The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel (Houghton Mifflin, 684 pages, $28.00) In 1958 a young British sociologist and Labour Party official named Michael Young published a book called The Rise of the Meritocracy, coining the now-commonplace term. A mock sociology doctoral dissertation […]
Drake Bennett
Drake Bennett is a former American Prospect writing fellow and is currently a freelance writer in Cambridge, MA. His work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Business Week, and the Boston Review.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Right on the Low Road
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead By David Callahan • Harcourt • 353 pages • $26.00 Few decisions caused George Washington more agony than whether or not to accept some canal-company shares that the Virginia General Assembly offered him in 1784. The gift was perfectly legal, […]
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Our Mongrel Planet
Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World’s Cultures By Tyler Cowen, Princeton University Press, 179 pages, $27.95 In a short story by the late William Maxwell, an American named John Reynolds takes his family to Le Mont-Saint-Michel 18 years after his magical first visit. Their hotel is bland, the food mediocre and they are […]
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Crime and Redemption
Because the Texas legislature is in session a mere five months out of the year, serving as a Lone Star state representative is not the most time-consuming of jobs. It’s hardly unusual, therefore, that Ray Allen, the Republican chairman of the House Corrections Committee, has a couple of careers on the side. When he’s not […]
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Head Cases
Throughout American history, the Senate — where small and conservative states have disproportionate weight and where rules allow one senator to block key legislation — has far more often been a force for reaction than for progress. But these are unusual times, and with an ideologically rigid administration and scores of zealots in the House, […]
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The Nixon Enigma
No matter what we do, those of us in our 20s can’t seem to measure up to the Greatest Generation. That bygone nation of joiners, providers and world-beaters, in the standard story, puts to shame today’s sad assemblage of narcissists and whiners. Gone are the days when the United States, stung by a Japanese sneak […]
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Doing Disservice
No matter what we do, those of us in our 20s can’t seem to measure up to the Greatest Generation. That bygone nation of joiners, providers and world-beaters, in the standard story, puts to shame today’s sad assemblage of narcissists and whiners. Gone are the days when the United States, stung by a Japanese sneak […]
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Affirmative Decision
Yesterday, soon after the Supreme Court handed down its decisions in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, President Bush released a statement. It read, in part, “I applaud the Supreme Court for recognizing the value of diversity on our Nation’s campuses. Diversity is one of America’s greatest strengths. Today’s decisions seek a careful balance […]
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Critical Mess
Back in January, Brazil’s newly appointed minister of science and technology, Roberto Amaral, suggested in a radio interview that his country had nuclear ambitions. “Brazil is a country at peace, that has always preserved peace and is a defender of peace, but we need to be prepared, including technologically,” he said. “We can’t renounce any […]
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All the President’s Lies
Other presidents have had problems with truth-telling. Lyndon Johnson was said, politely, to have suffered a “credibility gap” when it came to Vietnam. Richard Nixon, during Watergate, was reduced to protesting, “I am not a crook.” Bill Clinton was relentlessly accused by both adversaries and allies of reversing solemn commitments, not to mention his sexual […]