Kiss Me, I’m Melted

Let us hope that the dashing debut of Orlando Patterson in this callow, courageous, bombastic, sometimes penetrating, and often brilliantly rambunctious book signifies at last the passing of the movements of black and white separatism that he so cogently deplores. By the time a sociologist notices something it is nearly always on the way out. No matter, for Patterson is clearly on the way up.

Still, in Ethnic Chauvinism, I think he puts his torch to an array of straw men—or at least highly caricatured ideologies. Far from being an Irish Catholic “revivalist,” Andrew Greeley seems chiefly concerned to show that the typical Catholic is as liberal and secular as the next guy. Michael Novak is not a prophet of Slavic neighborhood revanchism; he is merely assembling a few fragments to shore against his ruins.

About the Author

George Gilder

Mr. Gilder is a founder of the Discovery Institute, a venture capitalist, and the author of 15 books, including The Israel Test.

Let us hope that the dashing debut of Orlando Patterson in this callow, courageous, bombastic, sometimes penetrating, and often brilliantly rambunctious book signifies at last the passing of the movements of black and white separatism that he so cogently deplores. By the time a sociologist notices something it is nearly always on the way out. No matter, for Patterson is clearly on the way up.

Still, in Ethnic Chauvinism, I think he puts his torch to an array of straw men—or at least highly caricatured ideologies. Far from being an Irish Catholic “revivalist,” Andrew Greeley seems chiefly concerned to show that the typical Catholic is as liberal and secular as the next guy. Michael Novak is not a prophet of Slavic neighborhood revanchism; he is merely assembling a few fragments to shore against his ruins.