decided to complete the book alone and proved herself a skillful sleuth. She interviewed every friend and associate of Speer's who agreed to see her. In time Sereny found out a great deal about Speer, his life, family, friends, emotions, ideas, and the Nazi regime. This prodigiously re searched book is. a remarkable tour de force-it is biography, history, psychoanal ysis, and detective story all combined. Speer was bright, ambitious, hardwork ing, and energetic, but by his own account not a particularly brilliant architect. Yet, he was an exceptional person-capable, disci plined, thoughtful, conscientious, resource ful, and talented, as evidenced by his ac count of how he survived twenty years of confinement at Spandau. But he was also aloof, self-centered, proud, and incapable of close friendship.

Speer's early success began when, after completing in record time a couple of as signments for the National Socialist Party, he came to Hitler's attention. Hitler, a frustrated architect himself, felt drawn to this attractive young architect and Speer soon became one of Hitler's inner circle. Speer was seduced in large part by the opportunities Hitler gave him to fulfill his architectural ambitions-to design grandi ose structures, spectacular parade grounds, 184 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1996 elaborate government offices, and even the entire city of Berlin with a massive trium phal arch and an ostentatious domed hall. In the summer of 1941, however, Speer turned to war work and erected factories all over Europe for war production and air raid shelters. He also directed the repair of bomb-damaged transport facilities in the conquered East. Then in February 1942, Speer was named Hitler's Minister of Ar maments and Munitions Production.

Speer's efficiency in planning and organiz ing production, which had been demon strated in his construction projects, made him invaluable to the war effort. He became No.2 in Germany in terms of power and authority. Thus Speer, one of the best and brightest, joined the "worst" at the top of the Nazi hi~rarchy. As Minister of Arma ments he had to use great ingenuity to acquire workers and keep armament pro duction going during the war. Millions of forced laborers were brought from the east, from concentration camps, and from Ger man-occupied territories to work long hours, often under dreadful conditions, in the plants he willinglycontrolled. His use of forced labor was the basis for the principal charge against him at Nuremberg. In spite of his powerful positions and his close association with Hitler, Speer claimed at Nuremberg that he had always remained ignorant of most of the Nazi crimes. Mter Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) when Jewish synagogues, shops, and homes were burned, he admitted only to having been disturbed by the disorder of broken win dows and smoldering buildings; he claimed no knowledge of what such maltreatment of the Jews foretold. He admitted that he should have known but, teflon-coated to the end, he succeeded in convincing himself and others that he had known little about the Nazi brutalities.

Sereny was determined to discover the true extent of his knowledge about the maltreatment of forced laborers and about the persecution and extermination of the Jews and other minorities. She became convinced that he was concealing the truth even from himself. For weeks, with his too pat answers to all such questions, well honed and practiced over years, he suc ceeded. Only at the very end did she ferret out a confession from him which, she be lieved, if stated at Nuremberg would have condemned him to death. D Mrs. Greaves is FEE's resident scholar. Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species by Charles C. Mann and Mark L. Plummer Alfred A. Knopf. 1995 • 336 pages. $24.00 Reviewed by Doug Bandow F or some people, nature is sacred. To them, little is more important than pre serving biodiversity-the great expanse of animal species. For instance, in the view of Paul and Anne Ehrlich, extinctions must be stopped because of their "religious" con viction "that our fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth ... have a right to exist."

A cynic might say that if animals have this right, let them assert it. But they don't have to, since the federal government currently does so for them through the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The result has been costly: economic growth foreclosed, draco nian mitigation procedures imposed, and private property effectively seized. Ofgreat est concern may be the devastating impact on people's liberty. For example, develop ment of large stretches of property around Austin, Texas, ground to a halt after the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the golden cheeked warbler as "threatened." When a rancher asked if he could cut a couple of posts to fix his fence, one agency official responded: "We can't generalize. We have to do it on a case-by-case basis. You'll have to contact us." Into the emotional issue of endangered species delve Charles Mann and Mark Plum mer, science journalist and economist, re spectively. The result is an entertaining book that mixes policy analysis with snapshots of the actual impact of government policies on communities across America.

