This is a collection of essays and reviews by an American sociologist who for some forty years has been slugging it out in academic journals
July/August 2002 -- Graffiti is metastasizing again throughout New York City. "The guys out here now are destroying us," says Bruce Pienkny
October 2003 --The following anecdote, although probably apocryphal, goes to the heart of Giuseppe Verdi's music: When he was finishing..
One year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI arrested six Yemeni immigrants in Lackawanna, New York, for aiding terrorists; the arrest
December 2003 -- Somewhere you've probably seen the old photos. The two men are wearing bowler hats and sack suits and celluloid collars
November 2003 -- This is how the story was told: In 1761, a young French Protestant of Toulouse, Marc Antoine Calas, finding his life a
November 2003 -- That Tuesday morning, like most, found me staring at my computer screen. A white rectangle of Microsoft Word stared back
Historian David McCullough, who last year published a biography of President John Adams, was asked in an interview why America's Founding...
The essence of what makes fantasy popular is that it takes the reader out of his normal life into an extraordinary, value-laden, and highly
I have always disliked that weird hybrid of fact and fiction known as the "docudrama." An inherently dishonest contrivance, it jumbles actua
Those are not the kind of questions Landrum wants to be answering. “I’m looking for people who don’t need a lot of guidance,” he tells me...
I consider Bob Elliott a friend. We’ve traveled thousands of miles together. He’s made me laugh so hard I cried. Once, after he cracked a...
Jennifer Burns’s engaging new biography of Ayn Rand focuses on Rand’s political and social views and on her connection to the Right in
According to the American Cancer Society, an expected 1.5 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, and around
David Segal begins his extended New York Times story on the SEC’s suit against Sam and Charles Wyly with several paragraphs denigrating
I would like to start by asking you all to secure yourselves in your seats. If you have any pointy objects, make sure they are facing away
September 2004 -- As John Enright notes , there is a wealth of poetry about political and personal freedom. I thought Navigator's readers
I've gathered for you some poems that celebrate political and personal freedom. I like them, and I hope you will like them, too. This is onl
Those who love Ayn Rand 's novels have searched, with little result, for works that are similar to Rand's in both ideas and essential
Soft America lives off the productivity, creativity, and competence of Hard America, and we have the luxury of keeping part of our society S
