Random Notes

■ Yet More January Titles: Who gave you the Constitution? Who gave you the Bill of Rights? Southern politicians, that’s who! In The Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians: A Revisionist History (Doubleday, $10), David Leon Chandler argues that what we require is “a return to a Jefferson-style government.” . . . Bruce Cook’s Dalton Trumbo (Scribner’s, $10.95) describes the progress of this member of the Hollywood Ten from Christian Science to Communism. . . . Margit von Mises, widow of the eminent economist, has written My Years with Ludwig von Mises (Arlington House, $9.95). Publishers Weekly comments: “The couple left Nazi-occupied Europe for New York in 1940, but as a conservative economist Ludwig did not find a secure niche in government or academe in those liberal days.” The rest is history: after creeping fascism occupied the U.S., von Mises became one of the country’s most beloved economic philosophers. . . . Richard Selzer, a surgeon at Yale Medical Center and a contributor to, among other fora, Harper’s magazine, has written Moral Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (Simon and Schuster, $7.95), which somehow includes notes on bird-watching and baldness and acupuncture. . . . John McPhee, who is one of the finest prose artists to appear regularly in The New Yorker since E. B. White, is publishing A John McPhee Reader (paper: Vintage, $3.95; hardcover: Farrar, Straus, $12.95). The book consists of pieces on every conceivable subject, culled from McPhee’s 12 books by William Howarth, who has also provided an introduction. . . . Kingsley Amis’ new novel is a satire about the “Counterfeit World,” Great Britain in 1976, in which the Reformation never took place and Martin Luther became a Pope.

How fair were the Nuremberg Trials? is the subject of Bradley F. Smith’s Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg (Basic Books, $15). Smith discusses in great detail the backgrounds of the eight judges and the processes by which they arrived at their decisions. . . . In Crooked Paths: Reflections on Socialism, Conservatism, and the Welfare State (Harper & Row, $10), Peter Clecak speaks up for “conservative democratic socialism,” with the socialists and the liberals embracing a moral vision that only conservatives have kept before them.

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■ Yet More January Titles: Who gave you the Constitution? Who gave you the Bill of Rights? Southern politicians, that’s who! In The Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians: A Revisionist History (Doubleday, $10), David Leon Chandler argues that what we require is “a return to a Jefferson-style government.” . . . Bruce Cook’s Dalton Trumbo (Scribner’s, $10.95) describes the progress of this member of the Hollywood Ten from Christian Science to Communism. . . . Margit von Mises, widow of the eminent economist, has written My Years with Ludwig von Mises (Arlington House, $9.95). Publishers Weekly comments: “The couple left Nazi-occupied Europe for New York in 1940, but as a conservative economist Ludwig did not find a secure niche in government or academe in those liberal days.” The rest is history: after creeping fascism occupied the U.S., von Mises became one of the country’s most beloved economic philosophers. . . . Richard Selzer, a surgeon at Yale Medical Center and a contributor to, among other fora, Harper’s magazine, has written Moral Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (Simon and Schuster, $7.95), which somehow includes notes on bird-watching and baldness and acupuncture. . . . John McPhee, who is one of the finest prose artists to appear regularly in The New Yorker since E. B. White, is publishing A John McPhee Reader (paper: Vintage, $3.95; hardcover: Farrar, Straus, $12.95). The book consists of pieces on every conceivable subject, culled from McPhee’s 12 books by William Howarth, who has also provided an introduction. . . . Kingsley Amis’ new novel is a satire about the “Counterfeit World,” Great Britain in 1976, in which the Reformation never took place and Martin Luther became a Pope.

How fair were the Nuremberg Trials? is the subject of Bradley F. Smith’s Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg (Basic Books, $15). Smith discusses in great detail the backgrounds of the eight judges and the processes by which they arrived at their decisions. . . . In Crooked Paths: Reflections on Socialism, Conservatism, and the Welfare State (Harper & Row, $10), Peter Clecak speaks up for “conservative democratic socialism,” with the socialists and the liberals embracing a moral vision that only conservatives have kept before them.