Estimates of the number of discovered species range as high as 1.8 million, "but one cannot be sure," explain Mann and Plummer. The number of undiscovered spe cies is almost certainly higher-between two and four million are common estimates. But some scientists think the total number of insects alone could be six million. As Mann and Plummer put it, "our planet is stuffed to bursting with life." An inevitable result of so much life is a certain amount of death. Species do disap pear-most spectacularly the dinosaurs. Man didn't start the extinction process, though his impact has been significant. At what rate man kills is in dispute. Apocalyptics abound: Thomas Lovejoy of the World Wildlife Fund predicts that fully one-quarter of the earth's species could be eliminated by the year 2025. Thomas Ehr lich even contends that "Homo sapiens is no more immune to the effects of habitat destruction" than any other creature.

However, as with such controversies as global warming and ozone depletion, real scientists are increasingly weighing in against the scaremongers. Many are genu inely concerned, but nevertheless reject hysteria. Observe Mann and Plummer: Is the extinctioncrisis, then, a chimera, the figment of some biologists'imagination?The answeris more complexthan a simple yes or no. Extinctionrates are surelyon the rise, but the numberofverifieddisappearancesis a tiny fractionof the multitudeof speciesthoughtto exist. . . . We need much more evidence to believe that the world is in the midst of an immediateextinctioncrisis. Species preservation is not cheap. The problem is much more than denying profits to wealthy developers. It involves every one's quality of life. Mann and Plummer begin their book with Oklahoma's Nico phorus americanus burying beetle, which held up construction of a road connecting a community of poor Choctaw Indians to a hospital. Who is to say that the protection of this one of perhaps six million insects was BOOKS 185 more important than the health and comfort of several thousand impoverished people?

The federal government, that's who. There are several important technical issues involving the implementation of the ESA, the history of which Mann and Plummer relate in fascinating detail. But more funda mental is the question: why? Why work so hard to preserve species at all? Mann and Plummer neatly debunk the practical argu ments, such as the potential for developing new, lifesaving cures for diseases. The real issue is what Mann and Plummer call the Noah Principle: "Because it's there. " Purists want to protect anything that exists. In contrast, the public likes what can be best termed charismatic mega fauna: eagles and elephants, for instance. Most creatures, like burying beetles, gener ate no public support. Then there are vari eties of life that most people would prefer to kill, like the species of monkey in which the AIDS virus is thought to have first developed. Mann and Plummer call for balance. They warn: "We must choose, a nerve-wracking selection among praiseworthy ends that has tragic overtones, and sometimes tragic con sequences." The ESA does·not allow us to make such choices, however. Although it intends to enact the Noah Principle, it has failed, despite its enormous cost. It has not halted the decline of species, with successful removals from the endangered list outnumbered one-hundredfold by addi tions.

Thus, the authors make a number of practical proposals, the most important of which is to sharply reduce the legal duties imposed on owners of property with wildlife habitat. Where the government wants to preserve habitat, it should purchase the property-something already done by pri vate groups like the Nature Conservancy. Forcing the government to pay would force it to trade off the protection of species against other, competing goals. The environment matters, including the diversity of species. But man, too, is part of the environment. Federal policies must be changed to better reflect this reality, some186 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1996 thing much more likely to occur if policy makers read Noah's Choice. D Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the author ofThe Politics of Envy: Statism as Theology (Transaction). The Sword of Imagination: Memoirs of a Half-Century of Literary Conflict by Russell Kirk William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

1995 • 514 pages. $34.99 Reviewed by William J. Watkins, Jr. R ussell Kirk (1918-1994) was proof of the power of individuals. Kirk's influ ence on the blossoming of contemporary American conservative thought cannot be measured. His 30 books on everything from economics to history will inspire their read ers for years to come. Kirk's final work, completed shortly be fore his death in April 1994,ranks among his best. The Sword ofImagination: Memoirs of a Half-Century ofLiterary Conflict contains his entertaining and informative rumina tions spanning the 1920sto the 1990s.It is a personal chronicle of tumultuous times that anyone interested in ideas should not miss. How Russell Kirk, enemy of omnipotent government, became interested in ideas and began his higher education is indeed ironic. As his secondary education drew to a close, Kirk felt he had had enough formal learning. Fortunately, he was persuaded by his high school principal to apply for a scholarship to Michigan State College. So as not to appear rude to the principal, Kirk applied for and won a scholarship that he really didn't want.

