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Discusses cultural and economic consequences of declining birthrates, drawing on the ideas from four disparate books that together suggest a shift toward a period of substantial social change with tantalizing ideological implications. Attention is given to the prospects of heightened cultural radicalism, a new eugenics, or a new, more conservative cultural era. Adapted from the source document.

As the US considers the invasion of Iraq, the prospect of democratic imperialism spreading liberalism & Western values is contemplated through an examination of British rule of India & the thought of Edmund Burke, James Mill, & John Stuart Mill. Adapted from the source document.

'What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response' by Bernard Lewis is reviewed.

Offers a comparative reading of Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996) & Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man (1992). Academia's hostile response to Huntington's work is attributed to his attack on liberalism & multiculturalism. In the post-9/11 context, however, his book can no longer be dismissed as essentialist; it is seen to contain prescient generalizations. Before addressing problems with Huntington's thesis, attention is given to Fukuyama's Hegelian framework, which lies at the heart of certain problems in his thought. It is argued that neither seems willing to adjust his theory to accommodate insights of the other because they each have specific policy goals in mind. In trying to reconcile Fukuyama & Huntington, paradoxes & contradictions in policy recommendations are acknowledged, & it is asserted that their separation will persist without a well-grounded theory of modernization. D. Edelman

'Moral Freedom: The Impossible Idea That Defines the Way We Live Now' by Alan Wolfe is reviewed.

'An Old Wife's Tale: My Seven Decades in Love and War,' by Midge Decter, is reviewed.

Enthält Rezensionen u.a. von: Longman, Phillip: The empty cradle: how falling birthrates threaten world prosperity and what to do about it. - New York/N.Y. : Basic Books, 2004. - 240 S