Independent thinker.(The Nat Hentoff Reader)(Book Review)

The Nat Hentoff Reader By Nat Hentoff Da Capo Press, 322 pages, $16.50

Nat Hentoff is best known as a fervent civil libertarian and an enthusiastic jazz critic. Both qualities are on display in The Nat Hentoff Reader, though they do not always take the form one might expect. Those who think Hentoff's interest in music is limited to jazz will be surprised to read his excellent profile of country music giant Merle Haggard--though the jazz aficionado in him can't resist pointing to the strong influence of jazz and blues on Haggard's work.

Nor, for that matter, does the civil libertarian disappear when Hentoff speaks as cultural critic. If a writer advocates the right to speak freely, it makes sense that he would reserve special praise for those who've made a career of expressing themselves, be they a country singer like Haggard, a jazz player like Lester Young, a stand-up satirist like Lenny Bruce, or--more obscurely--a TV producer like Robert Herridge. (If the measure of an essay's worth is how much new information one gleans from it, then Hentoff's appreciation of Herridge was, for me, the most worthy chapter in this book.)

For many readers, though, Hentoff's appreciation for civil liberties will take its most surprising form when he shares his thoughts on Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. Hentoff notes Thomas's deficiencies, but also declares that he "has written as boldly and uncompromisingly in celebration of the First Amendment as did Justices William O. Douglas and William Brennan, Jr. in days of yore." Meanwhile, liberal hero Bill Clinton gets repeated drubbings for his poor Constitutional record.

Hentoff also turns his attention to race, abortion, and other matters of public policy. Hentoff is one of the few prominent liberals to be openly pro-life. In one essay, Hentoff complains about the Democratic Party's treatment of the late Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey, who, though solidly ...