Books in Brief
Never a Matter of Indifference: Sustaining Virtue in a Free Republic, edited by Peter Berkowitz (Hoover, 161 pp., $15). In his introduction to this collection of essays, Peter Berkowitz observes that the contributors share a belief in public policy’s power to shape citizens–and an anxiety that recent policy has weakened civil society. “Never a Matter of Indifference” offers a clear and accessible discussion of issues that have been with America since the founding.
The book’s opening section, devoted to “theoretical considerations,” includes essays by Harvey Mansfield on the interplay between liberty and virtue and by Stanley Kurtz on the way the 1960s transformed liberalism into a sort of religion, paradoxically organized around the collective advancement of individualism.
The rest of the book focuses on practical policy, with an essay by David Davenport and Hanna Skandera on civic associations and another by Chester Finn on schooling. These offer illuminating discussions of the tensions created by government involvement in local institutions. Davenport and Skandera examine the way governmental regulation, rather than fostering a diversity of types of association, has in recent years tended to enforce diversity within each association.
The most ambitious essay in the volume is Douglas Kmiec’s piece on marriage and family, which moves from theoretical foundations (urging a return to “the paradox that we find individual freedom through obedience to our human natures”) to a discussion of social and legal policy concerning property laws, the influence of patterns of parental work on the family, and the elimination of marriage from instructional texts on pregnancy.
At the end of his essay, Kmiec puts his finger on a question at the heart of the project to which each of the contributors is committed: whether virtue can be fostered in conjunction with a conception of freedom as autonomy. “Never a Matter of Indifference” helps us see which theoretical resources and practical considerations need to be included in any fruitful discussion of “virtue in a free republic.”
–Thomas Hibbs
Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping by Pamela Klaffke (Arsenal, 231 pp., $17.95). Anyone who thinks shopping is frivolous hasn’t read Pamela Klaffke’s “Spree.” From the use of cattle as currency to the popularity of QVC, Klaffke shows how shopping has “evolved from a need, to a want, to a sport.” She describes the invention of essential shopping artifacts–the cash register, the shopping bag, and the bar code–and delves into less-known facts of shopping life, such as retailers who hire “mystery shoppers” to pose as real shoppers in the effort to keep tabs on sales clerks and prevent employee theft.
In the chapter on the dark side of shopping, readers learn of “eBay addicts,” who have compulsions similar to those of problem gamblers, and shopping bulimics–consumers who, in need of a quick fix, buy items they don’t want and end up returning them. Researchers at Stanford are testing the effectiveness of the anti-depressant pill Celexa as a possible treatment for these compulsive shoppers.
Klaffke also mentions great moments in shopping–as when Leka, self-proclaimed king of Albania, bought an elephant at Harrods in 1967 for California’s governor, Ronald Reagan. (Reagan named his new pet GOP and gave it to the Sacramento public zoo.) “Spree” is filled with delightful black-and-white photographs and notes on the language of shopping (fleas infested the second-hand goods at Parisian outdoor markets, hence “flea market”), celebrity cheapskates, and more. Reading “Spree” is as satisfying as finding a good bargain.
–Erin Montgomery