"Off he went to college against his will," writes Kirk in the third person that he uses throughout the work, "having nothing bet ter to do during the Roosevelt Recession in 1936.... " Hence, we can credit the New Deal and its ruinous economic policies as the impetus behind the career of one of this century's great men of letters. The year after he finished his formal education with a Doctor of Letters degree from St. Andrews in Scotland, Kirk published his most influential book, The Con servative Mind. He went on to become one of the intellectual leaders of the conserva tive movement as he clearly delineated its principles. The America of the 1950s was still very much FDR's America. Voices of opposition to statist policies were not wel comed, much less understood. Kirk describes the nomination of Dwight Eisenhower by the Republican convention in 1952 as an enormous setback for conser vatism. Had the delegates not betrayed Senator Robert A. Taft, whom Kirk de scribes as the true leader of the party at the time, "the United States might have entered early upon far-reaching conservative mea sures. . . ." So instead of the repeal of the New Deal, the United States got the inter state highway system. Defeats of principle like this are one reason why Kirk almost titled The Conservative Mind, The Conser vatives' Rout instead.

The publication of The Conservative Mind was a watershed event. It helped give coherence to an inchoate opposition to the fads of modernity. The book sparked debate and revived interest in such seminal thinkers as John C. Calhoun and John Adams. Now in its seventh edition, the book continues to inspire thought in new readers as well as old. It is destined to become part of The Perma nent Things that Kirk loved so dearly. Ofcourse his memoirs don't stop with The Conservative Mind. Kirk goes on to recount how the political climate of the nation slowly changed. "The Remnant he had addressed had grown in numbers," writes Kirk ap provingly, "now and again it had taken a town or a castle." Though it would be presumptuous to credit Kirk for the victo ries, his influence should not be given short shrift. Russell Kirk made an enormous dif ference in the intellectual environment. Kirk's memoirs are an honest and enlight ening account of the intellectual battles of the past half-century. The Sword of Imagi nation is testimony to a life lived in defense of principle. It is a proper farewell from a giant of our times. D Mr. Watkins is assistant editor ofThe Freeman.

The Solzhenitsyn Files Edited and with an introduction by Michael Scammell edition q, inc.• 1995 • 470 pages. $29.95 Reviewed by Robert Batemarco , 'Freedom without a literature is like health without food. It just cannot be. To be sure, the yearning for freedom is deep in the hearts of men, even the slaves of the Soviets. But the yearning can turn into hard, numb despair if the faith upon which freedom thrives is not revivifiedfrom time to time by reference to its philosophy. It is not without reason that the communists do away with writers on freedom.... " So wrote Frank Chodorov, former editor of The Freeman, over 40 years ago. The story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn provides a case in point. Michael Scammell skillfully teases out that story from over 150 recently declassified documents from Soviet ar chives. The only thing that detracts from the drama of the events described therein is that many of us already know how it turned out. For those readers not familiar with the whole affair, Scammell's excellent introduc tion places everything in context. The book covers a 17-year period starting with the beginning of the end of Nikita Khruschev's thaw in 1963 through Solzhenitsyn's being awarded the Nobel Prize in literature and his years of exile.

In between, we are treated to a fty-on the-wall view of Soviet Politburo agonizing over how to stop Solzhenitsyn' s searing criticism of the Soviet system without pro voking adverse reaction from the West. The alternatives they consider range from "ed iting down" his works to the point of elim inating their appeal abroad to trying and imprisoning him. They eventually settle on exile and revocation of his Soviet citizen ship. It is enlightening to hear firsthand the Politburo's morbid fear of criticism, their straitened views of free expression (' 'the Soviet writer will go his own way. Together with the Party' '), the extent of their surveilBOOKS 187 lance activities (knowing where he shops, what he spends, and recording his conver sations with his children), their attempts to discredit him even after his expulsion, ac cusing him of employing some of their very own modus operandi ("lies, juggling of facts, intentional distortion of the truth, etc.") and being out of touch with reality (KGB head and later party chairman Yuri Andropov claims, "there are indications that domestic and foreign policies of the Party enjoy the unanimous support of all the Soviet people," for instance).

We also hear from Solzhenitsyn himself, in his courageous letter to the Fourth Con gress of Soviet Writers as wellas some of his seized manuscripts. We can see for our selves the qualities of mind and character which made him such a threat in the eyes of the Soviets. Contrast the prescience of the followingstatement with the self-delusionof the Andropov quote cited above: "This is a government without prospects. They have no conveyor belts connecting them to ide ology, or the masses, or the economy, or foreign policy, or to the world communist movement-nothing. The levers to all the conveyor belts have broken down and don't function. They can decide all they want sitting at their desks. Yet it's clear at once that it's not working. You see? Honestly, I have that impression. They're paralyzed." Although the documents included here of necessity reflect the Party's perspective, most readers will take them not at face value, but rather as a glimpse into the pathology of power. The lesson of the de mise of that power is that nothing is more effective in curing its pathology than the truth. D In addition to editing the book review section of The Freeman, Dr. Batemarco is a marketing research manager in New York City and teaches economics at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York.

