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Article: The power of James Burnham.
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- September 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The common-place critic ... believes that truth lies in the middle, between the extremes of right and wrong.
--William Hazlitt, "On Common-Place Critics"
Americans have not yet learned the tragic lesson that the most powerful cannot be loved--hated, envied, feared, obeyed, respected, even honored perhaps, but not loved.
--James Burnham, Containment or Liberation?
"Who is James Burnham?" How often have I fielded variants of that question while pondering this essay! My informal survey suggests that almost no one under the age of sixty has even heard of him ("James who?"). And for most people over that magic age, Burnham is but an ...