Postscripts
Readings and rhetoric on the literary front
By Clay Smith, Fri., Nov. 2, 2001
Liberalism: Where Has It Gone?
In his new book The Strange Death of American Liberalism (Yale, $22.50), A&M professor H.W. Brands argues that Americans turn to their government in times of war, and that the Cold War gave liberals an ascendancy they no longer enjoy. "The good news for liberals is that although Americans are conservatives, their conservatism is pragmatic rather than ideological," he writes in the Afterword. "What government does well they are willing to let government do. In the past this has been, preeminently, national security and, secondarily, what could be hung on the security theme. In the future it may be something else. Finding that something is up to the liberal imagination -- and the liberal performance." Brands, author of The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer, will be at BookPeople on Thursday, November 8, at 7pm. "There was this immediate turning toward government" after the terrorist attacks Brands told me recently. "This is exactly the sort of thing that one would have anticipated. Now, there were some people who, in that month, say, after the terrorist attacks, started to think that this was the beginning of a resurgence of liberalism. Maybe, maybe not. Because it isn't simply the attack that is critical to getting people to place their trust in government. ... The real question is how well government deals with the threat."... John McPhee will read from his book Encounters With the Archdruid at the Texas Union Ballroom on the UT campus on November 8 at 8pm. Approximately 4,000 UT students are reading McPhee's book as part of the Division of Rhetoric and Composition's First-Year Forum. McPhee's reading is free and open to the public... bell hooks will be at Book Woman (918 W. 12th) tonight, Thursday, November 1, at 7pm... Douglas Coupland was supposed to go to BookPeople on September 13 but obviously didn't make that appearance, so he'll be at the store on Saturday, November 10, at 3pm... Alan Furst will be at BookPeople on Wednesday, November 7, at 7pm, with his two new paperbacks, The Polish Officer and The Kingdom of Shadows.