188 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1996 Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra Pennsylvania State University Press. 1995 • 477 pages. $55.00 cloth; $18.95 paperback Reviewed by David M. Brown M uch to my surprise the author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical, a com prehensive new study of Rand's thought and its genesis in Russian culture, has persuaded me that something called ' 'dialectics' , is integral to Ayn Rand's philosophic ap proach and crucial to its success. Russian Radical is a different kind of look at Ayn Rand, a full-fledged "hermeneutic" on the contours, development, and interpre tation of her thought. Not to fear. Chris Sciabarra is a visiting scholar at New York University who easily deploys crypto-post modernist scholarly lingo, but he does not seem to be entirely depraved. His funda mental sympathy with Rand's thought is obvious; and clearly, Sciabarra wants to convey its complexity and power to an academic audience that has often dismissed Rand's rational egoism and libertarianism as polemical and shallow.

Sciabarra wants to approach Objectivism "as an evolved response to the dualities Rand confronted in Soviet Russia. Although she rejected both the mysticism of Russia's religious traditions and the secular collec tivism of the Russian Marxists, she none theless remained a profoundly Russian thinker." The author argues, "Rand's Rus sian nature was not reflected merely in her heavy foreign accent or in the length of her novels. She was Russian in more fundamen tal ways. In the sweeping character of her generalizations, and in her passionate com mitment to the practical realization of her ideals, Rand was fully within the Russian literary and philosophic tradition. " The his torical inquiry and speculation about Rand's Russian roots is core to Sciabarra's project. As political scientist and intellectual histo rian, his goal in the book is not to evaluate the validity of Rand's radical ideas (although his analysis is frequently suggestive on that score) but to interpret them in their histor ical context.

After examining the historical back ground in Russia, Sciabarra goes on to consider how Rand's dialectical rejection of dualism, as a "byproduct" of her Russian heritage, saturated every aspect of her thought. From this angle he dissects the systemic relations of being and knowing, ethics, art, politics, sex, and "history and resolution, " critically illuminating not only Rand's own thought but also its develop ment and amendment in the hands of her followers, orthodox and non-orthodox alike. At every step, Sciabarra's scrupulous scholarship, dispassionate tone and dialec tically dynamic argument are calculated to render Rand as palatable as possible to serious academic consideration. But the book is not aimed only at academics. It also invites those who already appreciate Rand to consider her thought anew. Rand has repeatedly been read as a kind of' 'vulgar" Nietzschean egoist herself. But true to her non-dualism, Rand's mature theory in fact transcends the false alterna tive of sacrificing one's self to others or sacrificing others to one's self. She rejects not only the masochism of conventional altruism but the sadism of conventional, other-trampling "egoism." To pursue one's long-range interests rationally, one func tions as neither master nor slave. Rand vividly illustrates these themes in her novel The Fountainhead, in which the Nietzschean kinds of egoist are contrasted with the more independent-minded, self sufficient Howard Roark. Roark succeeds by earning the trust and rational agreement of others, and by trading values with them, not by getting anyone's self-sacrificial sub mission (despite dramatic opportunities to do so).

Sciabarra's insight into the import of Rand's integrative, contextualist dialectic is part of what makes his book distinctive and challenging. His methodology will be con troversial, and here I cannot begin to sug gest its playing out in the skein of the "hermeneutic." I take his understanding of Randian dialectic to be somewhat problematic as enunciated, less so as applied in Sciabarra's actual interpretation of Rand. There is room for much more controversy, too: for example, in Sciabarra's comparison of Rand to other thinkers, including provoc ative wondering about, say, whether Rand may have picked up her emphasis on pro ductive work from Karl Marx. In terms of sheer new information, the material on Rand's education is invaluable, but of a necessarily speculative character. Sciabarra also rehabilitates Rand's advo cacy of limited government and repudiation of anarchism as an expression of her non dualistic, dialectical approach (and, yes, it turns out that anarchism really is "context dropping"). He reconstructs Rand's analy sis of power relations on the interlocking personal, cultural, and "structural" levels, and notes that her capitalist ideal is set forth as "the only social system that makes pos sible a triumph over social fragmentation. "

