The Public Interest articles from March 2002

The Public Interest archives from March 2002

Slavery and the black family.(from the book 'The Marriage Problem')(Excerpt)
March 22, 2002... EVERYONE knows that African Americans have very high rates of single-parent families, but they disagree about why this has occurred. And this is where the trouble begins, not simply because the issue is a difficult puzzle but because so much...

The truth about globalization.
March 22, 2002... To keep my economist union card, I am required every morning when I arise to place my hand on the leather-bound family heirloom copy of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and swear a mighty oath of allegiance to globalization. I hereby do...

Can liberal education survive liberal democracy?
March 22, 2002... I WOULD like to begin with an oath to the goddess Hera. My warrant for such an unorthodox beginning comes from Socrates, who swore "by Hera" when he was involved in speeches about the betterment of the young. The uttering of such an oath was...

Our tottering confirmation process.(presidential appointment process)
March 22, 2002... THE presidential appointments process was designed to maintain a delicate balance between recruiting talented citizens to service and preventing corruption. "There is nothing I am so anxious about as good nominations," Thomas Jefferson wrote at...

Reviving the citizen-soldier.(adapted from article in Parameters, Summer 2001)
March 22, 2002... IF there was any good that came of the terrible events of September 11, 2001, it was the apparent awakening of a long dormant American patriotism. Everyday observations as well as media coverage recorded abundant signs of national unity. Never...

The real education of Henry Adams. (Reconsiderations).
March 22, 2002... MANY years ago Russell Kirk wrote, "to dislike Henry Adams is easy." What was true then is still true today. Many of those familiar with Adams dismiss him as little more than an erudite crank. Readers tend to view his autobiographical The...

Rotting the apple.(Vincent J. Cannato, 'The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York')
March 22, 2002... THE heavily Democratic city of New York has had three Republican mayors in the last 68 years, and though they served for only 28 years, compared to the 40 years by five Democratic mayors, they have decisively shaped the life of their city and...

Pseudo-intellectual.(Richard Posner, 'Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline')
March 22, 2002... A FEW years ago, a distinguished American art critic was asked whether he would agree with the assertion that in America today there is more poetry being published than is being read. No, the critic answered, that misstated the problem. It...

Computers don't help.(Larry Cuban, 'Underused and Oversold: Computers in the Classroom')
March 22, 2002... WHY one revolution failed to occur can be as hard to understand as why another took place. But not in the case of the failed revolution described in Larry Cuban's book Underused and Oversold: Computers in the Classroom, (+) a revolution that...

This is your soul on drugs.(Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter, 'Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times, and Places')
March 22, 2002... OVER the past several years, a gap has opened up between common and elite opinion about drug policy. While the overwhelming majority of Americans (along with their representatives in Washington) continue to support a prohibitionary approach to...

School choice schism.(John M. Merrifield, 'The School Choice Wars'; Terry M. Moe, 'Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public')
March 22, 2002... THE school voucher movement in the United States has been divided over its goals and strategies ever since Milton Friedman first urged a voucher plan in 1956. Two recent pro-voucher books document and continue these arguments, and taken...