cover image What to Do About--: A Collection of Essays from Commentary Magazine

What to Do About--: A Collection of Essays from Commentary Magazine

. ReganBooks, $25 (306pp) ISBN 978-0-06-039154-6

Aiming to help set the agenda for the 1996 presidential election, this collection from Commentary suggests that some conservatives indeed admit nuance. On crime, James Q. Wilson focuses more on policing than on prisons, while he also argues for a European-style compromise on abortion that first protects human life but allows some choice. Linda Chavez calls not for closing our borders but for reforming immigration (favor skilled immigrants, etc.), while Robert Kagan warns against the Republican Party's increasing isolationism in foreign policy. More sweeping, however, are Joseph Epstein's denunciation of the quality of the arts in the past generation, Arch Puddington's attack on affirmative action and Charles Murray's proposal to scrap welfare to discourage illegitimacy. Among other contributors are Chester E. Finn on school policy, Gertrude Himmelfarb on the universities and William Bennett on restoring family values. Kozodoy is editor of Commentary. Conservative Book Club selection. (Nov.)