The Aristotelian philosopher Henry Veatch has asked whether Objectivism will ever be academically respectable. That for merly open question must now be answered with an unequivocal "Yes," inasmuch as Chris Matthew Sciabarra's profound and subtle study has made it inevitable. But more important, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical is a fundamental challenge to ev eryone to reassess the remarkable thought of a remarkable woman. D Mr. Brown is a freelance writer. Payback: The Conspiracy to Destroy Michael Milken and His Financial Revolution by Daniel R. Fischel HarperCollins Publishers. 1995 • 326 pages. $25.00 Reviewed by George C. Leef D aniel Fischel is eminently qualified to write a book on the attack on Michael Milken and the changes he wrought in the BOOKS 189 financial world in the 1980s. Fischel is a professor of law at the University of Chi cago and also an expert in finance and the securities markets. He writes fearlessly, taking politicians, journalists, judges, and prosecutors to task for their ignorance but mostly venality in the entire affair. And in the course of it all, the reader learns a great deal about the world of finance, particularly the benefits of corporate restructurings fi nanced by high-yield bonds. Any book that accomplishes so much good deserves hearty praise indeed.

The root of a vast amount of economic good and his own success (and later down fall) was Michael Milken' s insight that there was a great untapped reservoir of capital available to entrepreneurs in "junk" (more appropriately called "high-yield") bonds. These are bonds with a higher risk of non repayment than investment-grade bonds and a correspondingly higher interest rate. Wall Street traditionally looked down its nose at such securities; the bond markets were for the blue chips. Those who wanted to borrow large quantities of capital for risky ventures had a very hard time doing so. Michael Milken changed that. Working at an insignificantNew York investment bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert, Milken con vinced management to allow him to give his theory a try. Beginning with its first high yield bond deal in 1977, Drexel swiftly rose to prominence in the industry. In creating this success at Drexel, Milken also made many enemies. In selling billions worth of junk bonds, Milken angered the Wall Street patricians. Wall Street etiquette was that on big underwritings, the lead underwriter would form a syndicate to spread the risk and share the fees. Drexel rarely ever did this. Milken also made ene mies of the old-line Fortune 500 executives who felt threatened by the emergence of competitors for control over their corpora tions.

One of the book's virtues is Fischel's ability to set the record straight about finan cial dealings, such as leveraged buyouts, which have been so demonized in the press that most of the public believes them to be 190 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1996 no different from pillage. But all the "raiders" were doing was competing for control by purchasing stock. In the '70s and '80s, there were many overextended and ineptly run corporations in the country. That made it possible for the takeover spe cialists to profit by taking control, replacing complacent management teams and selling offparts of the corporation that didn't fit in. In the free market, you don't make money by destroying things. When the "raiders" made money, they did so by increasing efficiency. The destruction of Michael Milken, Drexel, and a host of other firms and indi viduals was accomplished by the use of prosecutorial tactics that are the twentieth century counterparts of the rack. The pros ecutors were out to make big names for themselves by bringing down the high and mighty. Many of the convictions were later reversed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, but that was back-page news.

Just what was it that Milken had suppos edly done? Fischel writes, "After the most thorough investigation of any individual's business practices in history, the govern ment came up with nothing. In fact, the government never established that Milken's 'crimes' were anything other than routine business practices common in the industry. " Milken would eventually plead guilty to six felonies. Four of them were in conjunc tion with an alleged "stock parking" deal between Milken and Ivan Boesky. Stock parking is a harmless practice whereby one individual purchases and holds securities on behalf of another under an agreement that the true owner will later buy back the stock, taking all gains or losses. The SEC regulates stock parking, however, so that it willnot be used to evade other regulations. The so called crime was over a failure of record keeping. Such violations had never before been treated as anything but a minor regu latory infraction. Milken had in all proba bility, Fischel concludes, not even commit ted the offenses charged. "Felonies" five and six were likewise feeble, more proof that the SEC's regulation is absurdly overblown than as an attack on the integrity of the financial markets.

