The New Criterion
(Mobile Version)

September 2006 Volume 25, Number 1  

Notes & Comments

The New Criterion at 25
A look back at twenty-five years of high culture.


Features

The consequences of Richard Weaver
by Roger Kimball
On Richard Weaver, the author of "Ideas Have Consequences."

A conversation with Philippe de Montebello
by Hilton Kramer
The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art talks with TNC

Written to last
by Joseph Epstein
The trials of literary longevity.

Should he have spoken?
by Roger Scruton
The household gods of liberalism

Treasons of the heart
by David Pryce-Jones
Anti-nationalism and public debate

Delousing the soul
by Eric Ormsby
Joris-Karl Huysmans' devilish prose

Rational control
by Harvey Mansfield
Or, life without virtue.

Sylvan historian
by Laura Jacobs
On Frederick Ashton's "Sylvia."

The rise & fall of the intellectual
by James Piereson
Intellectuals endangered, men of letters extinct?

Charles Kingsley: divine love, divine order
by John Derbyshire
Kingsley's Christian conflicts

The new juristocracy
by Andrew C. McCarthy
Meet our new rulers, the Supreme Court.


Poems

Meeting a friend again after thirty years
by X.J. Kennedy

Finding the tintype
by X.J. Kennedy

City album: a wet afternoon
by Brad Leithauser

Thrown
by Michael Spence


Architecture

McKim, Mead & White's architectural citizenship
by Michael J. Lewis
The influences of the architectural triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White.


Reconsiderations

Waugh's postcolonial studies.
by Mark Falcoff
A reconsideration of Evelyn Waugh's novel Black Mischief.


Theater

Summer offerings
by Brooke Allen
A survey of the summer theatre scene.


Art

Maverick modernists
by Karen Wilkin
Examining the unexamined in modern American art.

Exhibition note
by Joseph Phelan
"Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris" at the National Gallery of Art (July 16, 2006-October 15, 2006) is reviewed.

Gentile's gold
by Marco Grassi
An examination of Gentile de Fabriano's artwork.

The new old school
by James Panero
On the rise of Classical Realism and its dean, Jacob Collins


Music

Who's good?
by Jay Nordlinger
A survey of the music world.


Reconsiderations

Learning from tools
by Stefan Beck
A criticism of MFA programs and writing workshops, especially as they affect two recent works of fiction.


The Media

The silly season
by James Bowman
What's the point of the summer media?


Books

Con man
by David B. Hart
A review of The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege by Damon Linker

Boon companion
by John Gross
A review of Friendship: An Expose by Joseph Epstein.

An American paradox
by Marc M. Arkin
A review of Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution by Simon Schama and In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation by Francois Furstenberg.

Forced smiles
by Theodore Dalrymple
A review of Artificial Happiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class by Ronald W. Dworkin

Backpedaling
by R. J. Stove
A review of All the Stops: The Glorious Pipe Organ & Its American Masters by Craig R. Whitney.

A splendid failure?
by Carl Rollyson
A review of Disraeli's Disciple: The Scandalous Life of George Smythe by Mary S. Miller.


Notebook

Kids' stuff?
by David Yezzi
A reflection on the sophistication and fun of children's verse.