Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Robert B. Reich, George Gilder, Paul Berman and Charles Murray
September 1990
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Abstract –
The 80's are more and more coming to be characterized by journalists, historians, and intellectuals as a costly if not a disastrous decade for America. At home, it is charged, the economic and social policies of the Reagan administration stimulated greed on Wall Street and in the business community, encouraged a general mood of selfishness, and were responsible for an actual increase of poverty (as symbolized in particular by the plight of the homeless). Abroad, the indictment continues, indiscriminate bellicosity on a global scale succeeded mainly in provoking a dangerous arms race, needlessly exacerbating and prolonging conflicts with adversaries, alienating friends, and sowing the seeds of future mistrust of American intentions.
Do you accept these characterizations? If so, how would you account for the worldwide triumph by the end of the decade of the prevailing ideas and policies of the American 80's? If not, how do you account for the fact that so many people in America itself have been condemning those ideas and policies?
About the Authors
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Leavey Professor of Government at Georgetown and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985.
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Robert B. Reichteaches political economy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His most recent book is The Resurgent Liberal (and Other Unfashionable Prophesies). His next book, The Work of Nations: Capitalism in the 21st Century, will be published in February 1991 by Knopf.
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George Gilderis a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. His books include Wealth and Poverty; The Spirit of Enterprise; and, most recently, Microcosm and Life After Television.
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Paul Bermanwrites for the Village Voice, Dissent, the New Republic, and Tikkun. He was the Regents Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, this past spring.
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Charles Murrayis Bradley Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His books include Losing Ground and In Pursuit.
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Christopher Lasch, professor of history at the University of Rochester, is the author of The Culture of Narcissism and The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, which will be published early next year by Norton.
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Joseph Epsteinis the editor of the American Scholar and the author of five books of essays, the most recent of which is Partial Payments (Norton).
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John B. Judisis senior editor of In These Times and the author of William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives, recently released in paperback by Touchstone (Simon Schuster). A collection of his essays will be published next year by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
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Charles Horneris executive vice president of the Madison Center in Washington, D.C. During the 1980's he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and as associate director of the United States Information Agency.
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Paul Starr, professor of sociology at Princeton University, is co-editor of the new journal The American Prospect. He is author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine, which won a Pulitzer Prize.
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Michael Novakis the George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enteprise Institute. His most recent book is Free Persons and the Common Good.
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William Phillipsis editor of Partisan Review and professor of English at Boston University. His most recent book is A Partisan View: Five Decades of the Literary Life (Stein and Day).
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James Nuechterleinis editor of First Things, a monthly journal of religion and public life.
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Robert Colesis research psychiatrist at the Harvard University Health Services and professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard. His books include the Children of Crisis series (5 volumes<