If the case against Milken was so weak, why did he plead guilty? The answer is that the government had also indicted Michael's brother, Lowell, who had no involvement with any of the counts in the indictment, but was used by the government to increase its leverage against Michael. He knew that the government could and would ruin his brother if he didn't cooperate. One of the most disturbing facts that Fischel brings out is how easy it is for the government to coqjure up allegations of securities law vi olations and use the threat of prosecution to force people's hands. Guilt isn't neces sary. The prospective financial and emo tional costs of a trial are sufficient to bend most people to the government's will. After Milken's coerced guilty plea, nu merous demagogic politicians piled on, claiming that he was responsible for the savings and loan crisis that had become a major political and financial debacle by the late '80s. Milken made the perfect scape goat. Congress enacted a law forcing re maining S&Ls to divest themselves of own ers.hip of all junk bonds. Fischel's discussion of the facts of the S&L crisis is excellent, refuting numerous popular myths, and his analysis of the destructive effects offorcing still-solvent S&Ls to dump their junk bond portfolios is razor sharp.

Fischel sums up the campaign against Michael Milken this way: "Milken's down fall proves only that the government, with its unlimited ability to harass and change the rules in the middle of the game, is more powerful than any individual. . . . The un holy alliance of the displaced establishment and 'decade of greed' rich-haters, aided by ambitious but unscrupulous government lawyers ... combined to destroy him. The whole episode is a national disgrace. " Read this excellent book and see if you don't agree. D Mr. Leefis an adjunct scholar at the Mackinac Center, Midland, Michigan, and legislative aide to state Senator David Honigman.

To Renew America by Newt Gingrich HarperCollins Publishers. 1995 • 260 pages. $24.00 Reviewed by Wesley Allen Riddle 'TV Renew America is a good book worth ..1. reading. That said, one hastens to add that it is not a profound book; moreover, it is not as good as it should have been. Indeed, while the book is provocative and far superior to anything on the other side of the ideological aisle, it lacks depth and even coherence in some places. To Renew Amer ica fails to develop the essential philosoph ical groundwork for cultural and spiritual renewal or the economic and political ratio nale for any other type. The argumentation is built on platitudes and an almost boyish, naive optimism. Hence the book does little to achieve the purpose implied by its title. It leaves the serious reader annoyedly disap pointed. Gingrich writes instead for popular con sumption. His style is straightforward like the conservative talk radio commentary he celebrates. There is nothing inherently wrong with the approach, but the approach is persuasive as opposed to reasoned. To Renew America does give the reader some heavy doses of common sense, an increas ingly uncommon commodity. The book's treatment of welfare and healthcare issues is particularly good in this regard. Gingrich also writes lucidly about the wrongheaded ness of the current tax code, as well as the incessant running of budget deficits. But few conservatives and libertarians will take the simplistic and programmatic approach in this book as seriously as the liberals.

Gingrich is at his best when he explains history. The former history professor pre sents a clear exposition of what amounts to an emerging neoconservative revisionist in terpretation of the modern period. Slowly but increasingly, this new school of thought is also affecting established academe. Gin grich assesses the American predicament today as one of cultural disintegration and civilizational decline. In Reaganesque fashBOOKS 191 ion, he asserts it is within our power to mold the future-to succumb or forge ahead to ward a boundless bounty. "To renew or to decay"-that is the question. Got problems? Take six steps and all will be well when it's morning again in America: (1) reassert American civilization; (2) accelerate entry into the Third Wave Information Age; (3) become more competitive in the world mar ket; (4) replace the welfare state with an opportunity society; (5) decentralize power by shifting it to states, locales, and individ uals; and (6) balance the federal budget.

Few would disagree per se with the six steps, which are really goals. Many should be a bit wary, however, because every step entailing an active verb above also employs the agency of the federal government. Gin grich reveals a so-called pragmatic conser vatism in the book, which smacks of means justifying ends. Even the step to decentral ize power is a bit disingenuous, since he does not predicate his argument on consti tutionalism or morality. Gingrich pictures a kind of political inter net, in which the devolution of power plan goes out through the modem of centralized state policy. The policy exists as long as Republicans happen to be in charge-and while everyone behaves. Jack Kemp has identifiedthis central inconsistency, namely the faith that individuals must be empow ered but also harnessed to inexorable his torical forces such as technology (helped along by government). Waves don't make history. People do. In the final analysis, To Renew America lacks imagination, even as it sports a futuristic and sometimes far-fetched vision. Gingrich con ceives of everyone marching to the beat of the same Third Wave Information Age drummer. By doing so, he fails to give people proper credit for their ability to envision and pursue still greater potentiali ties. He also fails to acknowledge people's natural right to choose one or a combination of such-or to reject them all. D Wesley Allen Riddle is Assistant Professor of History at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, where he teaches the elec tive course in the American political tradition.